'Con men, phony groups' caused NDC’s ‘disgraceful’ defeat - Solomon Nkansah

The cause of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) defeat at the 2016 polls must be blamed on 'con groups' whose primary interest was to prosecute a personal agenda at variance with the overall objective of the party, Communications Officer Solomon Nkansah has said.

According to him, his office cannot absolve itself of the blame because the party lacked good communicators to match up to the then opposition New Patriotic Party and to also propagate its message to the electorate in the run up to the 2016 polls.

“I cannot challenge the fact my administration as Communications Officer was a disaster but the various groups with members who were not even members of the party in the pursuit of parochial interests are also part of the problem. We had Mahama for this Mahama for that and the rest. Their members were just conmen, whiners and diners who were following their own interest”, he revealed on Adom FM.

Mr Nkansah said the media is only trying to force the party to divulge details of what actually caused its defeat as unraveled by the Kwesi Botchway Committee indicating that various factors played roles.

“If someone comes to accuse me of causing the party’s defeat I will accept because we did not win power, did we”, he quizzed rhetorically.

He described the abysmal performance of the party at the polls as a fatal political accident considering the vote difference between them and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“We were defeated fatally. It was a fatal accident for the NDC party. You can’t lose by close to million votes gap in an election….that is why I think our loss was massive,” he stated.

He warned that until members put the past behind them and change their ways in accordance with prescriptions in the Kwesi Botchwey report, the party’s chances of returning to power in 2020 are bleak.

“In every governance, performance is part of communication so if there aren’t good messengers to sell the product the people won’t buy. The [Kwesi Botchwey] report brought recommendations and has indicated we take the grassroots participation serious. With this, I urge my party members to be circumspect and follow due process,” he stressed.