FLASHBACK: It will be difficult to re-sell Mahama, even to NDC supporters - Bagbin

Ahead of the National Democratic Congress' flagbearership race, then-candidate Alban Bagbin said marketing former President John Dramani Mahama will be difficult even to their party members.

Mr. Alban Bagbin, the current Speaker of Parliament was of the opinion that the National Democratic Congress needed a new face to carry the NDC forward for eight years and that person was not John Dramani Mahama.

The former Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo made this statement in one of his ‘campaign’ town-hall videos sighted by MyNewsGh.com in 2018.

“It will be difficult to go with JM. Others disagree with us and think that it is better to go with JM. So we countered that JM has only four years, even if he wins but we cannot use four years to organize ourselves we need to be in power for 8 years to be able to do that and therefore we need someone who can be in power for 8 years…” he told the gathering of NDC executives in the town hall meeting, as it was being videoed.

Read the full story originally published on March, 16 2018, on Ghanaweb

Member of Parliament for Nadowli Kaleo and Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament who has declared his aspiration for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearership, Mr. Alban S.K Bagbin has said marketing former President John Mahama for election 2020 will be ‘difficult’ even among NDC Members.

In one of his ‘campaign’ town-hall videos sighted by MYNEWSGH.com, Mr Bagbin who has been crisscrossing the country meeting potential delegates and party executives in one of his stops at a townhall told the gathering in unequivocal terms that the NDC needs a new face to carry the party forward for 8 years, and clearly, that person was not John Mahama.

“It will be difficult to go with JM. Others disagree with us and think that it is better to go with JM. So we countered that JM has only four years, even if he wins but we cannot use four years to organize ourselves we need to be in power for 8 years to be able to do that and therefore we need someone who can be in power for 8 years…” he told the gathering of NDC executives in the town hall meeting, as it was being videoed.

He said NDC should not even think about re-couching any message with JM- the name Mr. John Mahama is affectionately called by his support base- as the subject because even the NDC faithful won’t buy the message as Mr. Mahama was rejected by the party faithful specifically, not the larger Ghanaian populace.

“We have also stated that to couch another message to be able to resell it to NDC members themselves about JM it will be difficult because we voted against ourselves. It is not Ghanaians who voted against us. our people did not vote. they were angry”, Mr. Bagbin said.

The Longest-serving NDC MP and Flagbearer aspirant alleged that the ‘grassroots are calling for me, Bagbin’ and has since been moving from one constituency to the other to confer on the state of the party and sell himself as a Flagbearer hopeful.

While Mr. John Mahama has not declared his intention to run for the highest office again, Mr. Bagbin believes Mr. Mahama’s “body language” shows he wants to.

He has accused the ex-President of disrespecting recommendations contained in the opposition NDC’s Kwesi Botchwey report presented by a 13-member fact-finding team that was commissioned to establish the cause of the party’s humiliation at the 2016 polls under John Mahama and proffer solutions.

Mr. Bagbin has averred that Mr. Mahama’s involvement in the party’s recent, well-attended unity walks organized by some leading party stalwarts buttress the point that Mr. Mahama was not acting in conformity with recommendations of the 455-page Committee’s report, and is actually using the unity walks to whip up support for his comeback.