Former president John Mahama on a podium during a campaign tour
The current turmoil within the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is emanating all because the then leader of the party and president at the time, John Dramani Mahama as well as national executives of the party were not open to constructive criticisms, a political scientist has revealed.
“A political party with all sorts of people with various interests, views and grievances were suppressed over the years making it difficult to criticize their executives where things were not doing well.
The NDC in government provided no platform to address issues from Ghanaians who were largely members of their party”, he observed.
Political Science Lecturer with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Mohammed Abass on the Ultimate Breakfast Show hosted by Lantam Papanko stated that the recent happenings in the party are normal in the country’s democracy where a lot of leading members of political parties are relegated.
He said, now that the party is opposition people who are pregnant with issues will come out with their problems observing that it is normal and expected when every political party is in opposition.
“When a party is in power nobody dares to come out to criticize because of our inability to internalize our democratic culture …accept criticism from ourselves and learn from it….We talk every criticism as personal and insult” , he explained .
According to him, people are afraid to criticize their own party when it is government for fear of being punished.
Mr. Abass stated that accusations and counter accusations among the rank and file of the party is inevitable when a party goes to opposition urging them to forge ahead in unity with a formidable presidential candidate in the coming polls.
He advised the Professor Kwasi Botchwey’s Committee tasked to investigate the heavy lost of the party to do a matured work to know the state of people’s minds before meeting them to avoid clashes and get reflective picture of their defeat
