We simply want 'small-small' ideas to help us - Otokunor on 2020 'peoples manifesto'

Deputy General Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Boamah Otokunor has slammed critics of his party’s strategy to involve all Ghanaians in the preparation of its 2020 election manifesto.

According to him, the decision by the NDC to solicit the input of Ghanaians, does not mean the party has no idea with regard to the challenges confronting the ordinary Ghanaian, but rather it is part of the NDC’s philosophy to always do things which will inure to the benefit of the masses.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Peter Otokunor indicated that even though the NDC has a good track record of manifesto preparation, the party intends to do something different which truly reflects its philosophy by engaging the public to listen to their opinions in order to prepare a manifesto centered on the interest of majority of Ghanaians.

“This is not the first time we are preparing our manifesto. That time, we had a public engagement to listen to the views and opinions of others, but this year, the reason why we have decided to move further down to everybody is that if we listen to the majority of Ghanaians, the disappointment which may happen will be minimized. In fact, we won’t disappoint Ghanaians,” he stated.

He intimated that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has disappointed Ghanaians due to the fact that the policies they are running do not reflect the interest of Ghanaians.

The NDC Deputy Chief Scribe maintained that the NDC cannot afford to do the same thing every day, unlike the ruling New Patritic Party.

"We have to change the approach and in doing so, we are changing the way we do our politics, and by so doing we are living to the true meaning of the philosophy of the party,” he argued.

He stressed that, “we have to solidarize with the traders who are lamenting as well as teachers and students by soliciting for their opinions. We know some of the problems of Ghanaians but we are not God to know every challenge . . . God gave us a limited ability to do certain things and so we are not omnipresent, and the way to go in order to know the problems of Ghanaians is to engage them and listen to them”.

He indicated that the NDC Manifesto Committee will not immediately factor the opinions of Ghanaians into their manifesto but will select the workable policies and implement them when John Mahama becomes the next President in 2021.

"It is not everything Ghanaians will suggest that we will be able to implement, and so we are looking at a workable strategy and policy which hopefully when Mahama is being sworn in as Preseident in January 2021, we will begin to work with those policies and bring relief to Ghanaians,” he indicated.

"...if we talk about a political party with a lot of ideas, apart from the NDC, there is no other political party in the country which has ideas to run this country. And so after taking the information from the people and those with small-small ideas to help us, we will then decide the best way out to solve the people’s problems,” he added.

'Peoples Manifesto'

The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is demanding for input from organised groups in putting together its manifesto for the 2020 election.

The party has requested groups like Civil Society organisations, Trade Unions, Associations and the general public to send their thoughts of not more than four pages to the Office of the General Secretary through the Deputy General Secretary – (Operations) or emailed to ndcmanifesto2020@gmail.com on or before Saturday, 7th December 2019.

The move according to the biggest opposition party is to develop a ‘Peoples Manifesto’ that speaks to the direct needs and concerns of the people.