A former executive of the Tema East constituency branch of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Stephen Ashitey Adjei, has said that his party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 elections is not fit for purpose.
In a write-up on happenings within the party, Ashitey Adjei, popularly called Moshake, said the former president, John Dramani Mahama, has lost too much goodwill among Ghanaians to convince anybody that he can be trusted with the affairs of the state again.
“This phenomenon is what has led to Mr. Kofi Bentil, a Vice President of think tank, IMANI Africa, to choose Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia over John Mahama even though when Mahama was president, he was very kind towards IMANI,” he wrote.
According to Moshake, “Kofi Bentil’s view is shared by many in the civil society community of the country.”
Continuing, Moshake wrote that John Mahama himself has been proving that he is not in good shape to govern the country again.
“It is all in the amorphous nature of his campaign promise so far – the 24-hour economy promise – I knew that it was only a matter of time before it would lose steam and immediately Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia made known his mission statement, the 24-hour policy started looking bogus,” he added.
According to Moshake, “the nebulous nature of the promise also shows that Mr. Mahama has lost ideas.”
Expressing his frustration, Moshake wrote that he had warned the NDC not to elect John Mahama as its presidential candidate because he carried too much negative baggage, but the party wouldn’t listen.
“This election was supposed to be our best chance to return to power after John Mahama’s failings in office as president plunged us into opposition, but now things are looking down for us because Mr Mahama’s 24-hour economy promise is just not selling.
“Most Ghanaians are seeing that he has lost ideas and can therefore not be taken seriously,” Moshake added.
Apart from the lack of worthwhile campaign promises, Moshake said John Mahama’s battered image as a corrupt and incompetent man does not help matters.
“It has been eight years since John Mahama left office and up till now, he is remembered as a very corrupt man. How do you convince people that he can be trusted to govern this country again? Mahama cannot lead Ghana again.
“In the 2024 campaign, all that the NPP has to do is to return to the scandals of ex-president Mahama’s government again and then that is the end of it for the NDC,” Moshake wrote.
