Former President John Dramani Mahama will today, Tuesday, March 21, 2023, file his nomination form to contest in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearership race. He is scheduled to do so at 1pm.

The former President is expected to face three other candidates, including former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, who will file his nomination form on Thursday, March 23. Former Kumasi Mayor, Kojo Bonsu, another candidate in the race, is also expected to submit his nomination form on Wednesday.

John Mahama who is a one-term former President, is seeking to return to power after he was defeated by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. However, John Dramani Mahama believes the Akufo-Addo government has put the country into a reverse gear.

Moreove, Mr. Mahama will continue his first phase tour of the Ashanti Region, which ended on Monday, a statement from the aide to the former President, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, said.

The filing of the nomination form is to pave way for the aspirants to contest in the NDC’s May 13, 2023 Presidential primaries.

Originally planned for Monday, the John Mahama Campaign said it was “very sorry for the postponement, which is in response to a request from the party to reschedule because of the presentation of the party’s True State of the Nation Address on Monday.”

Two weeks after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo delivered the State of the Nations Address (SoNA) to the nation through Parliament, the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was set to present the ‘true’ SONA.

The widely advertised event was slated for the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA). The address was delivered yesterday by the Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, popularly known as ‘General Mosquito’.

The address which was expected to point out areas of misgovernance and to counter some of the claims that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made during the SONA, was duly executed by Johnson Asiedu Nketiah.

The Real State Of The Nations Address

The Real State Of The Nations Address (Real SONA), as described by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was held in the UPSA, and this was the reason why John Mahama had to postpone the submission of his nomination forms.

The Address by the Chairman of the NDC highlighted basically all the economic woes, the monies that was spent by the NPP government in its quest to borrow, the monies spent on roads that the President claimed to have constructed more than any government, the unfulfilled promises, the guarantor system, the Electoral Commission (EC), and many other issues were laid hold of.

However, the leadership of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken notice of a propaganda-laced press conference of the NDC, addressed by Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the party’s National Chairman, on Monday, March 20, 2023, which the NPP claimed “was mischievously described as an address on the so called true state of the nation”.

According to the NPP, the NDC turned the press conference into a campaign platform, peddling blatant falsehoods, unsubstantiated allegations, and unprovoked attacks at the persons of the President, the Vice President and the Government of the NPP.

The NPP have said that it plans to respond to the ‘true state of the nation address’ the NDC gave a lecture on, to clear the party from all falsehood.