Political Scientist, Dr. Abdul Jalilu Ateku, has urged the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to interrogate further the aspect of the EIU report suggesting a change in the NDC flagbearer for the upcoming general election.
Commenting on the report, Dr. Ateku asserted that the recommendation will have to be critically analyzed to ascertain if there is the need to change candidates. He explained that thorough assessment of the candidate will have to be factored amongst other things.
“It is another matter to be looked at. The point is that let’s be very well and frank here, If I should ask you of three most popular politicians in this country, you will not take John Mahama out, you’ll not take the President out.”
Dr. Abdul Jalilu Ateku
According to the Political Scientist, within the NDC itself, President John Mahama is very popular and that is the exact reality the party needs to look at. “From where I sit, within the NDC, if elections are conducted today, John Mahama will win the elections massively.”
Dr. Abdul Ateku, moreover, asked the NDC to consider the successor of the NPP Presidential candidate, if it will considered the EIU’s suggestion. He stated that it will not be an easy task if the NDC brings a new candidate to come and defeat the ruling party’s candidate.
“Now, President Akufo Addo wouldn’t be contesting so, you will have the Vice President Dr. Bawumia, also Alan Kyeremanteng and other candidates. Now these are two most popular candidate in the NPP. So, who is coming from the NDC with that pedigree in order to defeat a ruling party?”
Dr. Abdul Jalilu Ateku
However, the Political Scientist suggested that, it will be in the interest of NDC to continue to support John Mahama to lead them into the 2024 election. The Political scientist recalled that CDD-Ghana conducted a similar research and comparatively, the EIU and CDD are all speaking from the same angle with regards to the political future of the country.
Dr. Ateku stated that looking at the circumstances from the data that is available from other sources, he’s of the firm believe Ghanaians are moving towards the NDC.
“The CDD did some research recently and came out with some findings. They looked at a number of things in terms of economy and all that and asking if people have confidence in government’s ability to fulfil 2020 manifesto. If you pick only the CDD report, you’ll notice about 57 percent are not confident in terms of pledges [by government].”
Dr. Abdul Jalilu Ateku
Incumbent must solve internal issues
Suggesting what the incumbent government on the other hand can do to retain power, Dr. Ateku urged them to deal with threatening internal issues to ensure it has a good stance in the upcoming elections. He intimated that the run up for the NPP’s 2020 primaries was characterized by numerous issues in some constituencies which wasn’t good for the party.
“I think that we should rather look at some of the reasons why the incumbent party lost seats from 169 to 137. In some other places, people preached ‘skirt and blouse’ where some were praying for Nana Addo to win and then preached that any other [NPP parliamentary] candidate shouldn’t [win] and that affected them.”
Dr. Abdul Jalilu Ateku
Dr. Ateku admonished the incumbent government to conduct peaceful and open elections for their primaries so that, if someone losses an election at the primaries level, they will not fail to support the winner.
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