Former President John Dramani Mahama has been referred to severally as the presumptive presidential flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) going into the 2024 general elections. This is ahead of May 13, 2023 presidential primaries that are expected to formally elect the NDC’s flag-bearer for 2024.
Mahama, who was President between 2012 and 2017, is being challenged by two opponents to show what he will do differently if given the nod after losing two successive re-election bids in 2016 and 2020 to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central had harsh words for Mahama in a recent interview, describing his desire as borne of greed and that he is not an option given his previous record in office. Agyapong, who is an NPP flag-bearer hopeful, made comments about Mahama on Metro TV’s earlier this week
“If you compare the two governments, Akufo-Addo and Mahama, Mahama is not an alternative to Ghana because the man has been fortunate to succeed Atta Mills for two years.
“He has been fortunate to go one term which is four years, six years and we saw what happened in this country, so, what is he going to tell Ghanaians again. What is Mahama going to tell Ghanaians?”
Kennedy Ohene Agyapong
On his part, Koku Anyidoho, a former deputy General Secretary of the NDC, also asked Mahama to justify why he deserves to be returned in 2024. The avowed Mahama critic tweeted his challenge; “If John Mahama wants to be President again for only four years, let him tell us what he will do differently,” he tweeted.
NPP Set To Lose If An Akufo-Addo Government Candidate Is Elected As Flag-Bearer
New Patriotic Party flagbearer hopeful, Francis Addai-Nimoh has stated that the party should be guided by history to look beyond members of the current administration if it wants to win the 2024 presidential elections.
According to him, the electoral history of the country clearly shows that the party which has spent the last 8 years in power will lose a re-election bid if it elects its candidate from the Akufo-Addo-led government.
“The history of this country shows that after every eight years, if the party in power elects a candidate within the government it goes on to lose the election.”
Addai-Nimo
Citing some historical examples to back his claim, Mr Addai-Nimoh who speaking an interview on Adom TV made the following comments.
“The first example was in the year 2000, when Vice President Mills who was a sitting vice president was elected as the candidate of the NDC but he lost. When it came to 2008, Nana Akufo-Addo was a minister in the government of President Kufuor. He was elected by the NPP as our presidential candidate and after 8 years of Kufuor leading the NPP in government, we lost when we went into the election with Nana Addo.
“Then we came to 2016, the Mills-John Mahama administration. John Mahama had been a vice president in the NDC government and was seeking re-election after eight years for a third term for the party and the second for himself, as a sitting president, he lost.”
Addai-Nimoh
He went on to emphasize that the trend places a responsibility on the NPP to ensure it elects a candidate outside of the Akufo-Addo administration if it intends on “breaking the 8”.
“So, when you look at this trend it should inform the NPP that if we elect a candidate from amongst members of the current government in any position as our flagbearer, we are only setting ourselves up for defeat.”
Addai-Nimoh
Mr Addai-Nimoh, added that he remains the only flagbearer hopeful within the NPP who has not served in the current government and possesses the additional characteristics of an ideal candidate to win the elections.
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