A member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Dela Cofie, has indicated that the party needs a leader that can inspire and create optimism in voters ahead of the 2024 general election.
According to him, former President John Dramani Mahama is not that leader.
“Indeed, the NDC’s best candidate for 2024 cannot be John Mahama. His candidature will most likely portend the beginning of the end for the NDC,” he warned.
A fierce critic of former President Mahama, Dela Cofie in a write-up stated the NDC needs thorough modernizing for the 21st century, which means prioritizing coming to power and the need to have a frank and honest conversation around an alternative candidate to John Mahama.
The party, he said, should move on and leave the shadows of the 19th century that it had been caught in for the past years.
According to him, some have nothing but dismay and anger for those driving the party in that dead-end direction with John Mahama as the leader.
He stressed that the NDC cannot keep lurching from one bad decision to another with Mahama and expect to win glory.
“The NPP may have lost its political goodwill and the masses disappointed in them, but it is not enough for the NDC to continue to bang its hopes on the failures of the NPP.
“By any objective measure, even if a majority is appalled at many NPP policies, a highly motivated share of 40 to 45% of the electorate plus a decent chunk of the swing voter population is enough to keep them in power.
“Additionally, it must never be forgotten that a future candidature of Mahamudu Bawumia (PhD) as the flag bearer of the NPP, will have electoral consequences for NDC’s chances in the 2024 elections. Even as presidential running mate, Dr Bawumia managed to appreciate the NPP votes in the northern enclaves, and in the process made Mahama unpopular amongst his own ‘Northern folks’”, he added.
Bawumia magic
Dr. Bawumia, the NDC activist pointed out, has been able to woo voters in the North to the governing NPP.
“In actual fact, for the first time in 2020, the NPP flipped the Mion seat. Hitherto, it was mathematically impossible for the NPP to win that seat. Even Chereponi which the NDC won during the by-election in 2009 after the death of Doris Seidu has flipped to the NPP. The Damongo seat with its rich NDC history is also gone to the NPP,” he stated.
John Mahama’s own Bole Bamboi constituency, he said, is literally on a demographic time bomb that is about to go off and destroy the NDC.
Mr. Dela Cofie warned that nobody should underestimate the significance of the NPP winning the Hohoe seat for the first time in Ghana’s electoral history and argued the NPP is basically eating into NDC’s traditional strongholds.
“This was a constituency that would almost have elected a caricature painted in NDC colours, and has always been a safe enough seat,” he stressed.
EIU prediction
Mr. Dela Cofie noted that if the 2020 elections as predicted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) proved anything, even beyond the increasing NPP tilt of the electorate, it was that the NDC is losing leverage in the north.
He argued that over 30% swing in safe NDC seats as there was in 2020 means the NDC doesn’t look electable with Mahama as a candidate no matter what way anyone tries to dress up the narrative.
Ghana’s political demography, he said, is evidently demonstrably on the side of the NPP hence extremely suicidal for the NDC to hang on with John Mahama.
“It makes no electoral sense for the NDC to keep backing him – the man and his enablers have had two election cycles and have monumentally fluffed it. They’ve had their chance.
“Forget about the justifications of the return of Mahama with the 6 million-plus votes propaganda. It wasn’t as if Mahama miraculously dipped his hands into his pocket, pulled out the 6 million votes and dashed it to the NDC, such that the votes will automatically disappear into thin air if the party changes course with him as flagbearer.
“There’s a substantial chunk of the Ghanaian voter population that actually votes on party insignia and logo. In that, the NDC would have still garnered the 6 million-plus votes, or more even if a crude caricature of a goat was on the ticket in 2020,” he added.
Anti-progressive indulgence of Mahama
The NDC man argued the fundamental agenda of the party at this opportune time ought to be the same as a man fighting for his life.
“It’s time to roll back all this mollycoddling, anti-progressive indulgence of Mahama, and ensure that the natural evolution of the NDC continues in earnest just so the right leadership takes control of the party,” he added.
Mr. Dela Cofie warned that to keep indulging the former President right up to the next general election is a sure path to destruction no matter how cynical this appears to some people.
The NDC, he said, should not make another electoral mistake of giving Mahama the benefit of the doubt or believe the NDC has no other viable candidate.
