NDC 2024: Don’t change your chairman if Mahama is your candidate for flagbearer
Irrespective of the fact that the captain of the NDC 2020 team steered the ship perilously to electoral defeat, there were a bit of success stories here and there, particularly in nine out of the sixteen regions.
By every objective measure, these nine regions led by their respective chairmen distinguished themselves from the rest in the 2020 campaign.
Much of what is happening in the NDC seems eminently reasonable. But then, for me, it is the sheer frustration of having a large chunk of the NDC membership actually out there campaigning for the return of Mahama and at the same time engaging in evil machinations to get some of the regional chairmen out.
These chairmen who essentially delivered their regions to the party in 2020 and were granted an electoral mandate with an overwhelming success are rather receiving opprobrium, backed by several attempts to turf them out of office, while the flagbearer who couldn’t deliver the votes is being urged on.
It makes zero political sense and damning for anyone to follow this path.
If you believe former President John Mahama, having led the NDC into two unsuccessful electoral run deserves another shot at the flagbearership but busy campaigning to remove successful Regional chairmen out of office, then of course, you’re the biggest problem of the NDC.
These are chairmen who worked their asses out for the good of the party. Oh yeah, they build the foundation and assembled grassroots army in their respective regions. As other activists were sheepishly following candidate Mahama around, these chairmen were on the trenches dirtying their hands and gearing up and then battling the NPP machinery.
They invested enormous amounts of time, resources and creative energy in what resembled a winnable political start-up whose main purpose was to put more people on the ground, armed with more information about the voters they were contacting, than any campaign had ever attempted.
They had a prodigious appetite for voter outreach and it came as no surprise when Greater Accra for instance, delivered 1,326,596 of the presidential votes representing 51.04% as against AkufoAddo’s 1,250,174 representing 48.10%.
In the parliamentary elections, the NDC won 20 out of the 34 seats in the Region.
The story in the other eight regions speaks volumes.
Tellingly, Volta, Oti, Bono East, Northern, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West and Western North region delivered massively in both the presidential and parliamentary elections for the NDC.
Again, pitching these nine regions against the central region for instance, where the 2020 presidential running mate hails from, tells an interesting story.
In all intent and purposes, both the running mate and the regional party failed woefully. They did not add any value to the main candidate.
Indeed, the running mate even failed to make any impact in her own backyard – her own constituency and region.
I really don’t know how much attention the voting public will pay to all this, but then, they have seen enough to know that if not for the votes the NDC amassed in the Greater Accra Region, the 2020 defeat would have been more humiliating.
With the data above, it would be a fatal mistake and political travesty for these chairmen to be contested or dethroned.
Hope for the future lies with critical decision making rooted in the adage that says, we don’t change a winning team. Truly, it is very stupid to change a winning team. As long as it is collecting points, one should not try to change it. This adage applies not only to football or to any other sport but to any ‘winning formation’. And certainly in politics, the rule applies.
For now, there is at least an opportunity for instant uplift. With a proper plan, with something more than expediency and complacency, these chairmen can still finish on the high note in the next elections.
The NDC as a party ought to have a clear plan and be intentional with these successful chairmen, and ensure that they stays at the wheel.
There’s abundance wisdom in continuity and calculated risks. It will certainly pay off for NDC in 2024.
So, you see, whether you’re an activist or delegate in the forthcoming regional elections, do not take any chances because once you take it with untested and inexperienced hands, it would undo the gains the party have made in the last elections.
I shall be back