‘You can’t win 2020 elections, groom someone to succeed you’-Gabby Otchere-Darko advices Mahama
A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko, has advised former President John Mahama, the Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to shift focus from winning the December 7 presidential contest to grooming a successor.
According to the legal practitioner, the 2020 elections is not one that the man President Nana Akufo-Addo beat in 2016 can win, hence his concentration should be on finding the next Presidential candidate for the NDC.
“In 2024, when Akufo-Addo would have finished his two terms, there would be a new candidate for two terms [for the NPP]. Who would the NDC have groomed by then?” he asked on Ekosi S3n on Asempa FM.
When it was pointed out to him that Mahama can still stand in 2024? His response was a rhetorical one. “To come and do one term?”
To make his case, he made reference to US Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, who settled on California senator, Kamala Harris, as running mate.
“His running mate is about 15 years younger than him. He is preparing his running mate, so whether he wins or not, his running mate can be the next. But he [Mahama] has gone for a running mate, who is eight years older than him.
“It creates the impression that he is also looking [forward] to run in 2024,” he said of the NPP’s main rival in the December 7 elections.
Grooming a Vice-President to takeover
In recent memory, however, no American Vice-President succeeded his/her boss-the President.
Al Gore’s attempt to succeed Bill Clinton was cut short by George Bush Jnr’s victory in the 2000 elections.
The Ghana scenario
However, in Ghana, the late Prof J.E.A Mills and John Dramani — both of the NDC are the only two Vice-Presidents to have succeeded their bosses.
It took Prof Mills three elections in eight years to become President after he partnered J.J. Rawlings in the 1996 elections.
Mahama, who was Mills’ running mate in 2008, took over as President after the President died in office on July 24, 2012. Former President Mahama subsequently won the 2012 elections, but lost a second shot at the presidency to President Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2016 elections.
In 2007, the late Alhaji Aliu Mahama’s attempt to succeed President Kufuor, the man he partnered to win two elections in 2000 and 2004, did not yield fruit. Nana Akufo-Addo snatched the ticket among 17 other contestants but lost to Prof Mills in 2008.
When Ghana returned to the path of democracy in 1992, the NPP after losing the 1992 elections boycotted the Parliamentary polls, alleging electoral fraud.
That decision, Mr Otchere-Darko said, delayed whatever opportunity the Danquah-Busia tradition had by at least four years.
Marketing candidates
With that history in mind, he said the decision to put up Mr Mahama for the 2020 elections meant that the NDC had forfeited an opportunity to groom a replacement for the former President as it took years to sell candidates in the Fourth Republican era.
In the Fourth Republic, only two Ghanaian leaders won first term elections without tasting defeat. President Rawlings, who transitioned from a military head of state of 19 years (December 1981-January 199) to a democratically elected leader from 1993 to 2001 and President Mahama, who won his first term in 2012 against Akufo-Addo.
The others tasted defeat in their first attempts. Kufuor failed to beat Rawlings in 1996; Mills lost in 2000 and 2004 while Akufo-Addo was third time lucky, after losing in 2008 and 2012.
The trend, he said, should be the main opposition party’s compass.
Mr Otchere-Darko, who is also the President’s nephew, had praises for his uncle’s administration, saying President Akufo-Addo’s administration moving in a direction that “Ghana has the opportunity to realise what our founding fathers knew we could do. Let’s protect it.”
Mr Otchere-Darko is not new to offering what the NDC describes as unsolicited advice. In July, he was engaged in a war of tweets with Mr Mahama.
Clearly incompetence can be both chronic & incurable, transcending electoral cycles. How can any serious alternative govt promise to rescue democracy from financial sector, health sector and agric sector? What will be left? Whoever is leading NDC campaign publicity doesn’t get it pic.twitter.com/VRLKst3CV6
— Gabby Otchere-Darko (@GabbyDarko) July 30, 2020
Clearly some psychosis can lead to unrestrained obsession. The ad referred to is not official & it’s obvious to all. Besides, I thought our ‘PM’ would be busy with weightier matters of state than an amateur ad put out by an overly enthusiastic supporter of our party. pic.twitter.com/qxAnHVM1mw
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) July 31, 2020