Former President John Dramani Mahama has given the strongest indication yet that he would lead the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 polls.
Although the NDC’s presidential candidate in the 2016 elections stated that it was too early to elect the leader of the party for the 2020 elections, he used scenarios to declare his intent to the party members at a rally to mark the silver anniversary celebration at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region on Saturday.
According to him, “In the 2016 elections, we did our best but what we were expecting God did not give to us. Some time ago, I was watching a video on social media in which some people were running, women. They run for first round, second round and third round, but the frontrunner fell, thereby those following overtook the frontrunner.
“I thought the frontrunner who fell will decide to examine herself to know whether she had sustained some injuries, instead she stood up and decide to follow them. I was so surprised, so I decided to see the outcome of the running in the video. She followed them until last minute when she overtook them to emerge victor.”
Ex-President Mahama also made reference to a quote by former President Mandela, which states that “the greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
The former President advised the party’s leadership to channel their energy towards fixing the challenges that saw the NDC suffer a humiliating defeat at the 2016 polls to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to him, his humiliating defeat in the last general elections was an act of God which cannot be challenged by humans.
He stated that “there is no need crying over spilled milk, because I have stated several times that I take the blame for the defeat in the 2016 polls.
He said if the NDC conducts proper reorganisation towards the next general elections, it would return to power, irrespective of the leader.
Mr Mahama was of the view that the defeat in the 2016 general elections was to let Ghanaians appreciate what he termed ‘the tragedy of unlived experience’ in order to experience the NPP administration also for them to compare with NDC era so they could decide which political party should rule the country in 2020.
President Mahama further condemned the governing NPP for what he termed frequent dismissal of public sector workers, adding that President Akufo-Addo was setting a bad precedent by dismissing these categories of workers.
“When I came to power, I left most of these public sector workers but when this government took over, they dismissed them, and this is a bad precedent for our governance because potentially government can change in every four years so if another government takes over, it means all those working in the public sector have to be dismissed for a new crop of employees to take over and this is bad for governance.”
Mr. Mahama also expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to free the eight Delta Force members, who were arrested for storming the Kumasi Circuit Court and freeing some of their members who were standing trial.
According to him, “There are issues that this government has to focus on addressing and one of those is political vigilantism. We all witnessed what happened when the Montie 3 case came up. We did not decide to cover up or protect anyone or interfere. We allowed the laws to work. They went to court afterward, they were jailed for more than a month until I exercised my powers as a President to call for their release.”