The John Dramani Mahama presidency schemed for Kofi Portuphy and Kofi Adams to become National Chairman and National Organizer respectively of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) – a factor the Kwesi Botchwey Committee claims contributed to the disastrous defeat of the party.
Immediately that was done the party’s machinery collapsed and never recovered, according to the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee that investigated why the National Democratic Congress (NDC) embarrassingly lost the December 7, 2016 general elections.
Sycophantic Executives
The 65-page Executive Summary of the 455-page report says with the election of the two leading officers, the party’s hierarchy became sycophantic and did the bidding of the presidency instead of concentrating on how the party would remain in office.
“Kofi Adams and Kofi Portuphy were beneficiaries of the presidency machinations during the Kumasi congress to elect them,” the report revealed on Page 27.
It states on page 28 that “After the party congress in Kumasi, the party hierarchy collapsed,” saying “party hierarchy became sycophantic in its relationship with the government.”
Mr Kofi Adams unseated incumbent Yaw Boateng Gyan as National Organizer while Mr. Portuphy removed then chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adje, aka Wayo Wayo or Cat Hunter from office in an acrimonious congress of the party held in Kumasi on December, 2014.
Mr Yaw Boateng Gyan yesterday announced that he was staging a comeback for the position he lost. It is not clear if this time round John Mahama will throw his weight behind him.
Yaw Boateng Gyan, who was a ‘darling boy’ of the late President John Evan Atta Mills – having been appointed as a presidential staffer at the Office of the President – was stripped of the position and all the respects and pecks passed on to Kofi Adams.
According to Mr Boateng Gyan, the NDC needs a devout and hard working person to secure victory in 2020.
He was part of the leadership that returned the NDC to power in the 2008 and 2012 elections, but lost bitterly to Kofi Adams through the purported influence of John Mahama, polling 734 votes as against Kofi Adams’s 2,543 votes that left him (Gyan) wondering why NDC delegates changed a winning team.
He said he has had broad consultation with party members and many of them want him back as the national organiser.
In the case of Dr Kwabena Adjei, DAILY GUIDE learnt that he incurred the displeasure of former President Mahama for speaking out his mind at Cabinet meetings, warning about the imminent Armageddon, looking at the way the then president was handling the affairs of state.
Sources indicate that he was not charitable to the NDC administration as he called a spade a spade in a brunt fashion, particularly on the way the former president’s brother, Ibrahim Mahama, was creating a negative image for the party and the NDC government.
When the time came therefore, Mr Kwabena Adjei was replaced with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) boss – Mr Kofi Portuphy.
According to sources, Kwabena Adjei, who sat in cabinet as party chairman, was at a point allegedly branded ‘drunkard’ just because of his frankness.
Apart from the former president who was described as living a life of a ‘movie star’ in the run-up to the crucial general elections, the report indicated that the NDC never lost the elections, rather it was John Mahama.
The report said President Maahama let himself down with his attitude towards the campaign. “John Mahama lost the elections and not the NDC.
“President Mahama ignored the Akuse strategy. It included no flamboyant campaign, no amorphous group etc.”
Solomon Nkansah
The report also notes that the reign of Solomon Nkansah as the Communications Officer of the party was disastrous.
Mr Solomon Nkansah was the National Propaganda Secretary before the NDC turned the propaganda office into communications when it moved into its $20 million office complex at Adabraka, Accra in 2014 – which party gurus vehemently denied owning.
“Solomon Nkansah as Communications Director was a disaster,” the report observes on Page 28.
Party Disconnection
According to the report, there was a “disconnection between the government and the party,” and also there was “disconnection between the party and the grassroots.”
It claims that there were palpable divisions in the party and cited Afram Plains in the Eastern Region as typical example.
The 13-member committee heard how the party’s hierarchy ignored warnings that the Lawra seat in the Upper West Region and those of other constituencies were falling into the hands of the opposition but nobody did anything about it, according to the report.
Greed & Selfishness
“NDC was its own enemy. Greedy, selfish, dismissive, arrogance of power were the party’s undoing as captured on Page 27.
The report observes that elders in the party were ‘ignored’ and the party lost its youth wing in the tertiary institutions to the opposition at the time.
Amorphous Groups
According to the report, some NDC gurus, with the blessing of the presidency, formed many groups to campaign for the second term bid of President Mahama, but none of those involved were real party members.
“None of the amorphous groups were NDC members;” the report reveals on page 28, adding shockingly that “NPP (then opposition) infiltrated the NDC’s ranks and built these groups to execute their agenda within the NDC.”
Groups likes Girls Girls for Mahama, Zongo Girls for Mahama, Zongo for Mahama, Youth for Mahama, Celebrities for Mahama, Mahama Ladies, I Choose JM, Ambassadors for Mahama, Doves for Mahama and others, were formed with massive resources at their disposal to prosecute the agenda which failed woefully in the end as Ghanaians overwhelmingly rejected Mahama.