General-Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, popularly known as General Mosquito, has suggested that the executives he worked with during the 2016 electioneering period caused the party’s defeat to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Addressing some NDC delegates and faithful recently, the politician, who is seeking re-election, described the current executives as “quinine,” a bitter medicine that comes from the bark of the cinchona tree and used to treat malaria.
Mr. Asiedu Nketia is currently facing a GH¢15 million libel suit for allegedly defaming former Auditor-General, Prof Edward Duah-Agyeman.
Wrong People
He blamed the party’s delegates for electing the ‘wrong’ people to work with him after rejecting Kwabena Adjei and Yaw Boateng Gyan as chairman and national organiser.
He explained that the outgoing national executives, led by Kofi Portuphy, were not primed for victory because they were bad choice.
According to Mr. Asiedu Nketia, “In 2014, you [delegates] decided to vote out all the people who worked with me to win two successive elections and brought in new people to work with me. We went into the 2016 elections and lost.”
The choice of the delegates in 2014, he said, resulted in the election of people who could not work with him and caused the defeat which the party is struggling to overcome.
General Mosquito revealed that he managed to win the elections for the NDC in 2008 with the help of the previous executives.
“If you put gari into three bowls and add sugar to one, add honey to another and add Quinine to the other, will they taste the same,” he quizzed.
“…so in this case, is it my fault as the general secretary or the people you gave me to work with?”
The embattled General-Secretary was reacting to comments by some executives of the party that have called for his rejection in the upcoming polls.
NDC National Treasurer, Alhaji Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, called for the rejection of Johnson Asiedu Nketia at the party’s national congress scheduled for Trade Fair in Accra next week.
According to him, Asiedu Nketia is a dictator whose actions are destroying the party.
Alhaji Abdullah Ahmed, popularly known as Alhaji PMC, said Asiedu Nketia does not pay heed to advice, adding that the party’s National Chairman, Kofi Portuphy, is even unable to control him and his cohorts.
“There has never been an issue raised by Chairman Portuphy or myself at our meetings that Asiedu Nketia has approved before. When I make suggestions they throw it away saying it’s illegal. Chairman Portuphy is unable to control him. Asiedu Nketia is a dictator. He has a bad attitude. He does not listen to advice. He likes insulting people. When you say something and it goes against them, they push the young guys to insult you,” he said on ‘Ekosii Sen’ programme on Accra-based Asempa FM.
Endorsement of Mahama
Meanwhile, the General Secretary, who is being challenged by his deputy, Koku Anyidoho, in the upcoming NDC National Congress scheduled for November 17, 2018, has endorsed the candidacy of former President John Mahama for the 2020 presidential polls.
According to General Mosquito, with him and Mr. Mahama as General Secretary and flagbearer respectively, the NDC would be victorious in the 2020 elections.
He explained that “anyone in need requires help. So as we have all joined the party and the party has gotten to a point of need, we don’t have to turn our backs to the party…So I don’t want to turn my back to the party. I believe that with my experience, I can help the party to recapture power with President Mahama as our flagbearer to bring the party back.”
Interestingly, the NDC embarrassingly lost to NPP under the leadership of the two stalwarts of the party.