Mahama, NDC lost touch with grassroots – Alhaji Mohammed Shani

The leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including President John Mahama, for years were out of touch with the grassroots of the party, hence the massive defeat in the just-ended presidential and parliamentary elections, Alhaji Sani Mohammed, a founding member and former vice chair of the NDC in the Ashanti Region, has said.

According to him, the party neglected the grassroots for years only to attempt to win them back a few days to the elections, a situation he said could not help any party to win elections.

His comment follows the defeat of the NDC is in the just-ended elections, which saw Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) securing 5,716,026 votes, representing 53.85 per cent, to beat Mr Mahama, who managed 4,713,277 votes (44.40 per cent).

Speaking in an interview on Ghana Yensom with Kwesi Parker-Wilson on Accra100.5FM on Wednesday December 14, Alhaji Sani said the defeat was a “humiliation to all of us including President Mahama”.

He added: “We (NDC leadership) lost touch with the grassroots of the party. There was no link between the regional executives and the grassroots – they are the pillars of the party, and so you cannot neglect them for years only to get to them in election year to work for you; it doesn’t work like that. We neglected them and we have paid the price for it.”

He further stated that the regional executives of the party, especially those in Ashanti, painted an unrealistic picture to the president regarding the situation on the ground, including the grand promise to deliver 1 million votes for the party from the region.

“We all need to sit down and reflect on the defeat because all of us, including President Mahama, failed to get in touch with the people. This defeat is humiliation to all of us. How can an opposition party get 171 seats in parliament? I cannot understand that, we failed to work well, hence the defeat.”