We don’t need Mahama for 2020 - Ricketts-Hagan

An opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament, George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, has said the party should not allow former President John Dramani Mahama to lead the NDC in the 2020 presidential election.

Mr. Ricketts-Hagan, a former Central Regional Minister during the Mahama administration and currently the party’s MP for Cape Coast South in the Central Region, said “the party needs rebranding with a new face and it should not be the former president”.

“Those who came before us, including President Mahama, have done their best and I think it is time that a new face appears on the NDC’s scene to take the country forward and that is the reason I am contesting,” he said on Accra FM.

The NDC flag bearer aspirant stated: “The NDC under John Mahama’s administration did a lot of infrastructural projects more than his predecessors and Ghanaians appreciated that work, but I always say that we could have done more.

“There are other areas of governance that we fell short and, so, after introspection, it has become necessary that the NDC rebrands itself and provides new leadership for the new battle ahead. It is for this reason that I believe in our party, the NDC, and in the country, we need to move forward with a new leader.”

Letter of Intent

In his letter of intent to lead the NDC for 2020 submitted recently, Mr. Ricketts-Hagan had said that the NDC needs new ‘vision’, ‘direction’ and ‘start’ which should be hinged on the party’s principles of probity and accountability in order to win the 2020 election.

Mr. Ricketts-Hagan, who was also a deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and also a deputy at the Ministry of Finance had said in his letter of intent that “I am of the firm belief (sic) that the NDC party, if well strengthened and reinvigorated to reflect the modern aspirations of our people, it will continue to remain relevant to Ghanaians because it is naturally the only political party in Ghana that can genuinely and sustainably develop the resources nature has endowed us with by making use of full mobilization of talents and energies of all our people to get us out of poverty, improve the living conditions of our people and hold a better prospect for our people.”

There appears to be a consensus among the leadership of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that former President John Dramani Mahama will lead the NDC into another electoral debacle if he is elected as the party’s flag bearer for 2020.

All the NDC stalwarts who have declared their intentions to lead the party in 2020 are saying the former president is ‘damaged goods’ and cannot be the flag bearer but he is adamant and is determined to call the shots once again.

So far, about 10 aspirants have declared their intentions to contest Mr. Mahama who is tipped to carry the day.

Other NDC aspirants and gurus in the party have variously cautioned that the NDC would be doomed if Mr. Mahama is elected to lead them in 2020 because according to them, he supervised the worst NDC electoral defeat in the history of the party.

However, Mr. Mahama is adamant and appears to have already set up his machinery for 2020 and was only waiting for the party’s primaries in December, 2018.