Focus on rebuilding NDC - Group

Action Movement, a group affiliated to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has stressed the need to rebuild the party to achieve  its objectives for the country.

In so doing, the group is calling for the healing of wounds among the rank and file following the NDC’s 2016 electoral defeat.

It has also called on those campaigning for the 2020 presidential slot of the NDC to cease forthwith and rather concentrate on rebuilding the party to capture political power in the next general election.

Press conference 

The group stated this at a press conference in Accra on Monday by cataloguing a number of setbacks it believes caused the electoral defeat of the NDC.

Mr Kudzo Hamenya, leader of Action Movement, addressed the media and said if the NDC wanted to recapture power in 2020, its members and supporters ought to respect party structures and its elders.

He paid tribute to “our hardworking founder Jerry John Rawlings” and said he was aware of people “like Sylvester Mensah  and the rest who are campaigning for presidential candidates for the party for 2020.”

Mushroom organs

Mr Hamenya stated that the creation of all kinds of mushroom organs such as Celebrities for Mahama and Ladies for Mahama led to the setting aside of recognised party structures and that could not win power.

He added that the 2016 campaign team of the NDC did not have a message and was relying on massive infrastructure development and ‘Changing Lives And Transforming Ghana’ as campaign messages, which did not thrill voters.

Arrogant appointees

Mr Hamenya went further to state that NDC appointees were arrogant and did not mind their language when making public statements.

He said ministers and appointees were very vociferous in rubbishing negative claims against them and did not allow  probes into their actions, an attitude that destroyed the NDC moral fabric so seriously that hardworking party faithful refused  to associate themselves with Election 2016.

He added that former President Mahama’s description of himself as “a dead goat” meant he did not respect anybody and that nobody could advise him.

He also said that while former President Mahama was preaching made-in-Ghana goods such as shoes, banks and locally made cloths, his wife was doing the opposite by printing NDC party shirts from China, “creating a huge disappointment among Ghanaian printing companies.”

20 million pieces

Mr Hamenya stated that the 20 million pieces of T-shirts printed in China could have been shared to party members to print them locally to create a lot of jobs for Ghanaians.

He wondered how the party left the election management to novices who knew nothing about “such sensitive and strategic operations.”

Mr Hamenya said no wonder when polls closed on December 7, 2016, the party did not have the results after 24 hours and had to resort to all kinds of gimmicks.