I will defeat Mahama in NDC flagbearer race - Bagbin

The second deputy Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has stated that he is poised to defeat former President John Mahama in the race to become the next flagbearer for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

According to the Member of Parliament for the Nadowli-Kaleo constituency, he possesses the qualities to pip Mahama to NDC flagbearer ticket.

“He knows my capacity and has worked with me for many years as a minority leader and later as a minister of state,” the former Majority Leader in Parliament told GHOne TV’s Nana Aba Anamoah on political show State of Affairs.

He said Mahama’s leadership style led to his defeat in the 2016 elections as the first incumbent president under the Fourth Republic to have lost a general election.

Bagbin stressed Mahama lost the elections by over 800,000 votes to the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because he refused to listen to advice from the party.

“So I know he’s a very nice person to deal with, he has the gift of the tongue, high accumulation of knowledge and the energy and vim, but it is the style of leadership that has left a lot of the people behind," he stated.

“The issue about lack of inclusiveness is very detrimental trait in political leadership. I think John [Mahama] would have been a very good president in a better democratic setting than Ghana. He did very well in terms of infrastructure and focused a lot on putting the basics in place. In trying to do this I think he outrun the party and left the party behind. His leadership style led to this,” the longest-serving MP in Ghana’s parliament opined.

He also stressed that despite the negative perceptions that he did not back Mahama's Presidential bid during the 2016 elections, he did his best to help him succeed.

“I’m grateful to the NDC as a party to be in leadership. I did all I could to help Mahama to succeed,” he stated.