NDC Primaries: Youth organiser challenges President Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama, who has all along been expected to go unopposed in the National Democratic Congress's (NDC’s) presidential primaries on November 7, now has a challenger.
Advertisement
The party’s Oyarifa Presby School Branch Youth Organiser, (Polling Station A), Mr George Boateng, has declared his intention to challenge the President for the 2016 flagbearer.
Even though he is not a household name in the party, the 45-year-old is optimistic he will be given the nod to represent the party in the 2016 election.
He picked up forms from the party headquarters in Accra yesterday to challenge President Mahama for the Presidential candidature of the NDC in next year's polls.
In the view of Mr Boateng, President John Mahama had failed to improve the lives of the poor and did not deserve to lead the party in the December 7 presidential election.
“When I become President I will change everything,” he assured.
"There are a lot of jobs ahead of the President that the President has never done", the youth organiser stated when he spoke to a number of Accra-based FM stations yesterday.
He said he believed that the poor state of social intervention programmes including the National Health Insurance Scheme was an indictment on the leader of a social democratic party such as the NDC.
Other Trending Stories
He said he wanted to pursue an aggressive export drive if he became president and also legalise marijuana to help generate revenue.
He said he would legalise Indian Hemp (wee) when given the mandate to rule saying “the current government has failed in exports and collapsed the National Health Insurance Scheme.
He also said that the current administration should not have allowed the doctors to go on strike.
Mr Boateng insists he is not being pushed or manipulated by external political forces.
He claims that he is in the race on his own merit. He picked the form for GH¢1,000 without fanfare. Mr Boateng will pay GH¢50,000 as filing fees.
But he says that challenging the President is not a waste of time.
President Mahama served almost four years as Vice to President John Atta Mills who died barely four months to the 2012 presidential elections.
He served and completed that term and won the 2012 elections for a four-year term which ends in December 2016.
He will seek re-election to extend his mandate to 2020. The party has set November 7 to elect a flag bearer and 275 parliamentary candidates.