NDC welcomes Nana’s decision as he is easy to beat
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has welcomed the decision by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to contest the presidential primary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and possibly lead the NPP in the 2016 general election.
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According to the NDC, it would hand Nana Akufo-Addo, the 2012 presidential candidate of the NPP, a third successive defeat in 2016 and subsequently retire him from active politics.
Addressing journalists at the NDC headquarters in Accra yesterday, barely four hours after Nana Akufo-Addo had officially announced his intention to contest the NPP's presidential primary, the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said, "We welcome him with enthusiasm. We can't wait to face him in 2016. We know his strengths and weaknesses. He will be an easy match for us in 2016."
Dwindling fortunes
The NDC scribe said Nana Akufo-Addo's fortunes in elections kept dwindling from the 2008 elections to the 2012 elections and indicated that Nana Akufo-Addo's votes would further drop in the 2016 elections.
For instance, he said, Nana Akufo-Addo won four regions in the 2008 election against Prof John Evans Atta Mills but got only two regions in the 2012 elections against President John Dramani Mahama.
"The NPP does not appear to be futuristic in their plan. You have a leader who is going down the slope. His result in 2008 is better than that of 2012. If you began with four regions and came down to two, then how many regions can he get in 2016?" he wondered.
In contrast, Mr Asiedu Nketia said the performance of the then candidate Mills kept rising, culminating in his victory in the 2008 elections.
History favours NDC
Mr Asiedu Nketia said Ghana's election history was not on the side of Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP, since no defeated candidate had ever emerged to defeat the incumbent candidate who beat him in the previous elections.
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He mentioned the defeat that then candidate Mills suffered at the hands of former President John Agyekum Kufuor in the 2004 elections as an example.
Besides, he said, President Mahama would have incumbency advantage in the 2016 elections, as he would be campaigning for himself, while Nana Akufo-Addo would be campaigning from outside.
Age factor
Mr Asiedu Nketia contended that the NPP would be better off using a younger candidate in the 2016 elections who could be marketed for the 2020 elections, instead of Nana Akufo-Addo, who is 70 years.
He said if Nana Akufo-Addo lost the 2016 elections, he could not go for the 2020 elections and that would pose "a bigger challenge" for the NPP’s presidential candidate for the 2020 elections.
"The NPP is not being futuristic because Nana will surely lose the 2016 elections, and if he does, they will have a bigger challenge in 2020," he said.
No sympathy votes
The NDC scribe contended that Nana Akufo-Addo would not enjoy any sympathy votes, since many Ghanaians were dissatisfied with the way he took the country through eight months of election petition.
He said the election petition slowed economic growth and drove away investors and indicated that Ghanaians had not forgotten that.
Mr Asiedu Nketia disagreed with the suggestion that Nana Akufo-Addo's image had soared, following his decision not to seek for a review after the Supreme Court had upheld President Mahama's 2012 election victory.
He said Nana Akufo-Addo “had gone to the end of his wits” and that “he did not have any option but to accept the verdict”.
NPP relying on challenges
Mr Asiedu Nketia admitted that the economy faced some challenges and indicated that those challenges were normal in the mid-term of every government.
He said the NDC government was taking painful decisions in terms of tariff increases to adjust the economy and stated that the economy would pick up strongly by 2016.