Oil & Gas Consultant joins NDC flagbearership race

A­ Banker and Oil & Gas Consultant, Mr Nurideen Iddrisu, 43, who late last year gave a hint of his intention to contest the flag-bearer position of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has announced his full entry into the race for the mandate to lead the party in the 2020 election.

Grassroots

“I believe that one must, as matter of respect, go round the country and consult the party faithful and also seek the advice of the elders of the party before officially declaring one’s interest in such an important race.

“I have done that and I am, therefore, convinced that I have the support of the grassroots to lead our great party in 2020,” Mr Iddrisu said when he interacted with the press at his office in Accra.

He said since the beginning of the year, he had been touring the country and interacting with the elders, regional executives and the grassroots of the party to fashion ways to galvanise their energies in their quest to unite the ranks of the party, following the heavy defeat in the 2016 general election.

He observed that the party lost the last general election because the leadership lost touch with the ordinary Ghanaian, “and you will agree with me that the absence of that connection rendered our campaign very defective."

Mr Iddrisu said as a businessman he, together with others, had been behind the scenes supporting the party and that the party under his leadership would judiciously utilise every resource at its disposal to win the next election “because the NDC has done it before and we can do it again”.

Empowerment

He stated that he believed strongly in the empowerment of the people, especially the youth, for all-round development and stressed that he was on a mission to lead a party that would engender planned and sustained investment in the people and infrastructure of this country for rapid and sustainable economic development.

The banker and businessman, who also described himself as a strategic politician, said “when the NDC gives me the nod to lead the party and I ultimately become the President of Ghana, I will ensure that the citizens are empowered through education, good health-care and sustainable jobs.”

Public/private sectors

“I will ensure that the public sector is adequately supported and the private sector empowered so that the former can serve as the foundation for the latter to operate as a true engine of growth of the Ghanaian economy. This is necessary because without a solid public sector, the private sector can hardly perform effectively and efficiently,” he pointed out.

The age question

Referring to a recent comment attributed to the celebrated diplomat and former UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, who is reported to have