Support groups in NDC not good - Presidential candidate

An NDC presidential candidate hopeful, Alhaji Nurideen has cautioned the party against the formation of support groups and instead work with the party's structures to enable it win the 2020 elections from the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

According to him, the practice where people form factional support groups for some personalities within the party only goes to affect and weaken the party's existing structures.

"You don't have to go and create women for Alhaji, youth for Alhaji," he said, adding that "it should be NDC grassroots, branches and constituencies."

In an exclusive interview with Graphic Online in Accra, Alhaji Nurideen said he would not tolerate such groups and that he would only work with the party's existing structures across the country.

According to him, if the party works with the existing structures, there is no way it cannot win the 2020 elections.

“When we do that (working with the party’s structures), there is no way we are going to lose the elections because we have been there before,” he said.

Alhaji Nurideen, a banker and oil and gas consultant, said he decided to join the presidential race to bring hope to the people of the country.

“As a businessman, this is the time to come in and support my people,” he said, adding that the current happenings in the country did not augur well for the country’s development.

Alhaji Nurideen said the high unemployment situation in the country is not acceptable and needed to be changed, pointing out that “Wherever I go to, I create jobs.”

He explained that he would migrate good practices from the experiences he had gathered from the corporate world to the political arena.

“I am frustrated with the system. The system is not working the way it should work,” he noted, stressing that the “Youth are struggling, women are struggling. Why sit back and complain? I decided to come in and support by empowering the youth and women in this country.”

Alhaji Nurideen is of the view that leadership is generational and that it is his time now to lead the country.

He is competing with 13 others, including former President John Dramani Mahama and Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Trade and Industries.