Why I was ineffective during 2016 campaign - NDC youth organiser

The National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Sidii Abubakar Musah, has finally broken his silence on his role in the 2016 campaign of the party that culminated in its electoral defeat.

Mr Sidii Musah has come under a barrage of criticisms from the youth of the NDC for being ineffective and inefficient, compared to his colleague, Mr Sammy Awuku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who was a major force to be reckoned with.

The NDC stalwart claims he was starved of logistics and literally neglected because the youth wing was not factored into the national campaign structure; hence  his inability to function as expected by the youth who reposed confidence in him and made him their national youth organiser.

Even though he claimed he gave his best, he added that situations beyond his control impeded his plans to garner votes at the grass roots for the party, saying party structure failure also played a major part.

“This is the first time a campaign team was set up and the national youth organiser was not part of. I tried as much as possible to control and make sure that we channelled all programmes towards the youth but if you have been taken off, maybe that is a strategy failure,” Sidii told Accra-based Radio Gold.

He dismissed assertions that he was ineffective, hence his neglect in the former President John Dramani Mahama 2016 Campaign Team.

He added that even though his hands were tied, he initiated several programmes, including one he labelled as “Special Operations” to canvas for votes for the then President John Dramani Mahama who was the NDC presidential candidate.

Sidii Abubakar stressed that he and his team could have done better had the party hierarchy added them to the NDC 2016 Campaign Team.

He appealed to all aggrieved supporters of the party to put the past behind them and work assiduously towards the next presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the year 2020.

NDC youth to boycott demonstration against NPP

In a related development, some youth organisers of the  National Democratic Congress (NDC) have indicated that they will not participate in the planned demonstration against the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the seizure of  vehicles belonging to NDC officials.

The youth organisers believe the organiser of the demonstration, Mr Sidii Abubakar, who is the National Youth Organiser of the NDC, contributed to the defeat of the NDC in the last election so they will not listen to him.

Speaking to Adom News’, the NDC Youth Organiser of the Fanteakwa South Constituency, Mr Mark Okraku, said Sidii Abubakar could not organise the NDC youth well, a situation which created apathy among the youth.

He added that Mr Sidii Abubakar claimed he was sidelined in the last campaign and did not have resources to mobilise the youth but had got resources in opposition to mobilise the youth for demonstration.

Mr Okraku indicated that the NDC youth wing was not meant for demonstrations.

He called on all the NDC youth to ignore Mr Abubakar’s planned demonstration.