Mahama must learn from Duffuor - NDC executive

Executive member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Tema East, Stephen Ashitey Adjei, has counseled former President John Dramani Mahama to take a step back and understudy former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor on how to properly pilot a political party.

In a write-up following the official launch of the ‘Ahotor Project,’ a private initiative by Dr. Duffuor to aid members of the party’s grassroots members fend for themselves, Mr. Ashitey Adjei, who is popularly called Moshake, commented that Duffuor is providing the example that Mahama has failed to be.

“For years, some of us have been screaming it from the rooftops that the socialist nature of the NDC makes it imperative that the party’s leadership tailor income and skills advancement programs to the grassroots, however, the party’s leadership for the past several years has not been paying heed.

“What we had asked for in so many words is exactly what Dr. Kwabena Duffuor is making available through this ‘Ahotor project,’” Moshake wrote.

He added, “former president John Mahama will do well to learn from the strategic thinking that Dr. Kwabena Duffuor put into this self-help program. If your party is a socialist one like the NDC, then your party’s lifeblood is its grassroots not its top brass.”

The Ahotor project is a self-help program that Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, who is also a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana has packaged for the party’s grassroots members to enable them develop skills to create small scale enterprises for their sustenance.

It was launched at the NDC’s national headquarters last week.

“Dr. Kwabena Duffuor has proven himself a good visioneer and I seriously hope that our leaders, especially Mr. Mahama will learn from him. Mahama’s focus has always been the top brass of our party and the few people within his immediate circle of friends.

“and so in his government, only those who were close to him benefited somehow from his administration but those who did the real work at the grassroots level – the branches, regional and even constituency levels, were left with nothing. Because of this, now that the party is out of power, they have mostly been rendered destitute,” Moshake lamented.

He heaped praises on Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and urged the rank and file of the party to support any good vision that Dr. Kwabena Duffuor brings on board.

“I don’t need to remind members of the grassroots of the neglect we suffered under John Mahama’s presidency, we all remember. I believe that given that experience, it is only to be expected when good policies from well-intentioned persons like Dr. Duffuor come up, we will embrace him and his policies with both hands,” Moshake wrote, adding, “being a member of the NDC should not be an automatic sentence to poverty and disgrace.”

Meanwhile, Moshake has also called on the party’s leadership to abandon demonstrations against the presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo and rally the party for reorganization towards the 2024 elections.

“The ‘Arise Ghana’ demonstrations have little use to us as a party because the person we are demonstrating against is already enjoying his second term. There is nothing that we could hopefully achieve with these demonstrations.

Rather, we should organize and ready ourselves for 2024 which promises to be very favourable to us,” Moshake wrote adding, “already the NPP have finished their polling station executives, constituency and regional elections but we have not even done our branch elections.”

It is important for us to wear socks before wearing shoes” Moshake concluded.