Mahama's comeback will breed conflicts and curses - Lecturer

A political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mohammed Abass has said that, the coming back of former President John Dramani Mahama as presidential candidate for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will breed serious problems for the umbrella family.

The lecturer reacting to a question on whether the return of Mr. Mahama will be a blessing or a curse said, it will lead to interesting scenarios within the NDC. It will lead to serious problems.''

Mr. Abass stressed, ''after Mahama lost the 2016 elections, a number party big wigs came out and said ill things about him. These things said about him were very negative and so if these things were said, then the return of Mahama will be a problem for the party. Necessarily, there will be conflicts within the party based on the negative things said about him.’’

He was however quick to add that, the return of Mahama will be a blessing should they resolve their conflicts in a healthy way. ‘’There will be conflicts within the party [but] their ability to resolve these conflicts in a healthy way will help the party.

If they are unable to resolve them in a healthy way, it will be a curse for them.

When the conflicts are resolved, Mahama will be a preferred candidate and will be accepted and supported by every party member,’’ he told Kwame Tutu, host of Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm today [Tuesday]. Meanwhile, he has questioned the kind of message Mr. Mahama will bring back to convince Ghanaians to vote for him as president in 2020.

He believes the utterances by the former state leader in recent times are unfortunate and Ghanaians have lost trust in him. ‘’I don’t see what has changed or the new message that he [Mahama] is bringing back to convince political scientists for him to win-looking at the margin of defeat in 2016. Ghanaians no longer trust Mahama to continue as president.

That was why the margin of defeat was so huge…I don’t see anything new from Mahama and all these things will determine his comeback.

Even in opposition, some of the utterances he has made; there has been serious condemnation, in fact wide spread condemnation on some of the utterances he has made even in opposition. I strongly believe that, if he [Mahama] returns, he will have a long way to go to convince Ghanaians to vote for him after that massive defeat he went through,’’ in 2016.