NDC controls majority of the intellectuals, middle class in Ghana – Otokunor claims

Peter Otokunor, NDC Deputy General Secretary, has rebuffed the notion held among a section of Ghanaians that the opposition National Democratic Congress lacks the ability to attract academics and generally people within the middle class.

The NDC Deputy General Secretary asserted that the NDC has since its formation appealed to the majority of persons within that class bracket suggesting that the governing party cannot boast of having more middle class sympathisers than them.

Peter Otokunor submitted, that the failures of the NPP government has resulted in the rapid increase in middle class Ghanaians who support the opposition NDC.

This, in addition to their large base of ‘ordinary’ Ghanaians who are farmers, butchers and market women, he noted, makes them the biggest political party in Ghana.

In an interview with ABC News, NDC Deputy General Secretary argued “even at that time when the NDC was formed, even though the middle class was very small, we had majority of those middle class on our side, and the assertion was that all these middle class people were in the NPP. No! Now thanks to the good governance of the NPP, the middle class has actually quadrupled and we have a very large population of middle class people majority of them NDC”

“The reason why perhaps most people say that the NDC is a party for the ordinary, party for the butchers, for the market women, for the farmers is that in actual fact the NDC is the biggest party in Ghana because of our numbers and because at the time the middle class was very small, you will have a lot of those people being in our party” Peter Boamah Otokunor told ABC News.

The deputy scribe of the opposition NDC, averred that it smacks of ignorance on the part of anyone who suggests that the NPP has more critical thinking, highly educated members than the NDC.

He pointed to the calibre of executives that are running the affairs of the opposition party and the kinds of professionals clamouring to contest on the ticket of the party as Members of Parliament as clear evidence of their grip of the intellectuals in the country.

He alleged that the performance of the NPP in office after campaigning heavily on the assertion that they had competent men to deliver leaves much to be desired and shows the lack of skills and knowledge they have about governance.

The deputy General Secretary claimed that when the issue of intellectual base arises, “we still have more than them and that is evident in the kind of appointment that they have done and the kind of leadership that they have in government. You see their performance and you feel like puking. They do not have the requisite skills to even govern so that even settles that debate of whether we have intellectuals or they have more intellectuals than us.”

“It will be very deceptive for anybody to assume at any point in our political life from 1992 until now that the NDC does not have the men and that the NPP have more men than us. It will be very deceptive and that person will not be doing objective analysis.”

“If you look at the crop of leaders in the NDC, the crop of members in the NDC, we attract more of the intellectuals and it has always being the case from the days of the PNDC, till now and so anybody who does that analogy may be coming from the position of ignorance or deliberate mischief” he emphasised.

The NDC opened nominations from Wednesday, July 10 to Friday, July 12, 2019.

Per the party’s calendar, it is expected that filing of nomination -will take place from 18th to 19th July 2019, vetting from 24th to 25th July 2019.

Aggrieved persons will have the chance to petition between 26th to 27th July 2019, while appeals will take place between 29th to 31st July 2019.

The elections of candidates to lead the party’s quest to regain majority in the House will come off on 24th August 2019.

The list of contenders will be without Ghana’s longest serving Member of Parliament, Alban Bagbin and 4 others from the Volta Region – Richard Quashigah (Keta), Clement Kofi Humado (Anlo), Franklin Fifi Fiavi Kwetey (Ketu South) and Dr. Bernice Adiku Heloo (Hohoe).