<<Print>>

LONG BEFORE the National Democratic Congress (NDC) goes to congress to elect a flag bearer for the 2016 general elections, Victory Henry Asiama, Western Regional Coordinator of the Young Democrats, an NDC youth wing has said that come what may, current Vice President, John Mahama will succeed President Mills as the party�s next flag bearer. He has therefore called on former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings to forget about becoming leader of this nation on the ticket of the ruling party. �John Mahama will win hands down the flag bearer ship position of the NDC in the 2016 presidential primaries of our party so I will appeal to Nana Konadu to advise herself and continue to remain the mother of the party as she has been for so many years,� he asserted. He indicated that Nana Konadu should not think that she has used the NDC�s Sunyani congress to market herself for the 2016 elections in that the current vice president was the most credible candidate for the NDC after President Mills. In an interview with Daily Guide Monday, Asiamah noted that the alleged decision by former President Jerry John Rawlings to allow his wife to contest President Mills in the party�s presidential primaries held in Sunyani was a wrong one. He indicated that President Mills would win by 53 per cent in the next general elections, but disagreed with some national leaders of the NDC that the party could win the 2012 elections without the input of founder, Jerry John Rawlings. According to the young NDC activist, there was no way the party could win the next general elections without Rawlings leading the campaign adding �we will need Rawlings in our campaign like never before.� He noted that Rawlings� charisma and crowd pulling antics exhibited during all the party�s electioneering campaigns could not be done away with in the 2012 elections and that no NDC member should think that the founder of the party was irrelevant in the NDC�s efforts to retain power in 2012. He recounted how the former President drove activists of the party in the Sekondi-Takoradi crazy when he stormed the area during the 2008 electioneering campaign and made people follow him from Jubilee Park to the Takoradi Market Circle in the scorching sun. He has therefore appealed to former President Rawlings not to take any entrenched position by not taking part in the party�s 2012 camping because his wife was not elected the flag bearer at the Sunyani congress. Asiamah pointed out that former President Rawlings� support for his wife in the presidential primaries had damaged the cordial relationship that existed between him and the NDC leadership. �I can tell you that all those who supported Jerry Rawlings during the PNDC regime including Totobi Quakyi, Kojo Tsikata, Kwamena Ahwoi and Mahama Iddrisu among others have all deserted the former President for supporting his wife to contest President Mills,� he alleged. He also called on the party�s founding members to forgive former President Rawlings and try to reconcile with him since he was the pivot around which the NDC revolved. He charged government to make judicious use of the country�s oil revenue to benefit all Ghanaians if it wanted to retain power in the next general elections and subsequent ones.