The general secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is not operating in a vacuum with regard to his sustained unbridled attacks on Mr Mahama, and that he is the tried and tested hatchet man for the dirty job any time his party and government decide to attack the former President.
He said the unrestrained attacks on former President Mahama by Dr Bawumia embodies an age-old propaganda strategy of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) by which the party tries to draw a higher-raked NDC official down to the level of a lower-ranked official of their party (NPP), in order to obfuscate important national issues.
The NDC chief scribe made this revelation on TV3’s Saturday morning show over the weekend.
The host wanted to know his opinion as to why there seems to always be a banter between Mr Mahama and Bawumia when one would have expected such engagements more between President Akufo-Addo and former President Mahama.
Buttressing his point, Mr Asiedu Nketia made reference to one Isaac Edumadzie, who the NPP used for a similar hatched job on the late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills in the past. He emphasised that Mr Edumadzie’s insulting reference to the late President Atta Mills as a “chamber pot” was as a result of the unconscionable assignment he undertook on behalf of the NPP by going after the then NDC flagbearer at all cost.
He said Edumadzie’s job was to keep attacking Prof Mills at every opportunity so that if the then NDC leader decided to respond to him, then he (Prof Mills) would appear to be descending to Edumadzie’s low level.
Mr Asiedu Nketia said Dr Bawumia performs Edumadzie’s role currently for the Akufo-Addo-led NPP. He explained that Dr Bawumia, since becoming Mr Akufo-Addo’s running mate, has assumed Edumadzie’s position as NPP’s hatched man against Mr Mahama, with the intention of luring the former President to descend to Bawumia’s level any time there is an important national issue under discussion.
The NDC General Secretary added this behaviour of the NPP permeates the party’s entire communications approach. He said the NPP has made it their stock in trade to send subordinates in the eleventh hour to substitute for their officials invited for media discussions with officials of the NDC. That, according to him, is the reason why, for instance, when the general secretaries of the two parties are invited for a media discussion, it is common to see the NPP send their communications director who is an appointee of the general secretary, at the eleventh hour to engage the NDC general secretary.
He said Mr Mahama does not engage Bawumia in a banter, indicating that it is the vice president who is on an agenda of attacking the former president any time he speaks.
He agreed with the suggestion that President Akufo-Addo himself should engage former President Mahama on the issues, since Dr Bawumia has, by his own conduct, discredited his integrity.
According to the NDC general secretary, Bawumia decided to attack Mr Mahama in an attempt to run away from the critical question by journalists regarding the different sets of economic figures the NPP government presented to the Parliament of Ghana and those the recent $1billion IMF loan received by the government was granted on.
He pointed out that when Bawumia keeps saying “the data shows, the data shows” one wonders which data he refers to- whether the standardised IMF data which presents the true picture of Ghana’s economy and like the NDC flagbearer said, is in Intensive Care Unit” requiring a ventilator for survival or the cooked data the government has presented to Parliament.
He said the NDC is not seeking to appoint a running mate of Bawumia’s ‘stature’ since that stature is defective.
Mr Asiedu Nketia wonders what logic informs NPP’s constant demand on Mr Mahama to name his running mate when they don’t have a flagbearer and also have 150 parliamentary candidature positions to fill. This, he said shows the NDC is better prepared for the 2020 elections.
Electoral Commission
Answering a question about the brouhaha that has characterised the Electoral Commission’s work towards the 2020 elections, Mr Asiedu Nketia said “We are where we are because the EC set out to solve a problem which does not exist.” He explained that the EC has no business saddling itself with the idea of compiling a new voters’ register after it said the current register is credible for the conduct of future elections.
He suggested that even if the EC cannot undertake a limited registration exercise this year because of COVID-19, the election can go ahead since the Commission undertook a limited registration exercise last December.
NDC’s Message
Mr Asiedu Nketia said the NDC represents hope to the masses of the people of Ghana. He implored the electorate to give Mr Mahama and the party another chance of power in the 2020 elections to continue the good works truncated by the NPP’s assumption of power in 2016.
He assured that the NDC will implement good policies to alleviate the suffering and untold hardships inflicted on then by the failed Akufo-Addo-led NPP government, pointing to the fact that Akufo-Addo is copying Mahama’s programmes and policies for the next elections as his non-performing government has ran out of steam.
Source: The Catalyst