Without addressing the concerns of the branch and constituency executives, the opposition NDC party cannot properly reorganize its machinery and effectively strategize to capture power in 2024.
This is according to former governor of the Bank of Ghana and minister of finance of the erstwhile NDC government Dr. Kwabena Duffuor.
The leading member of the opposition party was addressing NDC party grassroots members at some branches and constituencies in his home region of Ashanti over the last weekend during an official party outreach program in the region. The outreach forms part of the party’s reorganization efforts towards the 2024 general elections.
Dr. Kwabena Duffuor told the party’s local executives in the region that his goal for coming to interact with them is to energize and bring the base of the NDC out of apathy for effective reorganization towards election 2024.
“Addressing the concerns of our branch and constituency executives is key to the NDC’s reorganization effort”, Dr. Duffuor wrote in a Facebook post after his meetings.
He continued, “In view of this, I was once again in the Ashanti region over the weekend to interact with some local executives as part of the NDC’s outreach program to local branches and constituencies”.
In what seems like a subtle suggestion of a current disconnect between party leadership and the party base, Dr. Duffuor concluded, “It is always important to touch base with our grassroots”.
The opposition NDC has officially began its reorganization efforts to prepare itself for the 2024 general elections through a nationwide outreach program of interaction with the party base involving selected party leaders. It has also began a membership registration drive throughput the country.
This will lead to the election of new party executives from the branch levels through to constituencies, regions and the national level before ultimately electing a flag bearer at the last stage towards the end of 2022.
There have been long running speculations that the former finance minister under President John Evans Atta maybe putting his foot forward to lead the NDC into the 2024 elections as its flag bearer. With the party seeking to make inroads into the Ashanti region, a place with the highest number of constituencies in the country (47) and the second highest voter population after the greater Accra region, Duffuor maybe a strategic candidate for the NDC should he officially step forward.
It is unclear if Dr. Duffuor’s interactions with the NDC grassroots is the start of his undeclared campaign to lead the party as its flag bearer in 2024. However, the NDC rank and file seem sharply divided for what concerns a leadership succession plan with one section strongly believing that it is time for former President John Manama to give way for new blood with fresh ideas to take the party machinery into the next elections without the baggage of the past.
Although former President John Manama hasn’t made his intentions clear to Ghanaians, it is widely believed that he intends to run again against all odds. But unlike in the last party primaries where he was more popular and run unopposed in the party’s primaries, it is becoming clear that there is a build up of internal resistance against the status quo as the biggest opposition party is desperate to win power in 2024.
An eventual declaration by Dr. Duffuor who clearly appear to be the NDC’s most formidable face of Ashanti, will also make him the ultimate and symbolic face of that internal quest for change within an opposition party that is seeking in government one 2024.