Elections to define fortunes of NDC in 2016 (Daily Graphic - Thursday, December 4, 2014)

The maxim: “You don’t change a winning team”, will be taken to the electoral lab of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on December 20, this year for a real test. This will be the second time the party’s congress has had to be moved after the original October 25 date had to be moved to December 13, when a lawsuit was filed against the party by an aggrieved member. The positions of key incumbent national executive members face strong challenge as the NDC gears up for a national election in Kumasi that will determine the structural integrity of the party and define its fortunes in Election 2016. The core of the NDC winning team that procured victory for the party in 2008 and 2012 are the Chairman, Dr Kwabena Adjei; the General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, and the National Organiser, Mr Yaw Boateng-Gyan. But even before nominations are opened for the contest, the positions of the chairman and the national organiser are being hotly pursued by pure-bred and formidable ‘Akatamansonians’ whose political credentials are quite hefty. Dr Adjei faces strong opposition from Mr Kofi Portuphy, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, and Mr Dan Abodakpi while Mr Boateng-Gyan seeks to ward off team-mate-turned opponent, Kofi Adams, from the national organiser seat. The three candidates vying for the National Organizer position are – Kofi Adams, Yaw Boateng Gyan (incumbent) and Aboagye Didieye. Party unity Speculations that President John Mahama has thrown his weight behind some of the candidates are threatening to create cracks in party unity, as some aspirants are obviously not enthused about such developments. Mr Nketia who is being challenged by Abdullah Ishaq Farrakhan for his general secretary seat, has already alluded to what could be described as a resignation notice if the current winning team is substantially ‘dismembered’ with the infusion of new faces. “If I know that team will be a useless endeavour, I will not waste my time,” he said at the campaign launch of Dr Adjei at the KAMA Conference Centre in Accra recently. Chairmanship Having won and retained his seat in two consecutive national executive elections and also led the NDC to two consecutive election victories, Dr Adjei may possess a potent winning formula that could help tighten his grip on the chairmanship. Perhaps, it is based on this conviction that even long before the horses emerged from their stables for the ‘NDC 2014 Furlong’, Dr Adjei had declared (about 10 months ago) that he was chairman for life. “I will win the next elections hands down…. We have not struggled in vain, and I would not leave the scene for a novice; I ought to complete what I began,” he was reported to have told journalists at the launch of Fiesta TV and the ‘One Ghana Project in Accra in December 2013. This declaration should be troubling to those seeking to wrest the chairmanship from Dr Adjei and they would require a superior strategy to overpower the man who knows “so many ways to kill a cat”. But the incumbent chairman may find a ‘stubborn cat’ in Alhaji Yahaya, who as the first general secretary of the NDC and currently a national vice chairman, knows the expanse of the political trenches so well to manoeuvre his way through the contest. Alhaji Yahaya is also part of the NDC winning team, except that this time round, he is seeking to operate, not from the midfield but as a striker to lead the party’s onslaught for victory in Election 2016. He pledges to work with the constitution of the party and offer hard work, open, accountable and transparent leadership. As a former minister of state and Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Abodakpi is not a political minnow, and so he is not in the race to add up to numbers but to give the other contestants a good run for their money. The former Keta MP and Ghana High Commissioner to Malaysia has a simple mission: To reorganise the NDC for sustained victory. With the seeming cracks emerging in the NDC, exemplified in the numerous court cases on election-related matters, Mr Portuphy may bring his rich experience in disaster management to bear on party unity, as he seeks to become national chairman of the party. The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) boss is reported to be the President’s handpick, but with his rich experience in party matters, Mr Portuphy is a veritable candidate in his own right to contest for the highest position of the NDC. National Organiser Like the NADMO boss, Mr Adams is touted as the President’s ticket for the national organiser position currently held by Mr Boateng-Gyan. But Mr Adam is unruffled by that tag, pointing out that “the President is for everybody, including me”. In a telephone conversation from a base he describes as “the bush”, he told the Daily Graphic that he was closely in touch with the grass roots of the party and that if his opponent was similarly in touch with the grass roots, he would have thrown in the towel by now. But with incumbency advantage and the backing of outspoken general secretary of the party, Mr Boateng-Gyan holds a trump card with which he could play his opponent out of the contest.