The likelihood of Nana Akufo-Addo winning the November presidential election is “very real” and “we must fight to our last sweat to prevent that from happening,” a pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) group that calls itself Social Democratic Forum of NDC, has noted.
According to the group, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) aggressive and successful inroads in what until now has been a solid bastion of unwavering NDC support, the Volta Region, gives credence to fears that that the three-time opposition flagbearer could defeat President John Mahama in November.
“We believe that the Volta NDC has taken its eye off the ball. Complacency has been allowed to set in with pathetic excuses as the NPP is turning the Volta Region into their playground,” a statement released by the group noted.
The group said “the petty squabbles, factionalism and delusion of the NDC in the Volta Region have given the propaganda machinery of the NPP, the leeway to thrive, a situation that has clipped the chances of President Mahama winning in the region”.
The statement stated: “While the NPP propaganda machine goes into overdrive, the Volta NDC has been hamstrung by a farrago of petty squabbles, factionalism and delusion.”
“While we have been at each other’s throats, the NPP has been rapidly gaining ground in the Volta Region. The chiefs in the Volta Region have not helped our cause. Shamefully, they have only been too happy to line up to curry favour with Nana Addo while castigating President Mahama.”
The Social Democratic Forum of NDC also noted that tribalism, especially, is making the NDC unpopular in the region.
“If we [NDC members] are honest with ourselves, and as much as we would prefer to sweep the issue under the carpet, the heritage of our party [NDC] has long had a whiff of an anti-northern undercurrent. Hatred for leaders of Northern extraction by Voltarians is nothing-new beginning with a son of the Volta overthrowing the first elected President of the country, who hailed from the North, Dr. Hilla Limann of blessed memory. It is little surprising that Voltarians are beginning to be the biggest critic of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama.
“If we are not careful, these tribalistic hateful tendencies will be the death of us.
“It would be naïve to think that the anti-northern hostility within our ranks has gone unnoticed by the inhabitants of the Northern regions, for our supporters in those regions are increasingly growing restive. Should President Mahama lose the forthcoming elections, his critics should forget about entertaining any ideas of a Voltarian coming to rescue what they would no doubt believe is the heart and soul of the party. We would be cast into the electoral wilderness. We are wiser and smarter and would not allow the fate of Dr Limann to befall President John Mahama,” their statement stated.
