A former National Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Yaw Boateng Gyan, has said the party cannot take for granted that they will be victorious in the 2024 elections.
Speaking in an interview on Oyerepa TV, he said the party must work very hard to ensure victory, also hinting that no internal strife should be allowed to fester.
“We shouldn’t think that 2024 is a done deal for us. We must work and make sure that we remove every obstacle in our way. If we joke about this, it will affect us,” he said.
His comments come after the long-time NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia aka General Mosquito, announced he will no longer run for General Secretary, hinting he is interested in challenging incumbent Chairman Samuel Ofosu Ampofo for his position.
Speaking on the development on Oyerepa TV, Gyan said the party will suffer immensely if Asiedu Nketia and Ofosu Ampofo ran against each other because it will sow disunity.
“We will need the two in the party going into the 2024 elections, and just as we did for the first time in 1992 in Cape Coast, where the party elected national officers based on consensus, the same can be done with the two,” he said.
“We are in the party, and we know that a lot of things happen, so if we fail to put down proper measures, things will go bad for us.”
Gyan pointed towards a past party primary in which two giants went head-to-head and created disunity in the party.
“The 2014 national executive elections held at the Kumasi Sports Stadium hugely contributed to our defeat in 2016. This is so because of how some candidates were treated in that election, so their followers refused to vote in the national elections out of anger. And that single decision we took (in 2014) is the reason we are still in opposition.
“My followers and that of the defeated chairman Kwabena Agyei were badly hurt. Some of them vowed not to vote in the national elections because of how we were treated and indeed, did not vote, which is why we are in opposition till date,” he said.
Meanwhile, Johnson Asiedu Nketia has rubbished such calls for party unity and for executives to be left in their post.
According to him, no position in the party is the preserve of any one person – other people can contest for his General Secretary Seat and he can also contest for seat’s belonging to other people.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com