I take responsibility for NDC’s Central Region defeat –Ricketts-Hagan

Former Central Regional Minister, Kweku Ricketts-Hagan says he has taken full responsibility for the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) defeat in the region in 2016 elections.

The New Patriotic Party's Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo polled 53.22% in the presidential race in the region while the NDC's John Mahama managed with 43.43%.

The region which is considered as a swing one has saw the NPP winning 19 out of the 23 parliamentary seat there.

Currently the NDC has tasked a committee to investigate the party's abysmal performance in the polls.

But before the committee completes its work, Ricketts-Hagan while speaking on Citi FM's news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday said: “I was the Central Regional Minister, I take full responsibility.”

“You come into government to do the best that you can for your country, at the end of the day, the people decide and after the people decide we must all rally behind that. We go into opposition to learn from our mistakes. That is why we are doing all the reviews we are doing and to see what went wrong and to come back and become a better government in the future.”

“No one party will stay in party forever. So when you go to opposition, you are basically to take stock, and hopefully learn something from it. The same way the NPP did for eight years and now we are in opposition. It is possible that we could be back in four years,” he added.

Blame me for NDC's loss
Mr. Ricketts-Hagan's comment comes on the back of remark by former President Mahama who said he takes full responsibility for the NDC's loss nationwide.

“Of course as the general who led us into battle, I take ultimate responsibility for our losing the election and so if it will satisfy those people, blame me for the loss.” He further charged members of the party to take advantage of the Prof. Botchway's committee to express their grievances instead of the media. “I've been meeting with FEC and the elders; the chairman of the party is now the leader according to our constitution but all of us are members of the party. We've served at high level of government and so we have a role to play both as ex-president, ex vice president, as ministers of state and our fortunes are tied in with the party and we are committed members of the party so we must work to make sure that we put the party in a state where we are able to contribute to the progress of this country even in opposition by making sure that we provide the kind of opposition that safeguards the interest of the people.”

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin