2020 Elections Is For NDC--Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has said the method in which the New Patriotic Party (NPP) used to win the 2016 general elections offered the National Democratic Congress (NDC) a good chance to win the 2020 general elections.

According to him, the NPP 'used lots of sweet words, I do not think they thought through the promises or had any real intention to fulfil the promises'

The Former President said one of the important things that determined that an industry was successful or not, was location of the industry, and indicated that the location of the industry must not conform to political boundaries. 'So if you want to set up an industry, one of the factors is close to the source of raw materials, and you must look at the value chain.'

Mr Mahama who was speaking at the newly created Bolgatanga East District of the Upper East Region as part of his three-day tour of the region to canvass for votes from the party's delegates, said 'if you want to set up a cotton factory, you must look at where they grow cotton, and that growing cotton might be four districts not one district.'

According to the Former President, 'the unfulfilled promises' of the NPP shook the faith of Ghanaians in Ghana's democracy, adding that 'it makes Ghanaians believe that politicians just lie, and they will never fulfil the promises that they make.'

He insisted that the NDC in every election promised what they could do for the people, and emphasised 'when we say we can do, we promise, and we deliver,' and noted that every constituency has its peculiar needs, 'not every constituency want a dam, some constituencies want hospital or a polyclinic that is their priority, other constituencies want roads.'

'NDC, we do things by planning, when we created the 45 new District Assemblies, we knew that the District Chief Executives will need offices to operate from. All the new Districts we created, we built District Assembly offices in all the 45 Districts.'

He said that was not the case with the NPP government, and accused it of renting offices to house newly created District Assemblies for when they created new Districts earlier. 'Now they have created some new more Districts, no offices.'

Mr Mahama said the NDC must be proud of itself because its track record was good, and the people of Ghana recognised that, 'I am convinced that with the right leadership which is in your hands as the electoral college, we will make an impact, and with God on our side, we will win the elections of 2020.'

He appealed to the delegates to vote massively for him because a massive vote would send a signal to the NPP that they were solidly behind the candidate, and they were taking the power from them back to the NDC. 'That is why no single vote should get lost,' he added.

Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bolgatanga East Constituency who assured the Former President of 100 percent votes from delegates in the constituency, said since Dr Kwame Nkrumah's era till now, no government apart from the NDC had ever built three universities, secondary schools and hospitals for this country, and urged all delegates to rally round Mr Mahama to recapture power from the NPP.

The Former President was in the company of some current and past Members of Parliament, former government appointees, and regional party executives among others.