Politics of Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Source: The Herald
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2012 parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma North, in the Greater Accra Region, has announced his sudden decision to quit politics for other engagements, with his opponents claiming that his decision stems from feelings of being sidelined by President John Mahama in the recent deputy ministerial appointments.
Ras Mubarak was speculated to have been earmarked for the Deputy Information and Media Relations Ministry, which now has Felix Kwakye Ofosu and Member of Parliament (MP) for Nanton Constituency, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed as Deputy Minister designates.
It is not clear what informed the choice of the young politician, but information he posted on his social media platform,Facebook, explained he was quitting politics to provide more time for his family and also focus on academic works.
Mr. Mubarak said he had been nurturing a dream of becoming a university lecturer, and feels the time is ripe for him to return to school so as to make that dream, a reality. For this reason, he is quitting only front-line politics.
“Leaving front-line politics. Spending more time with family and focusing on academics. Always been my dream to be a University Lecturer. This is the time to build myself up for that”, he wrote on his facebook wall last Saturday.
It was recently reported that Mr. Mubarak was the head of NDC’s Communication Team which recently reviewed its activities, and very instrumental was the ousting of Managing Editor of “The Insight” Kwesi Pratt Jnr from “Metro TV’s”newspaper review programme, “Goodmorning Ghana”.
The out-spoken young,diminutive politician in the December elections polled 34,534 for the NDC, while Joe Appiah bagged 53,115 from 163 voting centres to retain his seat for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) which has won that seat over the past 16 years.
Though Mr. Mubarak could not win the seat for the NDC, he was applauded for putting up a good show by fiercely contesting the incumbent Mr. Appiah, who on several platforms avoided debating Ras on issues concerning the Constituency.
Mr.Mubarak, who prides himself as Member of the Presidential Inauguration Committee 2013 and owner of Damba Farms, would be remembered for being part of a group of young men aligned to the Rawlings’ household,who became a pain in the neck of the late President John Mills, until his decision to contest the Ablekuma North seat.
Interestingly enough, he was one of the members of the Atta Mills’ “Funeral Planning Committee” who saw to the successful organization of the burial of the sitting president, who died in July last year, days after his 68th birthday.
Before the death of President Mills, he gave Mr. Mubarak audience at the Osu-Castle where he (Ras) apologized to him for the way he handled issues with respect to his administration.
He later denied various media reports that he was a member of a group sympathetic to former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings—Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR)— which until the death of President Mills launched unwarranted attacks on him and his government sometimes with unprintable insults.