NDC can win million votes in Ashanti but … — Alhaji Nuhu Alhassan Dicko

Politics of Monday, 2 March 2015

Source: Graphic Online

Alhaji Nuhu Alhassan Dicko

A senior member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Nuhu Alhassan Dicko, has said the party needs to address its internal challenges to achieve its one million votes target in the region.

He said for the NDC to meet such a target in a region which is the stronghold of the largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), it required unity of purpose and hard work and not bickering and fighting against each other.

He also said there was the need for the NDC to set up achievable targets in the region to improve upon the number of votes the party obtained in the region in the 2012 elections.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview in Kumasi, Alhaji Dicko said the antagonism among the NDC party executives, bitterness among 2012 NDC parliamentary candidates, members of the Tertiary Education Institution Network (TEIN ) and the Zongo caucus in the region, could mar the efforts to attain the million-vote target.

He alleged that there was strong antagonism among party executives, from the branch through to constituency, and to the regional level, which when not resolved amicably, could make the party miss the one million votes objective.

He said the disunity among party executives, especially at the regional level where the Regional Chairman, Yaw Obimpeh and the Regional Minister, Dr Samuel Sarpong, are said to be disunited, if not resolved, could mar efforts of the party.

He recalled that, recently, reports were rife in the media that the TEIN and Zongo caucus in the Ashanti Region were calling for the removal of the regional minister, leading to regional authorities of the party appearing before national officers for a resolution of the matter.

Alhaji Dicko, however, said he wondered if the problem had really been addressed.

He, therefore, called on the party to set up a commission of inquiry to look into the alleged antagonism and critically look at the way forward to ensure the party’s victory in the region.

He said bitterness among TEIN members of the NDC had grown in the region because of lack of scholarship and lack of financial support for TEIN activities.

“Every serious NDC person knows the power of TEIN, especially in the era of hoping for one million votes, and TEIN’s cries must be wiped away before it is too late for the party,” he emphasised.

For the Zongo caucus of the NDC in Ashanti, he noted that since the party won elections in 2012, party members in Zongo communities in the region had not benefitted in terms of development and this, if not critically looked at, could affect the party’s one million votes dream.

He added that for 2012 parliamentary candidates (PCs) of the NDC, most of them, after doing “restless and watchful campaign” and increasing the tally of presidential votes in the last elections, had been relegated to the background.

He said only a few PCs had been given appointments or engaged in government’s activities to justify the hard work they did during the last election.