<<Print>>

Mr. Samuel Koku Anyidoho, Founder & CEO of the Atta-Mills Institute (AMI), and former Deputy General Secretary of the opposition NDC, has taken a firm stance in support of maintaining Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, as the party’s running mate for the upcoming 2024 general election.

Mr. Anyidoho’s firm stance comes in the wake of a failed attempt over the weekend by Julius Debrah to whip up support for his desperate bid to become running mate.

Over the weekend, there was an attempt to organise a so-called “Julius Debrah For Running Mate” Walk on the Peduase ridge but it failed badly as sensible people refused to show up for such a needless and senseless campaign.

According to the outspoken Koku Anyidoho, “Instead of Julius Debrah focusing on supporting th NDC to work hard to get people registered during this limited registration period, he is feeding his ego - and it just doesn’t make sense at al”.

According to Koku Anyidoho he really does not understand why Julius should be doing what he is doing at this crucial time. “MPs are stuck in Accra and cannot go to their constituencies to effectively monitor the registration process and instead of people focusing on party work, they are rather selfishly focusing on running their egos amok” he said.

Making his point further Mr. Anyidoho did not mince his words saying “It is ipso facto that John Mahama already has lots of very high mountains to scale over by way of convincing the electorate to give him the mandate again after his July 24, 2012 - January 7, 2017, reign which got Ghanaians very angry and voting him ingloriously out of office when he lost in 2016 by over 1 million votes”.

According to the former Deputy GS, he does not see how the likes of Julius Debrah can pass the “integrity test” ahead of Jane Naana Agyemang, and that must be a major matter of concern for the NDC. “I am very much concerned about issues of integrity and no matter which way we examine it, Professor Naana Opoku-Agyemang is light years ahead of Julius and all the other names being bandied about and if John Mahama makes a mistake and makes the wrong choice, he will carry his cross of defeat again for the third time - and he will not be forgiven”.

According to Koku, he will not buy into any jaded arguments that the Professor did not add colour to the campaign in 2020.

Per the view of the former Deputy GS, what was she supposed to do when the Flagbearer himself had serious issues he could not deal with himself.

“Was Jane Naana the one to deal with the personal problems and heavy burden of the Flagbearer? Certainly not! If the Flagbearer himself and his close aides failed woefully in handling all the heavy missiles from the NPP, why blame the running mate?” Koku asked rhetorically.

Koku Anyidoho is of the certain conviction that the issue of “integrity” is going to be critically examined in next year’s election and if the NDC allows the Flagbearer to play “cha cha” with it, the party would have itself to blame.

To all intents and purposes, John Mahama’s choice of a running mate for the 2024 general election is going to be hotly contested and the electorate will be watching closely and waiting with bated breath.