A chairman aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nii Armah Ashittey, has said he stands taller and weightier than Samuel Ofosu-Amofo (the incumbent chairman) and Johnson Asiedu Nketiah (the incumbent general secretary who wants to unseat the incumbent chair) in the party’s upcoming internal polls.
Mr Nketia recently said in an interview that Mr Ofosu-Ampofo lacked the needed courage to be chair of the party and revealed that the latter unilaterally announced the boycott of the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election in 2019 without consulting the buy-in of his other leaders.
In response, Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said: “Throughout my entire adult life, I have faithfully, dutifully, and conscientiously served the National Democratic Congress in various capacities. I have done so with honour and dignity while resisting every temptation to vilify political opponents.”
He added that, “I hold the view that it is totally out of place for party officials to divulge or discuss internal party matters that are within their knowledge by virtue of their privileged position, in the media or on any public forum”.
“It is within this spirit that I elect to refrain from commenting on the merit or otherwise of the matters that were referenced in the said interview, including high-level party decisions that are supposed to be held in confidence,” he continued.
Speaking on the Class Morning Show of his ambition to lead the party as chair, the former Greater Accra Regional Minister said: “I have what it takes: I’ve been a mayor of Tema under the late Rawlings, I served as a member of parliament for Klottey Korle and also the Greater Accra regional minister under the late Prof Mills and I served John Dramani Mahama as the minister of employment and labour relations. I am a lawyer. I was a trade unionist and a businessman”.
“I know Ampofo, I know Asiedu Nketiah and I can tell you, I’m taller and weightier”, he noted.
Of his contenders, Mr Ashittey said: “I know the two [Asiedu Nketia and Oforu-Ampofo]. Yes, they’ve served the party, but there’s also the issue that there are problems. I mean, when you sit back, seriously you know that there are problems. There is a problem at the top and recently, Asiedu confirmed that there is a problem”.
“He mentioned Ayawaso Wuogon but there could be others that he didn’t mention and I mean we are all members of the party, they have the right to stand, they’ve stood for elections and won and they want to go again. It doesn’t mean I cannot also come and join. That’s the beauty of democracy”, he indicated.
He explained: “I am coming because I know there are problems considering that we lost 2016, we lost 2020 because of the collation of results. Are we going to gamble again with 2024?”
In his analysis, the governing New Patriotic Party sees Mr Ofosu-Ampofo and Mr Asiedu Nketiah as weak spots that could be capitalised upon to ‘break the 8’.
“When l listen to the NPP, at times we take a lot of things for granted. They’ve been talking about: ‘We’ll break the 8’. You see, breaking the 8 is not just about breaking, it goes with certain things and one of the things that I, sitting back, which I believe the NPP have factored into their ‘breaking the 8’ is who will be the leaders of the NDC”, he analysed.
“Breaking the 8, as these people have been talking about, have factored into [it], who will be the chairman of the NDC, who will be the general secretary and they have factored in Asiedu Nketia and Ofosu-Ampofo and at this time that they want to be chairman, either or”.
“So, for me, Asiedu cannot say that he’s an alternative to Ofosu-Ampofo. No, he cannot at all”.
“Why am I saying that? The two of them are the leaders and have been the leaders of the party, so, whatever problems there have been, whatever confusion there is at the top, they are a party to it, they are the same boat; if the boat is going down, it will go down with the two of whatever”.
“So, for me, it is important for our delegates to remember that they are not alternatives to each other. And, particularly at this time when there is this struggle going on. There must be somebody is should be able to bring them together at the end of it all”.