An aspirant for the position of General Secretary of the largest opposition party in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, has given a mental picture of how well-connected he is to the party grassroots.

According to him, his relationship with the ordinary members of the party is such that he constantly keeps in touch with them, a situation that has led to the fact that he currently has over 12,000 contacts on his mobile phone.

He explained 80% of that number are members of the NDC, while he is on about 400 WhatsApp groups.

“… so my phone now, I have about 12,000 contacts on my phone; 80% of them are party people.

“And these are not just people I just know; I know them personally. And, I’m on about 400 platforms and I keep changing my phones almost every six months because the phone gets tired,” he said.

Speaking in an interview on GhanaWeb TV’s Election Desk with Edward Smith Anamale, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, who is also a former Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, recalled how he got into politics.

Describing it as something he didn’t plan, as he had other plans for entering the international world of work, he said his decision changed after he had an interaction with Ato Ahwoi, one of the stalwarts of the NDC party.

"Mr. Ato Ahwoi called me and said he wanted me to be the deputy campaign spokesperson for Prof. Mills’ presidential primaries. It was a very difficult decision to make: go to ECOWAS, go and earn some good dollars because I studied international relations so that had been my interest; to work with an international agency: ECOWAS, AU or the United Nations, so local politics was not part of my plan.

“And he said, go and do this thing for us, and after several months, I eventually agreed because he told me something: ‘If you go to your ECOWAS or UN and after 15 years you come back to Ghana, don’t you know you’ll be a stranger, and your colleagues would have gone ahead of you? So, what will happen to all the experience you gathered as SRC president and NUGS?

“So, that really got me thinking so I took up the challenge and so, myself, Ludwig and Rojo, we went round with Prof Mills around the whole Ghana. We went to almost every city, town, and village – every nook and cranny. It was a very eye-opening experience, and that is where I gathered a lot of data and networked with the grassroots,” he explained.

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, a former Director of Elections for the NDC, hopes to fill in the soon-to-be-vacant shoes of the current General Secretary, Asiedu Nketiah.

He explains why he is the best man for the job in the full interview on GhanaWeb TV below:





You can also watch this edition of GhanaWeb Special:



AE/SEA