The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said it is in a hurry to take back political power which it lost to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) through what the party described as ’deceit and lies’.

According to the NDC, the ruling government’s performance, since it took power in January this year, has been a disaster, a clear indication that the NDC must position itself to regain power in 2020.

As part of the journey to regain power, the Deputy General Secretary of the party, Mr Koku Anyidoho, said: “We have begun the journey to recapture power with the rebuilding of working and policy documents.”

Unity, stability and development

At the end of a three-day Communications and Gender Policy workshop, sponsored by the UNDP at Elmina in the Central Region, he said: “We can’t continue to do things in ad hoc manner after 25 years of existence.” It was on the theme: “Unity, Stability and Development.”

Mr Anyidoho said it was critical that the party put in place a water-tight document that would serve as a source of direction for the growth of the NDC.

“With the support of the UNDP, we are formulating policies on communications and gender which would help in restructuring from the base to the top of the party’s hierarchy,” he stressed.

On why the party leadership decided to embark on this voyage when the Professor Kwesi Botchwey Committee had not completed its job, the deputy general secretary explained, “We don’t want to go to bed. Administratively, as a functional executive, we have to ensure the party structures keep functioning.”

He said the programme being undertaken by the functional executive of the party would not interfere with the work of the Prof. Botchwey Committee, adding that “the party’s mandate differs from the committee’s.”

Infractions

Commenting on the infractions of the ruling party, Mr Anyidoho said: “The failure of the NPP will not be our automatic success. We need to craft our own strategies to wrest power in 2020.”

“President Nana Akufo-Addo is determined to fail; we are doing all to prevent him from failure, but he refused and continued to repeat the same mistakes,” he stressed, saying “we don’t want to fail that is why we are working hard.”

The Communications Officer of the party, Mr Solomon Nkansah, said the party had achieved a lot during its tenure, adding that “although the NPP is attempting to fulfil its manifesto promises, those efforts would not match what we achieved during our tenure”.

He called on the media to remain unbiased and professional, adding that it was only then that “we will be able to measure the difference between the NPP and the NDC.”

A Vice Chairperson of the NDC, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, who led the team of executive, said it was crucial that the issues of women were highly considered in the effort to consolidate the nation’s burgeoning democracy.

She expressed delight that when the document was finalised, the issues of women’s roles and constituencies would be looked at.

The National Women’s Organiser of the party, Hajia Zinab Joyce Mahama, expressed confidence that the policy would capture women in all facets of the economy, when the document was completed.