Any member of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who fails to go to the party’s ideological school, cannot run for president or get any appointment in a future NDC government, Deputy General Secretary of the party, Mr. Koku Anyidoho has said.

He said such a system will ensure that the social democrat values of the NDC are restored and the mistakes of the past eliminated.

“This business where there was an attempt to cut the past completely and create a new identity within the party is what has led us to opposition,” Mr. Anyidoho told Moro Awudu on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday, 16 August, adding that: “The NDC is NDC, there is no leader who will come and is bigger than the NDC, there’s no leader who will be allowed to create his own party within the party; and going forward never again will certain mistakes of the past be repeated…

“… And that is the reason we are going to the school; before you become a minister, before you become DCE, before you become MP, if you don’t go through the institute, master you won’t get it,” Mr. Anyidoho warned.

According to him, the school is important for party members because “you must get to the office with the orientation that the party put you there.”

“Even to become president, you must go to the school so that you don’t become president and appoint your family and friends, so that people go to the ministerial vetting and when they ask: ‘Are you NDC?’, you say you are not NDC. If you are not NDC, who nominated you to become a minister on the ticket of the NDC?” he asked. “It means the nominating authority itself needs orientation,” Mr. Anyidoho added.

He said this will ensure that strangers are not given positions in government when the NDC wins power in the future. “Why should we pick others from other parties? Is Akufo-Addo taking any NDC man into his government? … We fight this political war based on ideology… why should I finish fighting as NDC and you go and bring strangers to become ministers? Which monkey should work for which baboon to chop?”

Moro Awudu: So if you have to get any appointment, you would have to be certified and show it at the vetting?

Koku Anyidoho: Yes I am telling you.

The party on 10 August 2017 launched its ideological school, Ghana Institute for Social Democracy in Accra, which its leaders say is meant to instill in members, the lost values of the party.

Speaking at the launch, national Chairman, Kofi Portuphy, was hopeful that the school will help ground socialist politicians and help the party to return to winning ways in the 2020 polls.

“As a social democratic party, we have had a lot of setbacks in terms of the ideas that we propagate and ideals that we signed for. I recall with some nostalgia the early days in the revolution and the schools that we created and what it helped the revolution to achieve. We will all be glad when we return to power in 2020 to see that this time, we will not have contradiction in our endeavours in the last four years,” he said.

Through the school, he hopes the party will not have leaders that will “ignore the struggling masses” and implement the right policies for the benefit of every Ghanaian.

For his part, General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, observed that elections have become sophisticated and the training of the mind cannot be underestimated.

“The Ghanaian electorate has become more sophisticated and discerning that winning their hearts and minds goes beyond the routine political rhetoric,” he said.

Mr. Nketia is the Chairman of the Governing Council with Dr. William Ahadzi as the Rector of the school.

There are four sub-committees on the administrative body of the school. The Logistics and Estate Committee is chaired by former Chief of Staff Julius Deborah, the Academic Committee is headed by former Minister of Local Government Kwamena Ahwoi.

The Administration sub-committee is headed by former National Chairman aspirant Alhaji Hudu Yahya with Dr. Kwabena Duffour, former Finance Minister chairing the Finance subcommittee.