Member of Tamale Central constituency, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini has said that the projection of former President and Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama at the party’s Unity Walk held in Cape Coast was appropriate and a step in the right direction.

Mr. John Mahama was the only person among other party hopeful to have been given a platform to speak at the Unity Walk. Many aspirants and key party members following this, have described the move as an attempt to sideline all other persons vying for the flagbearership position and to ‘hype’ Mahama as the preferred candidate to lead the party in 2020.

Speaking on Joynews’ Newsfile program on Saturday, Mr. Fuseini maintained that the party has not yet opened nominations for the flagbearership position and hence should not be a big deal if the former President who served in his capacity as leader for the party was given due recognition and awarded the podium to speak and address supporters during the walk.

“Who else was there that needed projection? You see that is the mistake we are making, we have not declared any nomination for flagbearership, have you heard that NDC has opened nominations for flagbearship. We have a former President who was the leader of the party till 7th December 2016 when we lost the elections and then he was the flagbearer of the party in the 2016 elections, unless we want to rewrite the rules”, he said when quizzed about his opinion on the subject.

Touching on the endorsement of the former President by 10 regional chairmen of the party and issues emerging from that, he argued that there was nothing wrong with it. His point being that people are merely raising issues particularly party hopefuls because they are intimidated by Mr. Mahama’s past record and reputation.

“If His Excellency John Dramani Mahama decides to contest, he will win. The scheming going on is precisely because people see that because he’s been vice president, he’s been president and because the structures, the way they are presently constituted might be skewed to his advantage, that is why they are already raising issues”.

All 10 Regional Chairmen issued a communique asking the former President, John Dramani Mahama to consider leading the party to the polls in 2020. The move has widely been criticized with many accusing the chairmen of bias and fostering division in the party. Mr. Mahama shortly after reports emerged issued a statement indicating that it was too premature to declare his intentions for the 2020 elections.

Prior to this, the NDC organized a ‘Unity Walk’ in CapeCoast as part of efforts to engender solidarity by an ego-bruising defeat in the December 7 general elections. The walk, themed, “Mobilization of the Grassroots”, is the third to be undertaken by the party after previous ones in Tamale and Accra.

The walk is aimed at fostering unity within the party, and also seeks to “heal” it after its humiliating defeat in the December 2016 election.