Dr Duffour has a huge task to win the NDC flagbearer race – Dr Smart Sarpong
Political analyst, Dr Smart Sarpong has revealed that a herculean task lies ahead of Dr Kwabena Duffuor who has stated his intentions to contest the flagbearer position of the National Democratic Congress.
The senior lecturer at the Kumasi Technical University in assessing Dr Duffuor’s chances of clinching the flagbearer slot during an interview on TV3 on 3rd November 2022 said “the task is very huge for my good friend Dr Duffuor in that he will have all the delegates of the electoral college who will elect the next flagbearer of the NDC and he will have to convince them and put his credentials before they have them consider his candidature”.
“It is not going to be easy though it is not an impossible task, we wish him well as he moves into this difficult task,” he added.
“Well, he comes on board with a rich CV if the economy is hard, one person who has sat on that hot seat before and did very well in his time as Finance Minister is the man you are talking about; Dr Duffuor we remember was the first finance Minister in our recent history to have led us to single digit inflation in the time of Professor Mills when he was serving as Finance Minister,” Dr Sarpong reminisced.
He added that “This record in his CV positions him in a very right place around this time the economy has been under attack in recent months. So yes, there is a right chance for him too but you and I are aware he will have to cross the bridge of securing the mandate to lead his party before putting himself before the public for general elections that is the only difficult task but for his CV he is the one person you can trust to lead around this time”.
On how he is going to navigate the competition with Former President Mahama having the odds on his side, Dr Sarpong said “When you sit on the Chair of the Economic Management Team your success is largely dependent on the team’s strength so former President Mahama was a successful chairman of the Economic Management Team due to the hard work of the team since as chair you can only moderate and solely rely on the strength of the key team”.
It is a “boss and Minister affair but former President Mahama will agree that the success he chalked is due to the efforts of the Ministers that constituted the team he chaired”.
Citing the issue the current administration is facing he said, “let me give you an example currently we have a challenge in our economy and many are calling for the head of the Finance Minister and the governor of the Bank of Ghana and Vice President Dr Bawumia is also bearing the brunt and yes he can take the credit when they are doing well and has to also take the blame when the team is not doing well but largely as a chairperson depending on the individual strength of the members that constitute the team”.
Envisaging the kind of challenge Dr Duffuor will face in the election, he explained again that “every election comes with fresh dynamics and as you have seen there has not been so much change in the leadership of the NDC at the constitutional level as recently they just finished more than 90% of the constituency elections and the rate of change hover around 20% to 30% so not much has changed in the leadership of the NDC”.
“What Dr Duffuor has to do more is to those who have retained their positions but as I said a difficult task ahead if you ask me but not impossible but, likely, the change is not so wide about 70% retained their seat and it will reflect in the flagbearership race,” he explained.
Also as in whether Dr Duffuour’s candidature will inure to the benefit of the NDC and the grand agenda they have for the Ashanti Region which is the stronghold of the New Patriotic Party he opined that “I do not believe in that kind of selection politics and also the tribe of the person has to generally appeal so if they get that balance fine but that is not the panacea to the victory”.
Dr Smart Sapong’s analysis comes from Dr Kwabena Duffour’s announcement of his intention to contest the flagbearer slot of the National Democratic Congress ahead of the 2024 elections.
