NDC Is Too Weak – DFP

The Western Regional Secretary of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Mr. Charles Fodjour, has noted that the Vienna (Austria)-based International think-tank, African Intelligence Unit (AIU), report which was published by The Chronicle last week, cautioning the opposition NDC to go into alliance with other minority parties in the country as the best strategy to win power in 2008 is not far from the truth, but that advice is not practicable for the NDC.

To him, NDC as it stands now is too weak and incapable of consolidating their support base in the country. “It is a good piece of advice from the AIU because NDC, as far as Ghana’s politics is concerned, is too weak to win elections and will continue to lose their supporters to other parties because of the characters the party is made of,” Charles Fodjour noted.

Speaking in an interview with The Chronicle over the weekend, the DFP Secretary said apart from the caution note served by the AIU in that report, the analysis done by the publisher of The Chronicle, Nana Kofi Coomson, one of Ghana’s intelligent and astute veteran journalists, also published on that same day, Friday October 19, 2007, is indeed a clarion call, not only to the NDC but to all other political parties in the country. According to Charles Fodjour, the NDC as a party can only change and grow in numbers if they stopped using their old campaign messages which Ghanaians rejected in 2004 and build on their dented image. This according to him would lead to a possible alliance between the NDC and the other parties who may sympathize with them during the elections.

The secretary cited the recent attack on the founder of the DFP, Dr. Yaw Obed Asamoah, after expressing his views about the NDC as one of the negative political tools used by the NDC which was not helping their party and Ghana’s political growth. To him, Dr. Asamoah’s assertion that NDC would never come back to power is true because NDC is not capable of consolidating their support base. “Mark my words, we will sweep their supporters as well as those of other parties because the 2008 elections will be fought and won on merit.

Though the DFP is a newly formed political party, he told The Chronicle that their effort and that of other minority parties in the country would be recognised significantly during the elections. This, according to him, would teach some political parties the biggest lesson in the political arena. Asked to explain the bases for supporting the earlier assertion of the DFP founder that NDC was not capable of winning power, he said there were signs in the country and even in the Western Region, which used to be an NDC stronghold, their support base was diminishing. He mentioned the northern sector of the Western Region as a typical example where five constituencies had fallen to NPP. Mr. Fodjour alleged that due to their activities in those areas, NDC had started deceiving the electorate that they (DFP) would come back to the NDC, which was not true.On why DFP was targeting only NDC seats, the regional secretary denied any such move, saying the party was vying for all seats in the country’s parliament.