Democracy is singing a new tune in the NDC... Duffuor’s GH¢8,250,0000 vs Mahama’s GH¢1,380000

As former Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, and ex-president John Mahama race to secure the leadership ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to contest the 2024 presidential election, the battle grounds is being defined by who wins the trust of the party’s grassroots, who form the bedrock and soul of the party. Dr. Duffuor, who also subsequently served as finance minister under the presidency of Prof John Evan Atta-Mills while Mahama was Vice President, used his visionary leadership with human resource management to diagnose the challenges of the grassroots whose toil enables the party to access political authority. That singularly vision gave birth to the Ahotor Project, which was, officially, launched in April this year by Dr. Duffuor for grassroots members of the NDC at Ashaiman. The donation includes a Public Address (PA) system, 100 plastic chairs and 4 canopies which can be rented out to generate revenue for members. Each of the constituencies received GH¢30,000 worth of items comprising four marquee canopies, 100 plastic chairs and a full set of sound system, including microphone, full range speakers, amplifiers and a mixer. The beneficiary constituencies are Dombroso, Sekyere Afram Plains, Kumawu, Agogo, Offinso North, Efigya Kwabre South, Asante Mampong, New Edubiase and Tafo. The items are to be used for rentals for outdoor events such as naming ceremonies, funerals, political party activities among others, as well as for the activities of the party. Speaking at the launch, Dr. Duffuor said the Ahotor Project is a real deal for progress, jobs and to generate sustainable revenue for use as welfare – such as hospital bills, funeral donations, school fees, etc. He said the project will be replicated in all 274 branches, beginning from the Greater Accra Region, and encouraged leadership of the party in Ashaiman to ensure that they boost revenue to meet their needs. “We want to create a situation whereby there will be money in the party coffers of every constituency. The project is going to make you fishers, and not getting money from people all the time,” Dr. Duffuor said. The Ahotor Project is estimated to cost about Gh¢8.25, and it is designed to over micro-businesses, focusing on social events such as funerals, naming ceremonies, marriage ceremonies, durbars, political campaigns, and rallies which are mostly outdoor activities. Former Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Ekow Spio-Gabrah, who was at the launch at Ashaiman in April, commended Dr. Duffuor for his good and brilliant idea – and urged other party members to emulate this and come out other innovative ideas to make some of their resources available to improve the welfare of members. “We came here to recognise the effort of a man who is trying to bring a difference in the lives of so many Ghanaians. His plan to help members of our party, especially those who are not so well-off, through supplying instruments that can be used for social events is a very good initiative,” he said. Ironically, this call from Spio-Gabrah opened the flood gates for pretender, Mahama, and obviously buoyed on by his cheerleaders, jumped onto to the bandwagon to “donate” an amount of GH¢10,000 to each of the 138 orphan constituencies of the party (a total of GH¢1,380,000) to “support” the conduct of constituency elections coming off this weekend. Clearly, the Mahama “donation” is an afterthought and a belated attempt to hoodwink the party’s electorates to reignite his stale and stuttering attempt to remain relevant in the country’s political landscape after waking up from his slumber and the chipping away of his “perceived” leadership in the race to lead the party. The Mahama “donation” does absolutely nothing to address the issues and challenges that confront the base of the party apart from serving the parochial interest of a select few cheerleaders and bootlickers like Sammy Gyamfi (the NDC Communication officer) and his cronies.