'I would've done a better job if ...' - NDC's Sidi Abubakar

The National Youth Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sidi Abubakar says as a leader of the youth wing, he acknowledges with sadness that the umbrella family is in a difficult time after their defeat.

He said he cannot also take away the way and manner the rank and file of the party are frustrating their anger adding, ‘’it is in order.’’

Sidi Abubakar has been given a 72-hour ultimatum by a group calling themselves Aggrieved Youth of the NDC to explain why he was ineffective during the campaign season.

The group, under the leadership of one Kwabena Eduful who is also the Communication officer of the party in Fanteakwa Constituency in the Eastern region, said the national Youth organizer of the party failure to energize and mobilize the Youth wing during the 2016 polls, contributed significantly to the heavy defeat suffered in the just ended December 7 general election.

He said, the youth organiser of the NPP Sammy Awuku, overshadowed the NDC’s youth organiser.

“Sammy Awuku overshadowed Sidi Abubakar, opposition youth organizer who has no resources, what prevented Sidi to be sponsored by the government of the day so Sidi is nothing but a Failure, even the fact that John Dumelo was chosen instead of Sidi to speak at the Party launch of the Campaign in Cape Coast shows clearly, he was not in charge.”

Responding to the call by the group, Sidi Abubakar said, the group is right to blame him since it is in order.

He, however, argues that he is not the only person who is being blamed for the defeat of the party.

"I am not only the person who the party are blaming as a result of our unsuccessful bid in election 2016…The former president, John Dramani Mahama is being blamed for it.

"The party’s founder is being blamed for it. Government appointees are being blamed for it. The entire national executives have also had their share of the blame...My achievements can be seen everywhere by everybody and is something nobody can doubt. I would have done a better job if much attention was given to me.’’

He added, ‘’this is a very difficult moment for the political party and when you move in again and begin to speak to the issues on the ground, you will aggravate the issues further.’’

He posited that, although people are aggrieved over the defeat, the NDC needs self-introspection, ‘’take our time, understand what actually happened then we could come with real solutions in order to move forward in 2020.’’

He added ‘’When you have a party in power, it is different from a party in opposition. When a party is in power, everybody will try to outshine one another even though we are not all contesting for the same position.’’

He explained, the youth who are in position within government tried to do everything that the youth leader was supposed to do whereas the opposition was different.

‘’You have the young ministers who are also part of the party trying to do things that are supposed to done by the national youth organizer but with opposition party, it is completely different. Because they are all fighting for a common goal, attention and the respect for party structure is being adhered to and that is what we do have in NDC…Despite all these challenges of resources, people trying to do your work, I within that short period, was able to achieve a lot…I travelled across the length and breadth of this country,’’ he added.

Sidi Abubakar when asked why the party lost the polls said, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia had a serious interest in the campaign especially with the youth, "talking about the restoration of the nursing and teacher training allowances…The people were still demanding for jobs despite the fact that we [NDC] created jobs…The people were still demanding... and these are the reasons why we were not able to handle the youth front very well, because you cannot match the influence of Dr. Bawumia with that of mine. This person is in the capacity as the Vice President and I am the national youth organizer.’’

The youth leader said he was not in the position to say more because the party has set up a 13-member team to investigate why the party lost the elections, and I ‘’believe that, the committee should be allowed to work and when they finish, all of us will be able to know where exactly we went wrong…I will urge the rank and file of the party allow the committee to work.''