Former President John Dramani Mahama says he will not shy away from supporting any other member the National Democratic Congress (NDC) elects as its 2020 candidate if he is not the one.
In an interview on GTV on Tuesday, the two-time leader of the NDC says he has not yet decided to run. For now, he says, he is enjoying his “less stressful” life, especially at home.
The largest opposition party is expected to elect its 2020 flagbearer by the close of this year.
Mr Mahama, who ruled Ghana from July 24, 2012 to January 7, 2017, has a chance of serving as president again for a four-year term despite losing the previous elections.
But he told GTV’s Abdul Moomen on Moomen Tonight that he does not want to make any announcement on his political future because that will disrupt the “heavy lifting” of reorganizing the party from the polling station level.
He says if he declares that he will stand, attention will be shifted from the reorganization process and if he declares otherwise too, there will be power struggle among the interested members, who may not help in the healing process.
But Mr Mahama was modest to say that there are some members of the party who are more qualified than himself to lead the party though they have not shown interest in running for the presidential primary.
He said that ultimate responsibility of choosing a candidate for the 2020 elections lies in the hands of delegates.
He, therefore, insisted that per adventure one of the aspirants is elected, he will wholeheartedly support that person, to the extent of campaigning with the fellow in the various regions.
‘Start-stop, start-stop’
Mr Mahama was on the show to discuss the Silver jubilee of the Fourth Republic.
He was the fourth president of the Republic, having continued a tradition of Johns in power.
He was concerned, however, that the spirit of making government a continuum is mostly absent as successive administrations halt projects initiated by their predecessors.
“This start-stop, start-stop” will not get the country there, he observed.
The former president did not mince words by fingering the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the party noted to halt projects initiated by previous administrations.
Projecting into the next 25 years of the current dispensation, Mr Mahama advised Ghanaians to join in the sustenance of the democratic path taken.
“I will tell all our people that we have no other country than Ghana.”
He said the economic gains made in the Fourth Republic surpass any other era’s in the history of the country and it behoves on the media to tell some of the positive stories.
“The media should help us. It is not everything that is a failure here.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana