By Gifty Boateng
There is murmuring and expression of disappointment in the Greater Accra Regional branch of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), over appointment neglect.
The complaints mainly from the constituency chairmen, come at a time the government has barely completed measures to put in place various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) at the local level.
The peeved party executives claim they have been snubbed by the government and party after wasting resources in the campaign that saw the NDC win majority of the votes both in the parliamentary and presidential elections in the region.
Some say they have been left penniless and now unemployed after they were assured they were going to be given positions in government.
They mentioned in particular President John Mahama who while in opposition promised to appoint some of them as Presidential Staffers, MMDCEs and other positions of state institutions but he has reneged on this alleged promise.
For instance, constituency organizers and secretaries were given the assurance that they will be appointed as head of Health Insurance however these positions have eluded them.
Recalling what used to pertain in previous NDC governments they said “Before now, if the chairman is interested he or she automatically takes the MCE job, the secretary or organizer will go to Health Insurance.
Before the election President John Mahama promised the constituency chairmen either presidential staffer or MCE positions and those who are not interested they were going to be given something else …..We have finished the election and they have hijacked the MCE…..”
In the Greater Accra region, while 15 constituency chairmen expressed interest in the MMDCEs jobs, only 5 secured the positions.
Their pain, they told this paper is that President John Dramani Mahama and the national executives including the chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah alias Mosquito have turned their backs on them.
This paper gathered a Senior Presidential Adviser name withheld has been meddling in the selection of the MMDCEs in the region, ensuring her favourites are appointed because of his or her presidential ambition.
The individual is said to be nurturing the desire to partner Asiedu Nketia as vice presidential candidate for future presidential election. And so, the appointee is using the MMDCE elections to mobilize support ensuring that women organizers and organizers get the nod as MMDCEs.
Some Members of Parliament (MP) and this Advisor are using their influence to get their preferred candidates nominated and elected. One chairman who could not hold back his disappointment said the next general election is going to be very tough for the NDC if nothing is done about the situation.
He was concerned that communicators will be appointed at the expense of hardworking chairmen, who spent their resources and time on the ground to protect the ballots to see the margin the region attained in the last election.
“Those who really did the work on the ground where is the appointments, what is there for them, the constituency chairmen, those who manned the election you abandoned those people, and you are dealing with communicators.
We are just watching, very soon you will hear from us. If you don’t take care we will put our tools down. You don’t do that, I don’t spend my time and money to win an election then you give communicators appointments and you leave the constituency executives (constituency chairman, constituency secretary)”, he said.
In the past, the chairman recalled constituency chairmen were made MMDCEs unless they are not interested. In as much as some appointees and MPs have hijacked the MMDCE jobs for their personal and parochial interests, he said they did not work for such people but the president and the party.
The chairman said the hijacking of the MCE [positions] is what is causing the rejections. “It is because of the way they did the selection, most of the people they have chosen, they are not the real people that is why you are seeing rejections…..The staffer has planted women and youth organizers who have been nominated and elected so that they do their bidding”.
The neglect, the chairman opined is causing disaffection at the grassroots level and may force some to come out openly and chastise the government and party.
“You don’t work and you appoint some people who were nowhere the work itself, all they were doing was jumping from one radio station to TV station.
So if all of us leave the grassroots work and start jumping to radio stations who will do the grounds work? Meanwhile, the whole job of politics is on the ground, politics is local. He expressed concern about a creeping phenomenon in the NDC where one has to get a God mother or father before they can be recognized. “What is going on”, the chairman asked rhetorically.