Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Casely-Hayford insisted that Mr. Botchwey’s ideologies are far from those upheld by the NDC.

“Kwesi Botchwey is the wrong person to have been put in charge of going to find out what went wrong for the party. Because Kwesi Botchwey’s mentality as far as politics is concerned is not NDC like at all. He is a compromiser and is somebody with a whole different view of how things work. You can’t expect to put a whole group of people like that and expect to come out with shining armour,” he added.

He made the comment when a school established by the NDC was being discussed on the show.

The NDC last Thursday launched its ideological school known as the Ghana Institute of Social Democracy.

The school according to the party will inculcate its principles, ideologies, and values to members.

“In April 2017, the party’s school working committee, based on its previous report proposed the formation of the Ghana Institute of Social democracy as an institution of higher learning and research to train many party comrades and other interested stakeholders in the fundamental principles and philosophy of the party,” General Secretary of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said.

Asiedu Nketia has answers to NDC’s defeat

But Casely-Hayford said answers concerning the NDC’s abysmal performance in the election are with the party’s General Secretary.

“The person who knows what went wrong and can tell the NDC precisely what they did wrong and how to fix it is Johnson Asiedu Nketia. He made a very snide comment after the election. He said that all these going around and talking to everybody, the whole matter is clear and simple but did not make further comments after that. And they [NDC] are all living in denial,” he added.

Franklin Cudjoe commends NDC

Meanwhile, President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana also speaking on the issue commended NDC for the forming the school but urged them to teach a courses he described as “internal centralism” as part of course to be thought at the school.

He also called on them to teach their members who to make their manifesto promises quantifiable saying “I will be happy to be a lecturer.”

“I was laughing over it but I was also serious, ideology is very important. I think that they should also teach what I called internal centralism.”

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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A statement from the office of the former President indicated that “some members of the party are seeking to solicit information from executives and members of the NDC, claiming that they are being sponsored by the Office of HE John Dramani Mahama.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”8QDG9zZo4gLx66WCRoQG4kd27ymOojRQ”] The statement , which was signed by special aide to the President , Joyce Mogtari, advised the culprits to desist from such acts, saying “we wish to strongly advise them to desist from such acts of impersonation and misinformation, particularly as we all continue to work towards reorganizing the party across the country.”

The statement further indicated that, the President “had not constituted any team to undertake a post Kwesi Botchwey Committee survey” as it is being reported.

The 13-member Kwesi Botcwey committee set up by the NDC to probe its defeat in the 2016 election presented its findings to the National Executive Council (NEC) in June.

As part of its recommendation, the committee asked the party to take a holistic look at the party’s biometric electoral register.

The statement from the office of the former President is below

The Office of HE John Dramani Mahama wishes to inform all members, supporters and sympathisers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the Former President has not constituted any team to undertake a post Kwesi Botchwey Committee survey.

We have over the last week received reports from across the country about the activities of some members of the Party seeking to solicit information from executives and members of the NDC, claiming that they are being sponsored by the Office of HE John Dramani Mahama.

We wish to strongly advise them to desist from such acts of impersonation and misinformation, particularly as we all continue to work towards reorganizing the Party across the country.

Joyce Bawah Mogtari Special Aide Monday July 10, 2017

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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The committee had been touring the country and meeting with various individuals and groups to gather information for the past four months, on what accounted for its loss in the polls.

[contextly_sidebar id=”OmqcfNlzfaHXwcc9A4TzITegww1QuIvW”]Citi News has gathered that, the final report, which will be presented to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting tomorrow [Tuesday], suggested among other things a new direction for the NDC on the election of executives and a flagbearer.

The 13-member committee was constituted by the NDC’s National Executive Committee (NEC), and approved by its Council of Elders on December 29, 2016.

Members of the committee are;
1. Kwesi Botchwey
2. Edward Doe Adjaho (Former Speaker of Parliament)
3. Alhaji Hudu Yahaya
4. Naval Capt. Asase Gyimah
5. William Ahadzi (director of research at the NDC headquarters)
6. Ibrahim Zuberu, (Lecturer at Accra Technical University and member of NDC)
7. Razak Abu (Researcher at NDC’s Development Challenge)
8. Juliana Azumah Mensah (Former MP for Agotime-Ziope)
9. Barbarah Serwah Asamoah
10. Four (4) members from NDC parliamentary caucus (including Minority Leader)

According to the General Secretary of the party, Asiedu Nketia, who announced the setup of the committee, the committee was to “review and validate the results of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections and find out the causes of the poor performance of the NDC in both the presidential and the parliamentary election, as well as to deal with other matter reasonably related to the above objectives and to make recommendations to the National Executive Committee about the way forward.”

The committee’s work faced a number of challenges including some youth preventing one of its meetings in the Eastern Region from being held.

The 90-day deadline given to the committee was extended by at least a month to enable it complete its work.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Kwesi Botchwey committee presents report on Tuesday appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“What we need to focus on now is why president Akufo-Addo had to appoint two Ministers of Education, two Ministers of Agriculture, about 7 ministers responsible for information and communications, about equally the same number or more for transport sector because you have railway, aviation, you have transport and then to also have a minister for Procurement, these are questions that we have to continue asking,” he said.

[contextly_sidebar id=”yBW1HctNuLIyBNpbV4TORMDqwKSEM0Pd”]Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, March 24, 2017, Kofi Adams told host Richard Sky that in spite of the seeming confusion within the NDC, the party remains a strong opposition and is still a formidable force to put the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) government on its toes.

According to him, the party was ready to challenge some of the NPP’s decisions and actions months into their government.

“….at least for now, focus the other important things affecting this country, so much is happening; an over-bloated government, a lot of mess going on, a lot of things happening that we need to bring to the attention of people and push government to do the right thing.”

Kofi Adams’ comments come on the back of some bickering within the NDC after the party lost the 2016 general elections to the NPP.

Some leading members of the party have resorted to what some have described as the blame game in the media over the party’s defeat.

The party’s candidate and then President, John Mahama, and the national executives are being blamed for the defeat.

But a special committee led by Prof. Kwesi Botchwey tasked by the party to investigate circumstances leading to its defeat has urged all persons who have some information to share concerning the party to channel it to the committee rather than share it in the public domain.

According to Kofi Adams, this will help the party re-position the party to take over power again in the next elections.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

The post Focus on Nana Addo’s gov’t; not NDC’s confusion – Kofi Adams appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the Election Review Committee chaired by Kwesi Botchwey, members should instead direct their concerns to the committee.

The Election Review Committee in a statement signed by Kwesi Botchwey, urged members of the NDC “to resist the temptation of engaging in recriminations and finger pointing, so as not to undermine the integrity of the committee’s final report and recommendations,[and also not to] sour the atmosphere for the conduct of the committee’s work.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”zNn9LobTQGIaRB40axxAgVsbk0NSLNlu”]“The committee’s doors are open and we urge all party members who have issues to raise or concerns to express to direct them to the committee to help the search for solutions to the challenges confronting the party.”

Accusations and counter accusations

Some members of the NDC have in recent times been pointing accusing fingers at each other for contributing to the party’s defeat in the elections.

For instance, the NDC Member of Parliament for Yunyoo in the Northern Region, Joseph Bipoba Naabu, recently blamed former President John Mahama for their electoral defeat.

According him, the former President surrounded himself with inexperienced people who only misled him.

NDC members trade blows at Kwesi Botchwey committee sitting 

Some of the committee’s discussions across the country have also been characterized by confusion from some angry members.

Below is the full statement from the NDC Election Review Committee:

The NDC Election Review Committee (ERC) has noted with some regret that a number of Party functionaries and leading party members have lately take to media houses to air their views on party matters, including matters that the Committee was set up to investigate, namely the causes of the party’s electoral defeat.

The Committee would like to urge party members to resist the temptation to engaging in recriminations and finger pointing, so as not to undermine the integrity of the committee’s final report and recommendations, sour the atmosphere for the conduct of the committee’s work.

The committee’s doors are open and we urge all party members who have issues to raise or concerns to express to direct them to the committee to help the search for solutions to the challenges confronting the party.

Signed

Kwesi Botchwey

Committee Chairman

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Direct your concerns to us – Kwesi Botchwey to NDC members appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This comes after some foot soldiers of the party prevented regional executives for engaging in a similar meeting with the fact-finding committee on [Thursday] at the Eredec Hotel in the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Ny7kHmS2dET9qDah3gtEEQt2wx5nLrtd”]The committee was scheduled to meet NDC branch executives from Asougyamang, Asesewa, Odumase and Somanya constituencies, to deliberate on issues which led to their defeat in the December elections.

Denis Astu Benya,the spokesperson for a group calling itself “The Concerned Youth of NDC” in Lower manya, who confirmed the clash to Citi News, accused a branch chairman of the party, David Hormenu Walter of assaulting their leader, Doe David, a former TEIN Vice President.

They claimed that he ordered his body guards to descend on them as they tried to present a petition to Dr. Kwesi Botchwey calling for the resignation of all party branch executives.

He said “we heard that Kwesi Botchwey committee will be meeting party executives so we decided to organize ourselves once again and send our petition to him and also tell him our grievances, as our leader tried to approach Dr. Kwasi Botchwey to hand over our petition to him, chairman David Walter walked to him tried to prevent him from doing so and started assaulting him, he then called their body guards to descend on us and the scene was not pleasant at all”

The spokesperson added that, the police was later called in to restore order. “The police swiftly moved in to separate us but our leader has lodged a complaint of assault at the police station against chairman Walter.”

The group on several occasions this year locked the party office, preventing branch executives from operating, and also petitioned both Regional and National executives of the party calling for their branch executives to step down as they believe they caused the party’s poor performance during the December elections.

All attempts to reach the party chairman Mr. David Hormenu Walter for his reaction, have proved futile.

NDC will bounce back – Mahama

This comes barely hours after former President, John Mahama, said on twitter that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will “bounce back.”  He said members of the party must help to strengthen the party’s base to ensure that it returns to power.

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By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NDC members trade blows at Kwesi Botchwey committee sitting appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the Chairman of the Commission, Dr Kwesi Botchwey, the plan must be incorporated into the political parties’ manifestos to ensure the country’s set development targets are met in spite of political transitions.

[contextly_sidebar id=”GO1Q2yPf5RWQMPLUwYHYCYqGIct7kVwS”]Speaking in an interview with to Citi News, Mr Botchwey said there is the need to find ways of entrenching the work of the planning commission to be binding on all political parties such that all governments will consider it in planning for the development of the country.

“Ways should be found for entrenching the role and binding the work of the planning commission so that the [national development] plan will be secured from the vicissitudes of the political transitions… it is more of a matter that Civil Society buys into the plan and is so convinced about its merits that they will hopefully politically punish those political parties that stray from the vision,” he said.

He attributed the slow pace of the implementation of the plan to the over-reliance on political party manifestos by successive governments.

He noted that the country is better placed to achieve most of its developmental goals if it focuses more on the national development plan, rather than their individual manifestos.

‘EC is credible and efficient’

Dr Kwesi Botchwey also said that Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) is credible and efficient considering how it has managed to address all the challenges including court actions brought against it in the run up to this year’s general elections.

“The fact that the Commission is managing these challenges and at the same time attending to the business of preparing for the elections, I think speaks to the strength of that institution we created,” he said.

“We are often in a rush as a people to just run down every institution that we create. The important thing is that we have an institution that allows the Commission to do its work in accordance with its laws and also allow the citizenry without hindrance to go to court when they please,” he added.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Don’t ignore national dev’t plan – NDPC to parties appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.