Popular media personality turned politician, Gideon Aryeequaye, has admitted that the money-oriented internal politics of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party is worrying.
Speaking prior to the opposition party’s congress on Saturday, December 17, 2022, he said the phenomenon is hampering development in the party.
According to him, the election of officers to steer the affairs of the party before 2008 was based on merit; the candidates’ financial strength was not the focus of the rank and file.
“Before 2008, we didn’t know what was termed as money…We started getting competitive after 2008,” he told Nana Yaa Brefo, host of Angel FM’s Anopa Bofor morning show.
Gideon Aryeequaye has ever contested in the NDC primaries to represent Weija Constituency in 2008 and in 2012, the Bortianor-Ngleshie-Amanfrom constituency, all in Accra.
Sharing his experience, the former Head of News at e-TV Ghana said “they told me that ‘if you don’t have money, don’t venture.'”
But that, he observed, is costly because a potential officeholder may be denied the opportunity to contribute to the development of all on the basis of wealth, despite the individual being “a very good material”.
Although he believes that phenomenon would not end anytime soon because “it is something entrenched,” he hoped that the cost involved would be reduced to help to protect the financially handicapped candidates.
