A Development Economist at University of Ghana, Dr George Donfeh has described as ‘impressive’ the decision of former President, John Mahama, to now resort to a discussion on major policies that can transform the country.
“I was full of praise for President Mahama when I heard him (Mahama) talk about policy directives this time round. The reason is that we hardly hear John Mahama and that the NDC talk about policies. He has said time again that he is not someone who really likes to discuss policies so it is refreshing to hear John Mahama now discussing policies…,” he said.
The Development Economist ascribed the failure of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to come forth with policies that had national appeal as part of the reasons for the defeat of the party in 2016.
In an interview on Angel Morning Show on Wednesday, 8th November, 2023, he said Ghanaian voters did not feel attracted to the NDC and its cause because they felt the party did not have any policies that would change the country.
“After the 2016 elections when John Mahama lost by close to one million votes, I was contracted to research into what caused the defeat of then President. I found out during the research that most of the people sampled could not immediately recall a single policy of President John Mahama…,” he told host, Okatakyie Afrifa-Mensah.
Dr Domfeh further revealed that constituency executives of the NDC that they sampled during the exercise could not also immediately recall the policy guidelines President John Mahama would have governed the country with had he won the 2016 elections.
“We sampled 17 constituencies from both the NPP and NDC and to our surprise even the NDC executives could not tells us the policies of President John Mahama in 2016…,” he revealed further.
Interestingly, the researchers found that the participants could easily recall almost all the policies of his main competitor in the election, Nana Akufo-Addo.
“Even Children as young as 10 years could recall One Village, One Dam; One District, One Factory and several policies of President Akufo-Addo…,” he said.
To him, the NDC would make lots of gains in the 2024 elections if they continue on this tangent.
