Dr Ekow Spio Gabrah, one of the Presidential aspirants of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has observed that the party must look for the founder and leader of the party, former President Jerry John Rawlings to join the 2020 electioneering campaign.
He said the supporters must do a critical search and find out why former President Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings had moved away from NDC party’s activities over the past years, which contributed to the defeat of the party in the 2016 elections.
Dr Spio Gabrah made this known to the Media when he addressed delegates from Agona East, Agona West and Gomoa Central Constituencies, as part of his tour of the Central region to campaign for votes at Agona Swedru.
He said the former President Rawlings still believes in the principles of probity, accountability and integrity, which to him, is the greatest panacea for the NDC to win power, but that had eluded the party.
Dr Spio Gabrah made reference to the Bible to buttress his case by saying, “God gave mankind 10 commandants to follow in order to become succeed in life, but if you fail in one of them, consequence may visit you and you will suffer”.
He said like the Islamic faith, which has five pillars that are the tenets of the faith, no Muslim would like to falter on that, to go against the Islamic religion. Dr Spio Gabrah said the leader and founder of NDC had said that some NDC functionaries hands are tainted with corruption, bribery and malfeasance and this had demoralized him to stay on and campaign for the party.
He said these core values that inspired the former President Rawlings to form NDC has become mirage and it is about time party members do a soul searching and find out the reasons behind the founder and the wife distancing themselves from the party.
Dr Spio Gabrah said he stands tall among all the Presidential candidates of the NDC because he had contested the race before and people know his capacity to deliver. He said as a communication expert, there are so many strategies would be put in place to empower women and the youth wings, especially at the grass roots level.
Dr Spio Gabrah said the NDC lost miserably in 2016 because the grass roots were neglected, adding that, the grass roots is the foundation of the party hence the apathy that hit the members.
The Presidential Aspirant also urged the National Executive Council of the NDC to publish certain portions of the Dr Kwesi Botchwey’s report, which investigated why the NDC lost the 2016 election, to enable supporters of the party to make amends.
He called on the National Executive council (NEC) to discard the notion that if the report is made public, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would use it as a weapon against the party in the 2020 elections, and questioned how majority of NDC members would know what caused the defeat of the party, if the report is not made public.
Dr Spiop Gabrah hinted that no corruption, malfeasance and bribery scandalous charges were made against him during his tenure in office, both in Ghana and abroad, and that qualify him as the best candidate to lead NDC in 2020 elections.