Below is the full speech delivered by the National Chairman of NDC, Hon Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo at GNAT Hall -Accra.
Your Excellency, Former President John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the NDC in the 2020 elections , your Excellency the 2020 Running –Mate of the NDC, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, Colleague National Executives, Former Ministers and Former Ambassadors, The Minority Leader in Parliament and leaders of The Minority in Parliament, Members of Parliament Present, Members of the various Regional Executives, and Constituency Executives present, our revered cadres, Branch Executives and foot soldiers, The Media, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I wish to welcome all of you to this very special ceremony meant to celebrate 30 years of the formation of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as a Political Party in Ghana. The theme for this year’s celebration is “30 years in unity stability and development”
As a matter of history, the NDC is an offshoot of the then Government of the PNDC led by the late President J. J. Rawlings as its Chairman.
The history of the formation of the party is long, but for purposes of today’s event, I will cut a long story short, by saying that, when the country decided in 1992 to return to constitutional rule through the referendum of April 1992, the PNDC as a Government also decided to float a political party for the purpose of contesting any democratic elections that were to be conducted to usher into office any constitutional government under the new dispensation
The idea of forming the NDC was mooted and many brains were brought together to work out a program to bring the idea into fruition. This culminated into the establishment of the NDC as a political party.
In the forefront of the discussions were functionaries of the PNDC, the cadres, members of the 31st December Women Movement, the June Four Movement, and many other progressive forces.
After the discussions, deliberations and consensus building, eventually, the NDC was formed and launched on the 10th June 1992 at the Arts Centre as a Party in preparation towards the general elections to be conducted later in November/December 1992.
An interim National Executive Committee was put in place, chaired by the late Issifu Ali to steer its affairs. Other officers were also appointed to support them.
In due course, many other political parties also emerged, including the NPP, the PNC, PHP, NIP, NCP, Egle etc. etc. So the ground was agog with political parties and political activities.
The NDC quickly put its house in order and went to Congress on the 19th September 1992 to elect its National Officers and the Presidential candidate to contest the 1992 presidential elections. The NDC elected Flt. Lt. J.J Rawlings as its Presidential Candidate, at the congress in Cape Coast.
In deed the NDC’s candidate Flt. Lt. JJ. Rawlings won the presidential election held on 3rd November 1992, with a resounding victory leaving other political parties, with the exception of the NCP and the Egle parties, in complete tatters.
As a result of the humiliation other Parties suffered, they boycotted the subsequent parliamentary elections, which were contested by the parties of the Progressive Alliance made up of the NDC, the NCP and the Egle.
Fellow “akatamansonians”, from then on, the NDC had come to stay as a strong political force and remained so to date. Then the NPP won the 2000 elections, and all attempts were made to annihilate the NDC, but trust me, the party survived and remained resilient despite all the machinations, intimidations and harassment it went through.
After the defeat of the NDC in the 2000 elections, the supporters and members of the party were so much demoralized and down-spirited that something needed to be done about that situation. As a result, a National Reorganization Committee was established. The committee was chaired by Dr. Obed Asamoah which then toured the whole country with a view to bringing hope to our people. The strategy worked like magic as it rekindled the spirits of our grassroot members. Some new life was injected into the party. It is this spirit which culminated into the holding of the April 2002 Congress of the NDC at which new executives were elected to steer the affairs of the Party.
Ladies and gentlemen, I must state that between the period of 2001 and 2002, the NDC went through the worse part of its history.
So determined was the NPP to decimate the NDC that, the majority Leader in Parliament at the time, the late J. H Mensah in describing the future of the NDC made a statement to this effect, “By the time we finish with the prosecutions of all these NDC people, there will be no party left”. But the NDC remained unruffled and soldiered on. We put the pieces together after the 2002 congress and started working hard.
Then in the 2004 elections, the NDC made a very strong showing, which shocked the NPP and Ghanaians. In fact, as a result of the performance of the NDC in the elections, a panic-stricken NPP, led by the late Jake Obetsebi Lamptey rushed to the seat of government, the Castle and hurriedly organized a press conference and announced the results of the election and declared the NPP as the winners of the election, even when the Electoral Commission had not announced the official results. This was a harbinger of coming events as the NPP was eventually defeated in the 2008 elections and the NDC was back to power.
Ladies and gentlemen, this party has come very far, and has been led by great men and women, and we need to pay tribute to our forbearers. Our first National Chairman was the late Issifu Ali with the late A.A Munufie as Co-Chairman, and Alhaji Hudu Yahaya as General Secretary. They were in office for 10 years and they served the Party well before leaving office.
Then we had Dr. Obed Asamoah as Chairman in 2002 with Dr. Josiah Ayeh as the General Secretary, but was later replaced by Bede A. Ziedeng as Acting General Secretary. They were in office for 3 years.
Then in December 2005, we had Dr. Kwabena Adjei a.k.a WayoWayo, who succeeded Dr. Obed Asamoah as Chairman. He came to office with our incumbent General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah a.k.a General Mosquito. Dr. Kwabena Adjei was in office for 9 years before he left office, but the General Secretary stayed.
Then in 2014, Dr. Kofi Porturphy took over from Dr. Kwabena Adjei and continued to work with General Mosquito until 2018 when he also left office. He stayed in office for 4 years.
Ladies and gentlemen, finally the mantle fell on me to lead this great party in December 2018 till date by the grace of God.
I thank the Almighty God for his Grace in granting me strength, good health and wisdom to lead this party.
I must admit, it has been a long tortuous journey for me but with the grace of the almighty God and with the support of members of our party, it has indeed been a blessing. I have been a National Organizer, National Vice-Chairman/Director of Elections, before finally, being elected as National Chairman.
And since becoming Chairman, I have enjoyed the support of my Executives for which I am eternally grateful.
I have also enjoyed tremendous support and co-operation from our 2020 presidential Candidate, former President John Dramani Mahama and his running-mate Nana Jane Opoku- Agyeman.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the NDC is a great party that we must all be proud of. It is therefore incumbent upon all of us to commit ourselves to the defense of the party and its policies and programs. The NDC has contributed to the development of this country more than any other Political Party in the 4th republic.
It is the NDC that introduced and implemented the policy of the National electrification programme which connected all regions and Districts at the time to the national grid.
It is the NDC that introduced and implemented the SHEP programme to extend power to our rural areas.
It is the NDC that has provided more health infrastructure than any other political party including the building of regional hospitals, the bank of Ghana hospital, the University of Ghana Medical Centre, the Maritime hospital and the many District hospitals built across the country.
It is the NDC which has provided more educational infrastructure than any other political party in this country.
It is still the NDC which has developed and constructed more roads in Ghana than any other political party.
We must be proud of our achievements in government and out of government.
We have lived up to the motto of the party, “Unity, stability, and development”. We have brought unity to this country, we have brought about stability to this country. To cap it all we have certainly brought unprecedented development to this country.
We have won four general elections, and performed better during our term of office, than our opponents who have used propaganda to throw dust into the eyes of discerning Ghanaians.
Therefore, we have every reason to celebrate the Party after 30 years. As I have already stated earlier, we have a good and better records than others have.
Going forward, we are focused on winning the upcoming election with our Presidential Candidate and gaining a majority in Parliament.
Let us celebrate our party, the NDC. You are all welcome. Thank you.
Foot Notes:
1.We have built more educational infrastructure at the: Basic, Secondary and Tertiary levels than our opponents during the 30 years of democratic rule.
2. We have constructed more Regional /District Hospitals and Polyclinics than our opponents .e.g. Ho, Sunyani, Cape Coast, Accra Ridge, Tamale Teaching Hospital etc.
3. Established Community Water and Sanitation Agency and brought rural water supply to the door steps of the people.
4. We eradicated Guinea worm Disease
5. Expanded and modernize Tema Port and Takoradi.
6. Built the Ultra-Modern Terminal 3 Airport in Accra as well as the expansion of Kumasi and Tamale Airport in addition to a New Airport in Ho in the Volta Region. Source the funding and cut the sod for the 2nd phase of the Kumasi year International Airport.
7. We initiated and sourced the funding for the construction of the Railway line from Tema Port to Mpakadan in the Asuogyaman District.
8. We have invested in the Energy Sector more than our opponents. Aboadze Thermal Plant, Car Power Plant, Atoabo Gas Power Plant, TICO etc.
9. Built Roads and Interchange more than our opponents. Circle, Kasoa, Motorway and Pokuase were initiated by President Maha
10. We open up the cocoa Growing Areas through one of our Social Intervention Programs “The Cocoa Roads Projects.
11. We Retrofitted the Adomi Bridge to extend its lifespan for another 50 years.
12. We Built the state-of-the-Art Court Complex for the Judiciary.
The retrofitting, rehabilitation, upgrading and the modernization of the six hydro turbines at Akosombo, started under Rawlings in 1992 but because of the Aboadze Power Thermal plant, the project was put to a hold in order to complete the Thermal plant. So the retrofitting of the six turbines, later resumed in October 1999 still under Rawlings administration. Kudos to Rawlings and his able team. I was part of the team. From John Teshie.
Source : Ahotor fm 92.3
