Former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, has just uplifted the mood within the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) with high-quality marketing video for the party in what has gotten Ghana buzzing and is putting a renewed spotlight on ex-President John Dramani Mahama who is being tipped as the most likely candidate to lead the party into the 2024 presidential elections.
Dr. Duffuor has starred in a campaign advert that is rallying the NDC as the keys to Ghana’s development and the “Ghanaian dream”.
In the advert, Dr. Duffour joins a cross-section of Ghanaians to invite the general public to pick up membership forms and register with the NDC, explaining the NDC is the one party that has it within its nature to provide good leadership and the enablement for Ghanaians to attain their dreams.
“What the NDC means to me is that everyone in this country, will have an opportunity to achieve the Ghanaian dream,” explains Dr. Duffour who is seen heavily clad in NDC colors and symbolically strolling by the independence arch in the video.
There had been speculations within the NDC that Dr. Duffour may be eyeing the flagbearership of the NDC as well, but another school of thought within the main opposition party that Dr. Duffour was merely interested in the NDC seizing power from the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) because of the hounding he had suffered under the governing party.
Dr. Duffour who is the founder and owner of UniBank had had a brush with the NPP and had gotten his bank closed down for alleged bankruptcy. But Duffour had dragged the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to court, with claims that the revocation of his banking license was a deliberate attempt to cripple his business.
Unconfirmed reports picked up by Whatsup News indicates that in the 2016 elections, Dr. Duffour reportedly bought some 300 vehicles for the NPP campaign, and had since been viewed as a threat that could divert that benevolence towards his party-the NDC, hence the alleged decision by current Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to orchestrate the collapse of his banking and finance empire.
Dr. Duffuor is a highly respected politician and Ghanaian entrepreneur, who is known for taking a back seat in active politics.
Meanwhile, Dr. Duffuor’s silence on whether he has presidential ambitions or not has left huge room for speculation and the guesswork has already started. Another line of speculation is that Dr. Duffour who was also a former Governor of the BoG is angling for the Vice-presidential ticket of the NDC in 2024 and manage the Economic Management Team should John Mahama win the presidency that year.
Meanwhile, it is unclear if ex-President Mahama will part ways with his 2020 Vice Presidential hopeful, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang in the stead of Dr. Duffour.
In fact, the former President’s oft inclusion of Prof. Opoku Agyemang in his political tours since his controversial defeat in 2020 only serves to indicate that Dr. Duffour has a veritable competition if that is his plan.
According to party insiders, whatever the outcome, what is clear is that Dr. Duffour has vowed to get the NDC to seize power from the NPP administration which is serving its second term in office.