Dr. Kwabena Duffour may have earned the tag as once a presidential aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), but the narrative would not be one of the routine aspirants who contested and lost the presidential nomination of the main opposition party; his, would be a bizarre twist of last minute pull out which action, has given rise to many conjectural interpretations.

So, why did Dr. Duffour pull out of the NDC presidential primary just on the nick of the contest? Is it that he believed the selection process was that flawed? That he doesn’t want to be a part of the flawed process? Could that be interpreted as quitting to maintain his integrity and sanctity in the eyes of Ghanaians? Or is it that all along, Dr. Duffuor had another motive beyond just his attempt to win the NDC presidential ticket?

Could it be that he only used the NDC political machinery to enhance his political personality in order to build his own credible political movement? And once that’s achieved, a new political party founded by Dr. Duffour would just be a matter of time? From another standpoint, is it that Dr. Duffour felt he has built the requisite robust political clout using the NDC platform; and now feels he has garnered enough visibility for his presidential run to compete evenly with any presidential candidates that may emerge in the 2024 general elections?

The decision by Dr. Kwabena Duffour to resign from the NDC presidential race has thrown out many questions, not excluding those that have been stated. Even before his bombshell just at the nick of the NDC presidential and parliamentary elections, many watchers of the Duffour political drama had warned that no one should pass the plot by the Kwabena Duffour team to disrupt the NDC primaries for a joke. That is, notwithstanding the decision by Dr. Duffuor to allow for the NDC primaries to go ahead, before his last minute pull out.

There is more to it. Earlier, Dr. Duffour through his lawyer, Kofi Kukubor announced that his client has withdrawn the interlocutory injunction filed by the presidential aspirant against the NDC’s primaries scheduled for Saturday, May 13^th, 2023. NDC General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey in his reaction noted that the party was satisfied with the Duffour decision thus: “It confirms the long held position that there was no case to begin with. The delegates’ list is the main primary document that we are depending on, and all along, the list has been ready, and made available to all the contestants.”

This writer can state on authority that the earlier Duffour decision not to stand in the way of the NDC congress, was not to offer any relief to the NDC and its largest benefactor, John Dramani Mahama. It was the execution in part, of a grandiose plot cloaked in a façade of accusation that there are subtle moves by the combined forces of Mahama and the NDC executives to force Duffour out of the NDC. And so, if Duffour decides to form his own party to contest the 2024 elections, none without an insight into his agenda would fault him?

There is no sense of welcome and belonging in the NDC, Duffour and his backers would want the world to believe. The well-crafted melodrama can be traced to a special Action Plan adopted by Team Duffour at Aburi in the Eastern Region on April 23^rd, 2023. Aburi is a famed setting for such political strategies, plots and resolutions. Even foreign countries or governments have benefited from Aburi’s political attractiveness. At the height of Nigeria’s civil war, Aburi hosted most of the warring factions in the conflict where some degree of consensus was reached in the Biafra civil war which fall-out, till today, Nigeria is yet to recover from.

That meeting was chaired by General Ankrah, then Ghana’s Head of State after the overthrow of Dr. Nkrumah in 1966. The plan by Team Duffour to place injunction on the NDC congress and subsequent decision by Dr. Duffour to quit the NDC were the main objects of the Aburi meeting. It was also suggested at the meeting that exploratory mechanism be put in place to assess the possibility of Duffour ceding off from the NDC to form a political movement to test his popularity. That was the consensus reached by Dr. Duffour and other NDC chieftains who support the Duffour cause. Party chiefs at the meeting included former party chairman, Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah; Enoch Tei Mensah, a former minister of youth and sports; Yaw Boateng Gyan, a former national organizer of the NPP and former High Commissioner to Nigeria, Baba Kamara. Others were Dr. Ekwow Spio Gabrah, Rojo Mettle Nunoo, Fritz Baffoe among others. The concluding part of the Aburi accord was the resolution that Team Duffour break away from the NDC to form their own political party, this reporter can state on authority. They knew beating Mahama was an impossibility.

A member of the Communication Team of Duffour, Fritz Baffoe confirmed to this author that “definitely, Dr. Duffour will form a new political party.” And so, there was this artificially-induced conspiracy just to confirm their insistence that Mahama and the national executives of the NDC have created bunkers that would not allow anyone the chance of getting to know the nuisances in the party’s internal electoral process, let alone contesting on an even keel with the choice of the NDC establishment, John Dramani Mahama.  

But the larger question remains: Will the actions of Dr. Duffour and his likes, not rather play into the hands of the NPP which is so eager “To Break the 8”? Rather shockingly, the consensus reached on this particular subject was that Team Duffour will better be served under an NPP administration than a John Mahama presidency. A member at the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that in an unlikely event Mahama wins the general elections, they will galvanize and re-group all aggrieved NDC members under one umbrella to restore the soul of the NDC.

When Dr. Obed Asamoah’s attention was drawn to the fact that when he and others broke away to form a rival party, it only helped the NPP to win the 2008 elections, the former Attorney General quickly retorted: “If we were not that significant, why did the NDC come begging us to return to the fold of the NDC? That should tell you how our action affected the fortune and the chances of the NDC in that year’s elections.” What is beating the minds of many observers is how someone like Baba Kamara would be a member of the Duffour team.

Baba Kamara was the National Security Coordinator under President Mills’ administration and also Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria in Mahama’s government. Reliable sources in the Duffour camp have hinted this author that Baba Kamara is penciled to be the running mate of Dr. Duffour, in event the former Governor won the NDC presidential nomination, but now that the way is cleared for Duffour to run his own political party, it’s crystal clear Baba’s dream is about to be realized.