NDC Members Used ‘Comfortable Lead’ Comment Against Me – Koku Anyidoho
Former Deputy General Secretary of the opposition NDC party, Koku Anyidoho has revealed that his popular ‘comfortable lead’ catchphrase was painfully used against him by his fellow NDC members when he decided to contest as substantive General Secretary of the party.
According to him, party members vilified him and used that comment to run him down.
The phrase “comfortable lead” became very popular during the December 2016 election when Koku Anyidoho insisted figures available to them suggest that the NDC was winning the election despite contrary results put across by the Electoral Commission.
The catchphrase was used to assuage the frustrations of its supporters as it was a tough moment to admit when the ruling NDC party knew it was losing but had to fashion out a strategy to keep the hopes of its frustrated supporters.
The NDC lost miserably in the 2016 elections as opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo polled 53% of total valid votes cast as against John Mahama’s 44%.
The campaign spokesperson Joyce Bawa Mogtari and later deputy general secretary Koku Anyidoho hanged on to the statement: “We are in a comfortable lead” as their anxious supporters demand assurances from the party hierarchy while the NPP side was jubilating.
But commenting on the phrase almost four years down the line in an interview on Okay FM monitored by Kasapafmonline.com, Koku Anydoho who says he’s now decided to stay away from frontline party campaigning as he’s now a ‘common floor member’ of the NDC.
“Because of elections that popular phrase was used against me. I was called a liar people said I had lied to the party and I was not fit to be elected as General Secretary. They said I talk by heart and that I was a loose-talker. They vilified me very well, now, I’m not a loose-talker again so I will make no prediction. We adopted that strategy because of something important at that time. I adopted that strategy and later it was painfully used against me. Now, we all know how to be nice and so we’ll be nice.”