National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Youth Organiser, George Opare Addo, has challenged the party to carefully consider the kind of organisation it wants to build as it prepares to elect its next national executives.
He said the upcoming elections should not be viewed merely as a contest between individuals but as a choice between different political directions for the party.
In a Facebook post, Mr Opare Addo said the NDC must decide whether to preserve the broad, modern and inclusive coalition that helped secure victory in the 2024 general elections or return to what he described as an older style of partisan politics.
“The choice is not simply between candidates. It is between political directions,” he said.
He recalled the NDC’s 2022 national executive elections, which saw Johnson Asiedu Nketia elected as National Chairman and Fifi Fiavi Kwetey as General Secretary.
According to him, the election represented more than a change in personalities and marked a political reset for the party.
He said the NDC recognised the need to rebrand, reconnect with sections of Ghanaian society and expand its electoral coalition beyond its traditional support base.
“The NDC understood that winning Ghana required winning the argument,” he stated.
Mr Opare Addo said this required the party to reach the middle class while engaging young professionals, entrepreneurs, students, organised labour, the business community and ordinary citizens.
He also highlighted the role of the NDC’s youth wing and its “Green Army” mobilisation strategy, arguing that it demonstrated how young people could be organised around ideas, purpose and political consciousness.
“The Green Army became more than a campaign slogan. It provided the NDC youth with a distinct identity and a disciplined mobilisation structure,” he said.
He argued that the experience showed that young people could be mobilised at scale without necessarily being drawn into political confrontation.
“The next challenge is to ensure that mobilisation is matched by ideas, knowledge, civic responsibility and leadership development,” he added.
Mr Opare Addo said the NDC’s victory in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections should not lead to complacency because political victories were temporary.
“Political victories are temporary. Political relevance is earned continuously,” he said.
He therefore urged the party to use its forthcoming national executive elections to strengthen its political architecture and maintain the broad coalition that contributed to its 2024 success.
He asked whether the NDC wanted a youth wing that produces “a disciplined, intellectually confident and politically conscious generation” or one that reduces young people to “foot soldiers for political confrontation.”
He also challenged delegates to look beyond the question of who could defeat the NPP when choosing the party’s next leadership.
“When our delegates assemble to elect our next national executives, let us not ask only: ‘Who can defeat the NPP?’ Let us ask the bigger question: ‘Who can build the kind of NDC that Ghana needs?’” he said.
Mr Opare Addo said the NDC needed a leadership capable of building a modern, intellectually confident and inclusive party that could win support among the middle class without abandoning the working class.
He also called for an NDC that could inspire young people without “weaponising” them and mobilise millions without creating political fear.
“An NDC that can be fierce in competition but responsible in power,” he added.
According to him, the ultimate measure of the party’s political success should be its contribution to building a better Ghana.
“Political victory is not the ultimate destination. Building a better Ghana is,” he said.
