Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Education has said the decision to contest former President Atta Mills for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearership in 2006 may have been an error.
According to Spio-Garbrah, Professor Mills assured him that if at any point in time, he (Mills) was unable to continue the “agenda” of the NDC, he would support him [Spio-Garbrah].
“It may have been a mistake. I did that partly because my own very good friend Prof Mills had been telling me, for about five years, Ekwow you are the only one I support and unfortunately, he also said that to a number of people who then used that against me with him.”
“And so even though the jury is out until the day of my departure from earth, I think that decision may have been an error just because I didn’t need to put myself in a conflicting situation with a very good friend. But fortunately, President Mills did not find that offensive at all…”
In December 2006, the late Prof John Evans Atta Mills polled 1362 votes, representing 81.4% of the total vote cast to win the National Democratic Congress flagbearership slot for Election 2008. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah polled 146 votes representing 8.7%, Mahama Iddrisu had 137 votes representing 8.2% and Eddie Annan had 28 votes representing 1.7%.
On whether he will contest the flagbearership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Spio-Grabrah said, “Some people believe I can be a good president…The jury is out. I think now there are a lot of wonderful people already putting themselves up but the party [NDC] has not really invited any contestants to show their faces.”
“We’ve seen some pictures of others who are likely to contest, so we will watch out for them…my view is that whereas in the past I have listened to the advice of a small group of people to put myself forward, I would rather ask for more rigorous analysis to see because there is no point in running [for flagbearer] if you know you are not going to win. And if there is a better person who can do the job better than you, why not?”
Support for Mahama
“There is a possibility [I may support Mahama]. He is certainly one of the best but we need a discussion and debate as to what has led to the losses, where he [Mahama] loses about 3% to 4%,” he said in an interview on Personality Profile on Joy News.
He added, “So that conversation is an internal conversation and I want to be part of the conversation. So that we understand what took place and what we must remedy to make sure that if he is the candidate he wins. I wouldn’t like him to lose, he is a very good friend of mine.”
