Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, Majority Chief Whip and MP for South Dayi, has pushed back against claims suggesting that NDC National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia, widely known as General Mosquito, is quietly positioning himself as the party’s next presidential candidate.
Speaking on PM Express on Tuesday, he urged critics to substantiate their assertions with evidence, particularly any public declaration from the chairman indicating such ambition.
“I think the question you should ask the people is whether the chairman is going round claiming to be a flag bearer?” he asked.
Dafeamekpor argued that the chairman’s ongoing Thank You Tour is being misread and stressed that it is not a new political manoeuvre, but part of a broader post-election engagement effort by the party.
“What I do know is that he’s been doing this tour from about April 2025, just when the government finished with the appointment of ministers and did the regional tours,” he explained.
He further noted that internal concerns had emerged within the NDC that constituency-level actors and grassroots supporters were not sufficiently acknowledged after the party’s return to power.
“The deficit of not visiting the constituencies came up at a national executive meeting, where complaints were coming that the old man [President John Mahama] came around and they understood, but the party ought to come,” he said.
“They said the party ought to come to the grounds to come and show gratitude, because they fought hard, we’ve been in opposition for eight years.”
According to him, the scale of the exercise naturally makes it slow and methodical.
“You know, logistical mobilisation to visit these constituencies is no joke. So he’s been doing it methodically, I think he will soon finish,” he noted.
Dafeamekpor rejected suggestions that the tour gives General Mosquito any political edge over potential future contenders in the NDC’s presidential race.
“So his movement to go to the people, to the constituencies, and thank the party people and stakeholders, like chiefs and queen mothers, and some groups who supported us didn’t start yesterday, and so I don’t know how that dovetails or feeds into some agenda of campaigning as a flag,” he argued.
He also dismissed the idea that the current visibility of the tour makes it fundamentally different from earlier versions led by the chairman.
“Yes. We were in opposition, go and check the records,” he said when asked whether a similar tour was undertaken in 2021.
“It was, because we’re in opposition, people thought that it was a matter of course.”
Recalling earlier post-election engagements, he said Asiedu Nketia had toured his constituency extensively after the 2020 polls.
“He came to my constituency. In fact, that one, he visited three zones in my constituency. He visited Kpeve, he visited Piki, he visited Tongo, we took him to the Dzemeni market,” he recounted.
He added that the visits were used to rally supporters following the disputed outcome of the 2020 elections.
“He went to tell the people that we had won elections, but we were cheated, so they should keep faith with us, and that in 2024 he’s going to lead the team, and he will annihilate the NPP,” Dafeamekpor said.
“So it is not true that this is the first time he’s doing Thank You Tour as chairman after a general election. No.”
