A 42-year-old banker and businessman, Nurideen Iddrisu, has expressed strong interest in the flagbearship of the National Democratic Congress when nominations are opened eventually in 2018.
Mr Iddrisu, who founded Deen Petroleum Ghana Limited, says he comes in as a neutral personality with a unifying appeal to galvanise the support base of the party towards the attempt to wrest power from the governing New Patriotic Party.
At an encounter with the media in Wa last Friday, the banker said he arrived at the decision after wide consultations with various persons at different levels of the party’s structure across the country, and felt his candidature would give the party a formidable presence in the next election.
In the 35-minute interaction, he emphasised that his ambition was hinged on a vision “to see a nation in which all citizens would be empowered through education, good health and jobs,” and a mission “to lead a planned and sustained investment in people and infrastructure for the rapid creation of a sustainable economic development and empowered citizens”.
Impressive profile
Mr Iddrisu hails from Wa, capital of Upper West Region, and prides himself as being NDC at heart with years of activism in politics and experience in business and corporate management.
He was born in 1975, and schooled in Wa before obtaining ‘O’ Level and ‘A’ Level certificates at Achimota School in Accra.
The banker has since also obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and a Master of Business Administration in finance, both from the University of Ghana, Legon.
His working career in a relatively young life has crisscrossed various sectors of the local economy, with his impressive profile featuring a chequered experience in the petroleum industry especially.
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Attired in flowing white and accompanied by only close associates, he expressed confidence in his own ability to turn delegates in his favour when the times comes, stressing that his engagements with the rank and file of the party had given him positive feedback about his new ambition to lead the NDC.
Party re-organisation
He stated, however, that he would comply with the party’s orders for any campaigning to be stayed until after the ongoing re-organisation efforts at all levels of the party’s structure was completed.
Indeed, the NDC has embarked on internal re-organisation following its electoral defeat in the 2016 polls, and despite subtle campaigning by a growing list of individuals, the virtual ban has muted the expected cacophony of campaign jingles and rhetoric.
Mr Iddrisu is the second prospective candidate so far from the Upper West Region to have expressed an interest to lead the NDC. Long serving Member of Parliament for Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency, Alban Bagbin, has earlier confirmed his interest in a similar interaction with the media in Wa.
But while Mr Bagbin and the other names, including President John Mahama, are established figures both within the party and on the national scale, Mr Iddrisu is daring to dine with the strong and mighty in an adventure that may turn heads in his direction in coming days.
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