Former President John Mahama has debunked perceptions that the

He said the political training institute is aimed at ensuring that members of the NDC are grounded in the ideals of the party.

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Former President Mahama speaking during the maiden lecture at the institute said the school was set up as part of reforms to recapture power in the future.

He said "The thinking was that it will be set up after we entered multi-party democracy but for 25 years our party has continued without setting up its ideological and party training school, and so I want to congratulate all those who have been behind the setting up of this institute.

"It is a very useful institute and it is going to be a source of knowledge not only to party cadres but for people who have the ideological orientation of social democracy to gain ideas of leadership, nationalism and patriotism. I am very happy and I want to congratulate those who have brought this idea to birth.

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He noted that "Contrary to widespread perception, institutes like this are not institutes for indoctrinating people. The perception in the First Republic was that the ideological institutes were set up to brainwash and to become ideologically robust of the governing party.

"But this is not the case. If you look at the curriculum of the ideological institute, it contains programmes of leadership, how to lead in a community, it contains programmes of party activism, it also contain programmes of community self-help, it contains programmes of nationalism, patriotism – how to be patriotic to your country."

However, Programmes at the institute will  include the philosophy of the party, history of the party, history of Ghana, constitutional studies, party management, political communication, leadership skills, elections and electoral systems.