It appears former President John Mahama will not be given the chance to stand as the presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the

Ahead of the party’s primary, the retired Vice-Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Professor Joshua Alabi, is lacing his boots to contest the presidential primary of the NDC.

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Prof. Alabi has said he will run for president in 2020 if God wants him to run.

He told the media "Our party is reorganizing now and we want to finish the reorganization. When we finish the reorganization, those interested will come out and I pray to God that God will also give me the energy, if God thinks I should come out."

The former Greater Accra Region Minister left the political limelight in 2001, when he lost his seat but wants to return to lead the party in the 2020 presidential polls.

After losing his seat in 2001, Prof Alabi was elected Greater Accra Region Chairman of the NDC. But he later veered into academics, where he has carved a sterling niche for himself, at the helm of the transformation of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA). He is UPSA’s first Vice Chancellor, having served as Rector for many years.

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He was named Africa Vice Chancellor of the Year in 2013 by the All-Africa Students Union. Prof Alabi was in 2016 awarded ‘Officer of the Order of the Volta’ by then president John Dramani Mahama.

His professional background in marketing is said to have been the Midas touch to the transformation at UPSA. Little wonder he was named Marketing Man of Year 2012 by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG).

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The launch and announcement of Prof Alabi’s return to active politics is expected to be at the end of 2017. He was born on March 1, 1958.