CDD Condems Rawlings

The Associate Executive Director for Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Dr. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has stated that the conduct and the utterances of the ex-president, Jerry John Rawlings who deserves public respect as a statesman, will not only jeopardize the his party the National Democratic Congress (NDC), but also the nation as a whole.

According to him, Rawlings who was a head of state for almost twenty years and is forbidden by the Constitution to contest for the presidency again is expected to live above petty and partisan politics to command the respect that he deserves, stressing that if he failed to live above partisan politics he would jeopardize his party and the nation’s politics.

Dr. Agyeman-Duah who spoke to the private-owned Chronicle, supported the call made by the elected chairman of the NDC, Dr. Obed Asamoah that the role of the ex-president who doubles as the founder of the party should be redefined to give way to permanent solutions to the leadership crisis that had engulfed the NDC’s executive.

He observed that the cracks in the party have come about as a result of a continuous determination and eagerness of the founder to direct and control the affairs of the party.

The director stated that, if the NDC were unable to put its house together by resolving the leadership crisis, the party would diminish in power, standing and even in stature, stressing that its representatives in Parliament will also reduce radically incumbent government, the NPP.

He asserted that the rift between the founder and the chairman as well as the coming into the picture of former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, seems to have deepened the crisis in the party. Agyman-Duah therefore called for a concerted effort by the leaders of the party to ensure that the problem is solved.

“What is happening today in the NDC suggests to me that the founding of the NDC party perhaps did not proceed on democratic lines in terms of the founding members accepting certain fundamental rules before the constitution was drawn up and unanimously approved,” the CDD director opined, contending that the NDC was built around the founder and his wife whose personalities were quite prominent in the affairs of the party.

Considering situations likely to aggravate the crisis in the NDC, Dr. Agyeman-Duah said, “the NDC has its roots in the PNDC and its founding was not properly based on any strong ideological basis, unlike the CPP and the origins of the NPP,” adding that the NDC which was in power for eight years and was preceded by a regime that gave birth to itself, had caused the political players of the party to grab certain things and have realized that they cannot control the affairs of the country just after peaceful change of political power.

According to him, the longevity of the NDC and its lack of rootedness in the country, is now struggling to resettle it. He said the perceived feud between the chairman and the founder should be looked at in a very positive way, which will help the party to reconsider and redefine its ideologies and directions for the progress of the party.

“If the NDC is lucky to resolve its leadership crisis, the party would emerge a new NDC that will be unblemished by its past and if the crises are not well-managed and resolved, I am afraid the NDC will collapse which will make the party totally irrelevant to national politics,” stressing that the crisis in the party could be turned to be a very positive development in the party.

“If the NDC fails to observe that the crisis could give positive development in the party, I am again afraid the NDC will be relegated to the sidelines of Ghanaian politics,” he added.

The directors said that the deepening crisis in the NDC has given a true reflection to the fact that it is only a few people who can stand the test, hence making NPP stronger and stronger to the extent of winning all the bye-elections.

He hinted that, if care were not taken the divisions among the minority parties would give rise to Ghanaian politics having one dominant party. This, he said, will raise some difficulties for the foreseeable future where the NPP will be a dominant party which the constitution allows, anyway, and however urged the minorities to strategise plans so that a dominant party does not emerge in the history of the country.