Fighting Rawlings needless – Kofi Adams

It is needless for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to fight its founder Jerry John Rawlings over its loss at the 2016 elections, National Organiser of the party Kofi Adams has said.

Mr Rawlings at the 35th anniversary of the December 31 uprising said the NDC caused its own loss. “The NDC’s painful and massive rejection at the polls is indicative that we have lost the moral high ground that sets us apart from others. Great lengths were taken to draw the attention of the party as a collective but none of it will be tolerated or accommodated.”

“We lost the elections way before the 7th of December. We persistently and unrepentantly stayed on the slippery slope to the humiliating defeat despite the several warning lights right in our faces. My honest wish was for corrective measures to be taken to avert this electoral disaster.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, if I did not understand the dynamics of human nature and behaviour we would not have attempted 15th May. If I did not degrade what was intended on that 15th May, June 4th would not have happened. The eruption that took place on June 4th is what would have happened on 15th May,” the former military leader said, adding that: “Some handlers and manipulators who have profited from our past two governments want to promote a lie about the reasons for our failures in order to perpetuate their hold on the NDC party.”

“I don’t think I was the only one who saw the writing on the wall. Many people from our very own party I believe, could see the writing on the wall that we were going to lose this past election. It was obvious a long time ago that we wouldn’t make it. Our general negativity, impunity, disrespect and corruption was taking us further and further downhill. About the time when most were living in the painful reality with stress and anger, that’s when some of us chose to be more impervious to reality. We had lost so much goodwill.

“I kept providing the warning whenever and wherever I could, and in public as well. But no, once again the uncouth and uncultured in our party and government chose to insult and disrespect some of us. The genuine and true founders and elders (warriors and youthful fighters) of what has transformed into the NDC were being disregarded and disrespected way back from 2008 after victory was delivered on a silver platter.

“With the passage of time a few too many selfish and greedy characters soon began to jump on board. There were some good people; very good people but leadership and the command structure did not empower them to override those who were destroying the party and the government. I have worked with good people all my life. I have worked with bad people all my life, some wicked, some with character defects but evil-natured people must be kept away. Some of us however do not seem to have the cognitive intelligence to recognize their presence.

“All the while we were feeling smug and comfortable because we thought the hidden division in the main opposition’s leadership was going to work so well in our favour. How so wrong could we be? How could we have for one minute made the mistake of thinking that the disloyalty at the senior leadership level was going to percolate into the grassroot of the NPP.

“God’s given direction for leadership are the principles of integrity, probity and accountability. These principles are embedded in the collective conscience of the grassroots. There was a gaping disconnect between leadership and the masses as the latter was left disillusioned. To make matters worse the ordinary man felt even more insulted by the crass display of wealth by people who should have known better.

“If the masses knew about the detrimental effects of the greed and avarice perpetuated by some of our own people in leadership they would never forgive us. Examples abound all around us. You need not stretch your imagination at all. If we all don’t do some careful introspection and openly show remorse for the betrayal of the people’s trust we might not recover in time for the next election.

“The oppressive machinery will not desert us voluntarily. We need not shrink from honestly facing the conditions in our party and country today. This is the time to pre-eminently speak the whole truth, frankly and courageously.

“But rather than facing the obvious truth about why we lost, Rawlings once again has to be made the scapegoat of their failures. I believe this time around our people have seen through it and we would embark on the right steps to regain our moral high ground. The moral high ground that we have abandoned and on which the new leader is now standing,” Mr Rawlings added.

In an interview on Accra-based Citi FM, however, Mr Adams said fighting Mr Rawlings for his opinion on the party’s loss is not the way to go since a committee has already been formed to investigate the defeat. “It will be unfair to be responding to comments that people make including very high profile persons like the founder and former President of the Republic.” “To the extent that we have put a committee in place, I would like that the media would give some space for the committee to finish its work then we can discuss the report of the committee. For us who are in leadership, it will be unfair to be picking and choosing whose comments to respond to and who’s not to respond to,” Mr Adams said.