NDC founder and former president of Ghana Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings has stated clearly that he will only support the Mills administration for the 2012 general elections if the president and the leadership embarks on immediate ‘house cleaning’ exercise.
He said the reason why the same people who worked with him as president were not corrupt but are corrupt today under president Mills is because he did not tolerate corruption under his reign. The former president made this pronouncement at the national theatre in Accra today during a commemorative lecture to mark the 30th anniversary of the 31st DEC revolution. The NDC founder lamented the situation where some people in the NDC government are behaving as though there are no ideological bases for the establishment of the NDC.
In a direct message to the NDC leadership, the former president said , ‘ if Jerry Rawlings represent the NDC, it must be an NDC that represent these ideals….otherwise I will be acting as a hypocrite if I start saying hail the NDC..The time has come for those who have the responsibility of changing the freefall of the NDC to bring it to a halt and take drastic action however late to re-embrace the ideals that won the NDC victory in the 2008 election… it is not too late to go back to the grassroots, foot soldiers and listen to them….we have so far failed to correct the wrongs of the past…I interact with people on the daily bases and they express their disappointment in what is going on and it is based on this I criticize government.’
The former president questioned why there is rather the situation where you have the general secretary of the NDC and some young ministers insulting people and calling others dogs and so on, and the next time these same people are standing by the president, questioning what message the president is sending out by that action. ‘Speak out and compel your leaders to listen,….do not allow the sweet gifts of election year to confuse you into a false sense of security.’ the NDC founder advised.
‘Investigating past officials now will be so opportunistic nobody will take you serious…the only time you will be taken seriously is to clean the house…to clean up and bring back the dedicated, committed ones because people who run away, who didn’t suffer for it, they are the ones the Prof. has appointed as DCE’s etc….this is the only way otherwise I don’t see the chance they stand because I don’t operate alone but with the support base…This is what I said to my friend Gen. Nuuno Mensah when he came to see me the other day about the way forward’ he revealed. He blamed the NDC leadership for being timid in the last elections especially when the president and his vice failed to show up for a rally in Kasua because, according to the NDC founder, they were afraid the rally will fail to match up with the NPP rally.
He also lamented that in a by- election in the eastern region recently the vice president John Mahama failed to go down to campaign and cited security concerns whiles the president was also absent. ‘The vice president who is chairman of the police council was sitting in Accra and citing security reports for his inability to go and campaign for the NDC candidate there in a by-election…the president was also absent I don’t know if he had travelled or not but Nana Akufo Addo had a field day. So how you expect your supporters to fight this fight whiles you’re sitting in Accra’ Mr. Rawlings questioned.
The former president accused the Mills administration of been mean to him and his wife NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS. He said a judgment debt of $5m dollars have not been paid to the 31 DWM three years in office even though government is making campaign with it on the air waves. ‘You can’t believe how mean our own leadership has been. Why’? He questioned.
Other speakers at the lecture also included P.V Obeng, Hon. Nuamah Donkor, Mrs. Valerie Sacky as well as former first lady Nana Konadu Agyman- Rawlings who all took turns to give the history and legacy of the 31 December revolution.
Story by A.S Denis/xfm95.1/Accra/Ghana
Source: www.XfmnewsCenter.com - Ghana.
