Beneath the ‘façade’ of unassailable erudition, the commemoration of June 4 Uprising in Ghana has become a ritual of conventional suspense anytime it approaches. Fuelled by pain, relief, excitement and dilemma on the heart and minds of the people it affects either way however, it was accepted as reminder of behavioural barometer in political office.
There are signs on the wall that this year’s which has been scheduled to take place in Kumasi will have its own share of intrigue, especially so, as political observers view the prepared Revolution Square from distance, as against the questions of either the enigma and popularity of the main protagonist, Jerry Rawlings’ either diminish, or rekindle a new political landmark with the lighting of the perpetual flame, at the cenotaph.
Sources close to the Rawlingeses have hinted that the Ex-president, literally the star in the ‘beauty and beast’ story of the June 1979 uprising, would use this year’s event to dress-down some ‘characters’ in the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to whom he has become an avowed enemy as a result of his wife’s decision to contest the sitting president, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills.
Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings is said to have over the past weeks accumulated enough dossier to silence his pursuers in the party founded and formed on his ideology, and principles of probity and accountability.
The former President is said to have assured some NDC faithful that he will reveal more on what he terms the corruption in the Mills-led NDC government.
According to the sources, the ex-president will use the occasion to explain why he thinks that his wife has become a better candidate for the NDC, than his onetime Deputy, and three-time wizard. But high on his menu is his mission to whip into line some people in his party, who have become the latter-day Godfathers, claiming to be more loyal to the NDC than himself.
Among the targets of his attrition would be Betty-Mould Iddrisu, the current Minister of Education, Mr. Ahmed Baba Jamal, Deputy Minister of Information, and Mr. Ato Ahwoi, who is known in some NDC circles as ‘the invisible hand’, and Lt General Nunnoo Mensah rtd., National Security Advisor.
Also on the list, are some journalists who are alleged to be on the payroll of the government and surge at the slightest opportunity to scorn the Rawlingses, and anyone who dares to support their course. The premises of his address will be to expose the rots about some men standing around President Mills, who seem to have had a field day in the recent past to wash him down in public.
Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings had gone silent on the internal discourse of his party after he last spoke at the launch of Nana Konadu’s campaign earlier this month.
At the launch of the Mills campaign for the NDC slot at his Kuku Hill office premises, Madam Betty-Mould Iddrisu, whose husband was the Defence Minister during the Rawlings administration, told the Ralwingses that the NDC is not a family property.
Madam Betty-Mould Iddrisu, who then had just been replaced as Attorney-General and Minster of Justice, connotes that the only grievances that are driving wedge between the Osu Castle and the Ridge, were that alleged political criminals are not being prosecuted. She told the cheering crowd that people were being sent to court. She mentioned cases like the Asamoah Boateng’s, the Issah Mobilla’s and the infamous Ya-Na Yakubu Andani’s regicidal decapitation case. Betty, however, fails to tell Ghanaians what were the outcome of the mentioned court cases.
Even though the revolutionary cadets’ front of the NDC have been weakened by an intra-party war, the celebration is expected to be loaded with a more atrocious ‘weapons’ powerful enough to reemphasize the deep cracks in the ruling party.
