JJ Slapped

Few weeks after his infamous tribal diatribe on a political platform, with the aim of creating unnecessary tension and rivalry between Ewes and Asantes, former President Jerry John Rawlings has been subjected to verbal lashes.

Apparently uncomfortable with the rantings of the former President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic (NPP) has expressed disappointment in Mr Rawlings, accusing him of employing fiendish tactics to cause mayhem in the country during this year's polls.

Nana Addo described the former military dictator as someone who frowns on peaceful co-existence, rule of law, respect for human rights and above all the smooth path to prosperity that the country under the leadership of President John Agyekum Kufuor was charting.

Nana wondered aloud why Mr. Rawlings' utterances were always geared at dividing the nation; stressing the country in this era does not need such characters.

Ghana, he indicated, need politics that talks about policies, unity, peace and development that would earnestly move the country forward, and not the politics of division and hatred that Mr Rawlings was propagating.

To sustain the country's peace and developmental process, Nana Akufo-Addo admonished the citizenry to treat with contempt any tribal sentiments expressed by Mr. Rawlings aimed at dividing them.

He reminded Ghanaians that they are one people with a common destiny, hence the need for them to accommodate and respect each other's opinion and cautioned the populace against availing themselves to be wrongfully influenced by Mr Rawlings to fight among themselves.

Nana Addo was speaking at a mammoth rally of the NPP at the Aboabo School Park in the Asawase Constituency of the Ashanti region last Saturday to climax his eleven-day campaign tour of the region.

Ghana, according to the NPP flag-bearer, was currently doing well in every aspect and this he attributed to the democratic dispensation in the country and urged all and sundry to play meaningful roles to uphold it. On the impending polls, he told Ghanaians, particularly women, not to so soon forget the myriad to atrocities meted out to them by the (P)NDC administration until the NPP brought them solace in 2001, when casting their votes in December this year.

For the continuation of the good economic policies initiated by the NPP government which had brought relief to the masses, Nana Addo entreated the electorate to vote him as president, promising to deliver faster beyond their imagination.

He predicted a landslide victory for the NPP in the coming polls and debunked assertions by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the ruling party intends rigging the elections.

"Even when we were in opposition we beat the NDC fairly in 2000 and repeated the dose in 2004 and we shall beat them fairly again this year to prove to them that they cannot match us."