JJ’s Man Quits NDC

A leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso Central in Accra, Dr. Kwasi Ofei-Agyemang, has resigned from the party.

Dr. Ofei-Agyemang a close associate of the former first couple, the Rawlingses, said he was leaving the party because of the mistreatment meted out to the former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.

It is however not clear whether Dr. Ofei-Agyemang, who has often been linked with the Rawlingses, would vote for the NDC in the 2012 general elections.

He is however said to be part of a larger group that is leading a campaign for the formation of another party out of the NDC which, according to sources, plans are far advanced to be registered and officially launched ahead of the 2012 general elections.

Pro-NDC papers have linked him to the yet-to-be registered National Democratic Party (NDP) which they claimed was being promoted by Mr. Rawlings and his associates.

This is set to cause a major upset in the ruling party considering hints of a political movement being thought of by the founder of the NDC, Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu as suggested by their spokesman and now suspended Deputy General Secretary of the party, Kofi Adams.

In a letter dated Monday, April 23, 2012 and addressed to Ayawaso Central constituency chairman of the party, a copy of which has been stumbled upon by Daily Guide, he cited various reasons for his decision, among which was the Nana Konadu issue.

Chief among the reasons was the exclusion of Mrs. Rawlings and other key stakeholders from the affairs of the party and government.

This, according to him, was evident in the fact that “after the Sunyani congress of 2011, no action had been taken by the leadership of the party and the government to include Mrs. Agyeman-Rawlings, the only other stakeholder for the leadership of the party in the December 7, 2012 campaign.”

He wondered if that was so because the leadership of the party considered her as the ‘enemy within’, asking rhetorically, “if that is so, shall we ask if our competitors are our enemies?”

Dr Ofei-Agyemang, the director of the New Life Clinic, well known for his urine therapy, said he was not the least in doubt that some serious and deep-thinking went into President Mills and his advisors’ decision to exclude Eddie Annan. Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu and Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah who contested him in the 2008 Presidential primary from his cabinet.

That notwithstanding, the naturopath noted, “to my perplexed and unlettered mind, these decision makers’ action precluded such distinguished and accomplished statesmen whose skills, wisdom, insight and vision would have been brought to bear on the policy and governance to reflect the worth and integrity of the NDC.”

Though Article 7 clause 1 (a) of the NDC constitution stated that the party sought to promote participatory democracy and responsible governance in the country, Dr. Ofei-Agyemang wondered how the leadership could promote participation at the grassroots if contestants were denied their rightful places in the governance of the country.

He also complained about “the denigration of the foot-soldiers of the party” and “government’s inability to mobilize the youth in the area of agriculture, mining… in the transformation of our infrastructure.”