Mills And Rawlings Wash Dirty Linen Before Asantehene

The bitter fight between the two titans in the National Democratic Congress (NDC), President John Evans Atta Mills and founder Jerry John Rawlings has now spilled into the open, with the trading of verbal assaults in the presence of no mean a personality than the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

The two leading personalities washed their dirty linen before the Asantehene at a meeting held at a secret location in Accra recently.

The said meeting, held at the instance of Otumfuo Osei Tutu, was geared towards bringing lasting peace between the two political leaders in the ruling NDC; but it failed to achieve its purpose.

Mr Rawlings and President Mills were at each other’s throat, as they freely accused each other of being the cause of the seeming rift that has engulfed the NDC since it won political power in December 2008.

The exact venue and date of the said ‘peace meeting’ have been under wraps for some time now until former President Rawlings decided to spill the beans and share the information with NDC functionaries at a meeting at the Salisburg Hotel in Kumasi last Monday.

Narrating what occurred between the two giants, Mr. Rawlings revealed that President Mills set the ball rolling by accusing him of always insulting and threatening him publicly.

Speaking his usually corrupt ‘Twi’ with some difficulties, the former President noted that Mills wanted to paint him black in the presence of Otumfuo. “Mills kakyere Asantehene se eye aa na me hunahuna no, na me sani yeye yeye no,” meaning “Mills went to tell Asantehene that I have been bullying and threatening him and in addition I always insult him without just cause”.

Rawlings said he asked Mills why he should be worried about his actions and in turn accused President Mills of stabbing him in the back.

Speaking in a loud voice to the party supporters present, perhaps to portray his anger, he added: “I told Mills before Otumfuo that you have been stabbing me in the back yet you are complaining.”

In the heat of the exchanges, Rawlings said he posed a question to President Mills: “My actions and you having decided to stab me in the back, which one is worse? Yet, you have decided to complain to Otumfuo.”

The former President said to calm down nerves, “Otumfuo intervened by asking me what President Mills has done wrong so far that I should be having issues with him.” Mr. Rawlings said he told Otumfuo that President Mills had decided not to heed his advice of setting up committees from the district to the ministerial levels to deal ruthlessly with corrupt past government officials.

According to him, Otumfuo advised that the issues they were raising should not divide them “so he urged President Mills to take my advice for peace to prevail between us; but so far nothing has been heard from President Mills with regard to dealing with past corrupt officials.”

Mr. Rawlings, who sounded very annoyed about President Mills’s leadership style, told the party people with a loud voice, “Ask President Mills whether he has since that meeting done anything about the past corrupt state officials.”