NDC Congress will come on - Aryeh

The Chronicle has learnt from National Democratic Congress insiders that big guns in the party, not too sure about a Prof Evan Atta Mills’ victory in the next week’s NDC Congress are holding on tightly to their purses.

One source who is a big time, all round contractor told the Chronicle that as far as he was personally concerned, he doesn’t think it was wise thing for any individual to put good money into the party at this material hour.

“If the party, as a party, has no money, the leaders must come clean and led the party and the world know when we can put the appropriate machinery in place to raise money for the congress itself, leaving the contestants to do their own thing with their monies.”

Another insider, an Accra lawyer, the panic in the Mills camp following the “generous attempt” by Kwesi Botchwey to bail out the various distressed constituencies and especially the party headquarters staff closed the initial gap between Mills and Botchwey.

The Chronicle further learnt that after the 2000 elections which the NDC lost, no proper handing over has taken place because it is a rather defiant exercise accounting for party monies pesewa on pesewa.

My surprise is that while Kwesi Botchwey’s camp has 500m sitting down handy for use on the d-day, we on the other side have virtually empty stomach. The lawyer did not believe postponing the congress will help the Atta Mills ticket.

“What we have to do is to soldier on. We have lost the propaganda war we must not lose the money war. Most of you private newspapers support Botchwey, we know for a fact. And that is where I blame our PR people who make noises in their armchairs but do little to support grassroots work, or court the media.

Surprising the NDC for their short-sightedness, the media won the war for the New Ptriotic Party (NPP) in the last elections. “We have to work to ensure they do not win the war for Kwesi Botchwey,” he bemoaned.

The NDC General Secretary, Dr Josiah Aryeh, assured the paper yesterday that the congress would definitely come on and that all efforts were being made by the leadership of the party to put in place the necessary logistics to set the congress off.

This development has come exactly 24 hours after Chronicle report of a possible postponement of the mush touted NDC national delegates congress scheduled for next week Saturday, 21 December simply because the party is said be broke.

Of the total amount of 700m cedis required to finance the decisive meeting not a single pesewa has been put in the kitty yet, our story said.

Even though Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, the National Chairman of the party has since refused to comment on the issue, Dr Aryeh had earlier dispatched SOS letters to ex-President Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu, and all prominent executives of the party and shareholders warning them of the impending fiasco if the 700m cedis is not raised in a matter of one week.

It was gathered that since the defeat of the NDC in the December 2000 presidential elections, the party is yet to recover financially. Business tycoons who once served as party patrons and who could have one way or the other single-handed sponsor the event are now reluctant to invest in the party.