By Newman Dotse
The ruling National Democratic Congress (MDC) which eroded competence and allowed cronyism and corruption to flourish in its governance is on the verge of total collapse; simply put, on the journey to the land of no return if the President and his men fail to curb the gigantic corruption and the internal wrangling that has eaten deeper into the government and the entire party.
Many of the happenings in government and the NDC party were blamed on the President for developing a lackadaisical attitude towards addressing the causes of the current internal wrangling that is dragging the nation backwards. Instead of the men around the President advising him to demonstrate to the electorates he is capable of addressing problems confronting the nation and naturally earning their support, they have devised a propaganda strategy, thus creating the impression President Mills is an angel from God.
It is becoming obvious that no amount of propaganda would ever change the minds of many Ghanaians who believe things are not going well in the country because many of such people know that nations are built with vision and driven by leaders who have the capacity to take pragmatic decisions to make things happen. Instead of the President reprimanding the men around him who are actually milking state coffers dry, he is so much relaxed, thus taking delight in being called the Prince of Peace and till date no caution has been given to those perceived bootlickers to refrain from such a bad attitude. Whether President Mills is Prince of Peace or not, everybody knows that he is not holier than the Pope, hence should sit up and start working towards winning back the trust of the disappointed Ghanaians than relying heavily on mere propaganda.
Renewal of mandate depends on accomplishments; how the government has used the mandate of the people to work for their benefit, improved living conditions and demonstrated enough commitment to instilling hope in them for a better future.
The Citizen Newspaper thinks that the President’s seemingly slipshod approach to governance has also had a negative development at other levels, especially the political violence perpetrated by NDC activists in Odododiodoo and other parts of the country during the just ended biometric registration exercise.
Internal Wrangling: The Citizen Newpaper’s investigation indicates that there is some trepidation in certain quarters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regarding its chances in the 2012 elections which is barely 6 months away. This nervousness is making many NDC folks to weigh many options and also to float many strategies on how the party can put its acts together to focus on winning the elections. For the three and a half years that the NDC has been in power, President Mills and some of his most corruptible “Team B” government officials have sidelined former President Rawlings, the founder of the party, in a bid to accomplish the professed agenda 2012. Nobody ever raised any concerns about it. It was fine with the NDC top gurus who have hijacked the President and are tossing him around and fanatical activists with most of the Ewe chiefs inclusive, that Rawlings was booted out of view of President Mills and out of the NDC party, with the likes of Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the party rejoicing, saying, “the barking dog” has been tamed. Well, to ‘caricature’ his statement, it means “the barking dog” has been tamed for the thieves to steal.
President Mills seems not to see the urgency of the situation, allowing his so called conscientious objector element to cloud and obfuscate his sense of judgement, which will eventually cost him exceedingly. It is now comprehensible that he is bearing the flag of a party that is weak and wobbling. How does he hope to win the elections credibly with such a rickety political structure?
Now that election 2012 looms threateningly, dangerously staring the NDC in the face with warning signs about their likely exceptional gigantic defeat, everybody within the NDC is running to prostrate before the former President Rawlings. In fact, they are weeping and pleading with him to reconcile with President Mills and lead them in campaign to earn enough votes to win.
Some of them say President Mills and Mr. Rawlings must be brought together if the party is keen on holding on to power. It was astonishing to hear such ridiculous utterances from such selfish, greedy persons who seek only their interests. What did they do for all this while that President Mills has relegated Rawlings to the chasm of stupor, treating him with indescribable derision unprecedented in the history of Ghana’s politics?
Now that defeat is awaiting NDC in December, the greedy ones are now crying wolf because their powers would go down the drain. Rawlings will lose most of his die-hard sympathizers should he yield to the pleas and pressures being physically exerted upon him by these selfish, bigoted and greedy sycophants. What do they take him for, an imbecile who has no pillow to sleep on and reflect? Ex-President Rawlings has no tangible message to tell to persuade discerning Ghanaians to vote for President Mills. President Mills has gone past his sell-by date.
So far as Mills is unable to control his corruptible and insulting government appointees, eroding competence and allowing cronyism and corruption to flourish in his government, former President Rawlings cannot campaign for him.
As long as he remains a puppet to Ghana’s “Don King” he cannot earn the support of Rawlings.
If President Mills has been able to treat former President Rawlings so contemptuously during his first term in office, what will stop him from treating him far worse during his second and final term in office to please his boss, Mr. “Don King”, in order to accomplish their set agenda? Rawlings that I know is many steps ahead of those stooges President Mills is manipulating to persuade him to come back to campaign for him.
Quite recently, General Mosquito had the guts to make an outrageous mockery of Rawlings; saying "The barking dog has been chased out of NDC", referring to the former President Rawlings. Somebody Rawlings ‘picked, bathed, dressed’ and offered a prominent job has become audacious to Rawlings. Surprisingly, people like him now want Rawlings back to campaign for the NDC?
The National Democratic Congress and the Rawlingses are quite inseparable. In fact the name Rawlings can be synonymous to NDC. It will be a tall task for anybody, no matter how famous, to split the marriage between the NDC as a party and its founder, former President Jerry John Rawlings and his family.
The fact still remains that no one can rubbish the sacrifice that the charismatic Rawlings has made to bring the party to life and to keep it going till now. Most of those who contributed to the building of the party were attracted to it because of Rawlings' influence.
Putting anyone in Rawlings' shoes, he or she will do worst than what he is being accused of today. Being alienated in your own house won't be taken flippantly by anybody. More so, when he had vehemently defended many of them and stood with them in hard times. Like President Mills, Rawlings virtually imposed him on the party during his first candidature. As hard as his elders fought against it, he defended him and made him stand.
The fracas in the NDC could have been managed better, had the President been more proactive and committed. He has a big price to pay for his lackadaisical attitude.
The idea of getting Rawlings' hands off the NDC is a serious damage being done to the party and will continue to haunt it if those behind this barbaric act continue to foment trouble.
Now that they realize their plans of getting Rawlings back has backfired, they are allegedly employing the services of a senior Journalist to do their bidding by spewing lies that the sitting President can win the forthcoming election without Rawlings.
This Journalist said barely a month ago that short of the active participation of former President Jerry John Rawlings, it would be nigh impossible for a Mills-Mahama National Democratic Congress ticket to re-clinch the presidency in the forthcoming election. Suddenly, this very same man called Ben Ephson has gone public once again, this time rather mischievously claiming that indeed, President Mills and his vice John Mahama have a far greater chance of winning the forthcoming election primarily because of the gaping absence of the former President Rawlings who steadfastly and idealistically pushed the candidacy of Atta Mills through three electoral seasons, and eventually succeeding when almost every Ghanaian citizen thought NDC would never win power again.
Whether Uncle Ben’s assertion is true or not, we live to see “Yebe hwe, Miele kpor ge da, Wo baa kwee, and as Bowiri people would say, Boamor”
Source: The Citizen Newspaper (thecitizen.news@yahoo.com) +233 27 731 4655
