Former President Jerry John Rawlings on Monday said that human rights abuses, corruption in high places, nepotism, unbearable economic hardships and widespread disenchantment and disillusionment in the country were all eye openers to the electorates and people of Ghana.
He accused the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its predecessor, the defunct Progress Party, of never having respect or regard for the morality of truth, decency and for what was right. He added that due to their nepotism, people call the NPP party a family government.
Flt. Lt Rawlings, who is also the Founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said this at a press conference in Accra on Monday to express his views on national issues and interact with the media on the current political situation in the country.
The meeting was attended by Members of the Council of Elders, some National Executive members, MPs and a cross-section of supporters and sympathisers of the party.
Flt. Lt. Rawlings said: "You saw it before the 2000 elections but you did not believe us. You were taken in by lies, but you now do not only see the viciousness of their lies but can also feel it in the misery all around you".
He said the flagbearer of the NDC, Prof. John Atta Mills was planning a "March For Survival" to demonstrate displeasure at what was going on in the country.
He said these views are widely shared and called on all to support the march, whenever it takes place and should not wait for the anger of the nation to boil over before they regret their apathy.
"Let us join in the massive procession to say, "Enough is enough". Let us send a message to the government to stop insulting the intelligence of Ghanaians and govern without inflicting so much economic hardships on the people. If the PNDC and NDC could do it, so should you," he said.
"Let us say 'No more' to government-induced conflicts, tensions and divisions that have already cost innocent lives. 'No more' to the harassment and persecution of people whose only crime is that they served their nation well. Every Ghanaian has the right to be employed without changing his ethnicity".
Former President Rawlings said the people have the right to enjoy the peace that they painstakingly nurtured in previous times, adding that nobody wants to starve to death or pray to die through conflicts before 2004, the change all are praying for to come.
He said two years of the Kufuor Administration have left no doubt in any discerning and objective mind as to the incompetence of the present government and the disaster that could befall Ghana if the NPP were to win again.
From the political persecutions and harassments, "we have all been witnesses to the failure of their much-trumpeted 'zero tolerance for corruption', their insensitive and disastrous economic policies, the entrenched nepotism, the gross abuse of incumbency and rampant electoral malpractices".
He said so prolific and convincing has been the ruling party's propaganda in the past two years that even some die-hard supporters of the NDC sometimes got carried away by the well-targeted but misleading messages.
Former President Rawlings called all members of the party to come together as one formidable force to support Prof. Mills to catapult the party into office next year now that the euphoria of the extraordinary congress has died down.
"Let us bury the hatchet and marshal our forces to oust the NPP, whose ineptitude as a government is widely acknowledged in Ghana and beyond," he added.
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