Rawlings happy with NDC defeat – Lawyer

Former President Jerry John Rawlings publicly affects sadness about the defeat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the recent presidential elections but is inwardly happy about the party’s loss, Osei Kwadwo, a political science lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, has said.

According to him, Mr Rawlings’ actions and inaction prior to the elections showed clearly he preferred the NDC, a party he founded, losing the elections to the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He was of the view that Mr Rawlings’ posture as far as the NDC is concerned would go a long way to hurt the party in opposition if certain measures are not taken immediately by the executives of the party to manage his outbursts.

His comments follow criticism by the former president of government officials for causing the defeat of the NDC. He noted that although there were signs prior to the polls that the NDC would lose the elections, it failed to act.

According to him, the NDC lost the elections way before December 7, because it chose to “persistently and unrepentantly stay on the slippery slope despite the warning lights” in its face.

But reacting to Mr Rawlings’ comments in an interview with Accra News’ Obeng Mensah on Tuesday January 3, a livid Osei Kwadwo said: “Rawlings is NDC’s main problem. It baffles me why the NDC will continue to refer to him as the founder of the party.

The NDC doesn’t belong to him. He is just an ordinary floor member of the party and he should be treated as such, although he became president on the ticket of the NDC.”

He added: “He (Rawlings) is happy that the NDC lost the elections but is pretending he is sad and shocked. If he thinks he can take back his party, then he is wrong. It should be pointed out to him that the party does not belong to him and so he cannot behave anyhow with it.”