Rawlings praises 'consistent' NPP

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has stated that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been consistent in holding onto its values.

He said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – the party he founded and led for a long time does not appear to be consistent in the pursuit of its values.

The former President has persistently stated that the NDC, whilst in government, ignored the principles of probity and accountability.

Addressing a rally at Ashaiman to mark the 25th Anniversary of the NDC, the former President said owing to current happenings in the political space, the ruling NPP does not appear to be ‘vulnerable.’

He said the NPP’s persistence in holding onto its core values contributed to the party’s victory in the 2016 general elections in which the NDC performed abysmally.

“The NPP are not so vulnerable. Whether you pump money into them, you try to corrupt them or not, there is a certain consistency by virtue of who and what they are and that figure, in terms of election could invariably always be the same. You and I do not have the consistency of the NPP. We have a different type of consistency but we appear unable to hold on to that consistency,” the former President told the teeming NDC supporters on Saturday evening.

He said the NDC could make a comeback to government in 2020 if the opposition party identifies its strengths and take steps to deal with its weaknesses immediately.

“We could virtually win every election all the time if we recognize our strengths and deal with our weaknesses and because of that, certain powers have been vested in certain personalities to do business and to do politics in this country in order to take away from you in the NDC so that there will be a better balance,” he said.

He added that “unity is a beautiful sound, and I would like to hear that. But unity comes at a price; and it is not asking for plenty of money. It is only asking for integrity, truthfulness and sincerity. We must come clean. Let’s come clean. That’s the only way some of us know how to live,” he added.

The former President has continuously insisted that sickening greed, selfishness and massive corruption compelled Ghanaians to vote the NDC out of office in December, 2016.

At the rally marking the 38th anniversary of the June 4, 1979 uprising in Wa last week, he said that “nobody is saying don’t make money, make it good and clean; but not some of the ones I know; sickening, that kind of greed and selfishness, look at where it landed us. Or is it because this government is not behaving the way Kufuor did in his time, so we think we are okay? I know what’s going on. I know some of the things they are running into.”