Rawlings walks around with Sunyani 3% bitterness bottled in him - Victor Smith

A leading member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Victor Smith, has said former President and founder of the NDC Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings walks around with bitterness bottled up inside him.

The former Personal Assistant to the founder of the party, Victor Smith had in the past advised that Jerry John Rawlings should leave the NDC party and that he should stop attacking its members.

Taking his turn on GhanaWeb’s ’21 Minutes With KKB, monitored by MYNEWSGH.com, the former John Mahama appointee said the reason for the pent up bitterness of the former President is as a result of his 3% humiliation- through his wife- at the NDC’s 2011 Sunyani Congress when the former first family challenged late President Atta-Mills.

“It was the Sunyani vote that made Rawlings humiliated because obviously the wife was walking in his shadows … he probably thought the people could not look at him in the face and vote against his wife or give him the kind of results that came out of Sunyani”, he explained.

“The people slapped him in the face with the 3% vote. So the NDC people proved a point. We voted for this man to do a job. We gave him our mandate. The whole Ghana voted him to be President so we all went to Sunyani and the people voted”, he added

“So I think there is a bitterness bottled in him. If you believe in democracy and you run for an election and you lose, you dont go and form a political party, you may have to work hard the next time, you have to tell a better story the next time.” He said.

“If your love for the party has declined just leave the party,” he dared.

Victor Smith, who was once was Mr. Rawlings’ spokesperson fell out with him, gave the advice following what he calls incessant attacks and criticisms of the NDC by the party founder.

Former President Rawlings at the least opportunity takes on members of his party accusing them of failing to uphold probity and accountability which are the tenets on which the party was built.

He said the NDC party while in government sidelined members who had integrity in the likes of Martin Amidu, and went in for others who had influence but had no integrity thus lead to the party’s defeat.

Mr Rawlings also wasn’t fully present in the party’s campaigns in the last two elections in 2012 and 2016, and at the party’s final Accra Stadium rally, though his face was advertised to the party as a guest speaker, he failed to show up.

Many attribute the humiliation of the then incumbent NDC at the polls as partly because of the absence of Rawlings influence.