There are hypocrites in NDC - Mills

The former Vice-President and NDC Presidential aspirant, Prof J.E.A. Mills, last week stunned members of the Legon branch of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the NDC when he declared, “there are a number of hypocrites within the leadership of the NDC.”

According to the professor, there are some elements within the party who are interested in sowing seeds of discord among the rank and file of the party. Mentioning no names, Prof Mills accused his accusers of trying to peddle all sorts of lies and unsubstantiated allegations against him with the view to bamboozling his supporters in the run-up to the December congress of the party.

In what could be described as a confession, he noted that the NDC lost to the ruling NPP in the 2000 elections mainly because instead of making the party’s manifesto known to the electorate, the leadership of the party spent most of the time fighting among themselves.

The presidential aspirant who was interacting the TEIN members did not understand why people should make hue and cry over his cordial relationship with the founder of the party, Jerry Rawlings. Rawlings, he insisted, can never be regarded as irrelevant in the NDC. To him, Rawlings has done a lot for the NDC and Ghana as a whole and needs to be accorded the deserved dignity.

The eloquence with which the former law lecturer at the University of Ghana itemised and debunked the numerous allegations against him by his opponents earned him a standing ovation from the TEIN members.

On the present financial predicament of the party, the former vice President gave the assurance that as they did before, he and the umbrella party are capable of financially energising the NDC. “I wonder why those who claim to be supporting the party with money at the moment did not do so when the party needed it most. You don’t support a party only at a time when you need a position in the party,” Mills asserted.

On his close association with old faces of the party, Prof Mills said the NDC cannot do without such people, adding that he strongly supports calls for the return of the old party members who disassociated themselves from the activities of the party for one reason or the other.

He could therefore, not fathom why people who claim to be advocates of the return of old faces agenda, turn around to accuse him of trying to retain the old faces in the party. “If we are calling for the return of old faces, why should we do away with those already in the party,” he queried.

The assertion that a vote for Mills will be a vote for Rawlings in disguise was also rubbished away by the presidential hopeful. He described the originators of this assertion as people who do not know what it means to be a President.

Prof Mills stated that people who complained about his presidential candidature in the 2000 elections on the basis that he was going to be controlled by Jerry Rawlings, if he had won the elections, were the same people who struggled for the position of his running mate. “If they knew I would have been controlled by Jerry if I had won the elections, why were they struggling to become my vice. If I would be controlled as President then what about the Vice President?” he asked.

Asked whether he had someone in mind to choose as his running mate if he emerges as the winner in the December congress, he gave no answer. He, however, intimated that he would still gone in for his man in the last election if the present situation epitomised that of 2000.

Present at the function were Prof Kofi Awoonor, a lecturer at the University of Ghana and a staunch member of the NDC and other members of the Mills’ campaign team.