Things are knocking things in the NDC

Things are knocking things in the NDC, if reports being churned out on a daily basis are to be believed. At this point, with no official denial coming out of the Castle, it can be taken as true that Presidential Spokesperson Mahama Ayariga was directed by President Mills to announce that government ministers and top party functionaries have been directed to give preferential treatment to NDC foot soldiers. That is all the evidence one needs to conclude that the rumblings reported in the media are not only true but signal a bigger seismic movement under the party's firmament.

Essentially, media reports point to a power struggle raging within the party and the main protagonists are seen as former President J. J. Rawlings and his former vice and protoge, current President John Atta Mills. This is a self-fulfilling prophesy of the worst kind. Before the elections, one of the campaign themes hammered on ceaselessly by the NPP was that a vote for President Mills would be a vote for the "return of J. J. Rawlings". This was dismissed as scaremongering by the NDC.

In any case, the election of the NDC and its flag-bearer shows that the NPP’s bogey tactics did not work; indeed, they may have even backfired as the electorate felt that it was up to them to decide who ruled. Prof. Mills as candidate also showed enough resolve, especially in his selection of Mr. John Mahama as his vice presidential candidate reportedly against the wishes of Mr. Rawlings. Indeed, that singular action appears to have assured Ghanaians that Prof Mills was his own man, and could have been the tipping point that gave him his slim victory.

The majority of voters also felt that Mr. Rawlings would not have to irritate Prof Mills the way he did Mr. Kufuor because of the rapport between the current President and his Mentor who plucked him from relative obscurity and thrust him into the highest echelons of political power in the country. The common assumption was that the two men would work together , which would be good for the country unlike their public falling out between Rawlings and Kufuor.

This scenario was not to be. It took only a few days for the Rawlings-Mills template to start taking shape. Essentially, there would be no grace period, no hiding place, no respite and definitely no public support for the new President as he was harried by his former boss almost on a daily basis. Some of the most damaging negative cartoon quips against President Mills came from Rawlings, including the famous “o-fee slow!”, Ga for “you are moving too slowly”.

Press reports indicate that there are at least the two main factions in the NDC – the Rawlings and Mills factions, with their subsets and acolyte factions and tributaries. It is not clear what the two factions are contending for since their party has won power for all of them, but media reports indicate that the main struggle is over the sharing of positions rather than the direction of the party. The situation is said to be confusing the rank and file of the party who had hoped that the party’s polls victory would usher in a period of tranquillity in the party.

It is not only that party that is confused. Non-party members are also bemused that one man, namely former President Rawlings has been at the centre of every disquiet in the party when they were in power, when they lost power, and now that they are back in power. It was Kwesi Botwchey at one point, Kojo Tsikata at another time; Obed Asamoah has had his share and now President Mills.

All these are former close associates of Rawlings who are said to have fallen out with him. The centre cannot hold when things are knocking things.