- Is President Mills a coward?
‘’It is a mark of wisdom not to kick away the very step from which we have risen higher...the removal of one step from a staircase brings down the whole of it''.- Mahatma Gandhi
There is no more doubt that there is a GANG-WAR been waged and led by president Mills against the NDC founder and former President of Ghana Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and his family. But before we go into the nitty-gritty of this WAR, we ought to ask why it must be waged by a GANG. Does it say something about the nature of president Mills? Normally, GANGS are made up of a bunch of weak individuals incapable of defending themselves against their perceived or real very powerful enemies or opponents. It therefore goes without saying that NDC founder and former President Jerry Rawlings is a very powerful man not only within the NDC but in Ghanaian politics. This power, emanating from a people’s massive love for him as a leader, resulting in his larger than life popularity in Ghana and Africa definitely demands a gang – fight from whoever that wants to constitute themselves into his opponents /or enemies.
And what is the Premise of this GANG-WAR against the NDC founder? That his time is past, and he’s not allowing president Mills to rule according to his own set of values and style. Insistence on the application of the party’s values and principles has earned him absolute disdain from president Mills and his surrogates. Unable to engage in a WAR OF VALUES with the NDC founder, president Mills has turned to people who have publicly vowed to bring down Mr. Rawlings to form a GANG against him and his family.
President Mills befriended Gussie Tanoh as the first of the ‘enemies’ of President Rawlings. This is a man who left the NDC to form the Reform Party (RP) in open protest to an open endorsement of prof. Mills by President Rawlings in the famous ‘Swedru declaration’ in 2000. His reasons for that decision still stand today, albeit he tries to rationalize his return with talk of a ‘deepened internal democracy currently prevailing within the party’. We know that his true reason for returning to the NDC is to form part of the GANG-WAR against the NDC founder and to get his booty.
Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah, former party chairman, longest serving attorney-General of Ghana under President RAWLINGS left the NDC to form the Democratic freedom party (DFP) because he did not see, feel or experience democratic freedom in the NDC, but also because he said that Prof. Mills as leader of the NDC amounted to putting up an incompetent leader for the NDC. He vowed to oppose the NDC as long as president Mills remain party leader. This was in the face of unflinching and resolute support for Prof. Mills by party founder Jerry Rawlings and his wife NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS. Prof. Mills is still leader of the NDC today. Mills is not more or less competent than he was couple years ago when Obed Asamoah made all these arguments for his decision to form a new political party. If he now has returned to the NDC with the same Prof. Mills as leader, it cannot be for any other reason but to form a part of the GANG of Rawlings enemies being put together by president Mills for this on-going GANG-WAR against the NDC founder.
Lately, the GANG has been re-enforced by the admittance- illegal or otherwise- of Osahene Boakye Gyan, former head of government business and spokes person for the erstwhile AFRC regime that led the June4 uprising in 1979. Capt. Rtd. Boakye Gyan was one of the first of Rawlings’ colleagues who run away to the West after the AFRC handed over power to Liman. He did not wait to make sure of the stability of Ghana. He later elected himself a pure critic of the PNDC which was formed by people within the AFRC led by the NDC founder. Boakye Gyan then became a fierce critic of the PNDC/NDC and the entire Rawlings tradition from his base abroad where he sought greener pastures. Even in 2008, he contested as an independent in Jaman-south constituency in the Brong-Ahafo region because of his disdain for the NDC and its founder.
He has repeatedly said that the PNDC was born out of a betrayal of the principles of June4 for which reason he will never be part of the NDC party. He even wrote a book to prove his point. We all know that nothing has changed in terms of all these bogus arguments raised by Boakye Gyan in the past for his non-affiliation with the NDC. The only thing that is new is that there is a new ‘perfidious friend’ in town- President Mills. He’s made the party founder his enemy. He’s surrounding himself with others who also the NDC founder their enemy to accelerate his GANG-WAR against the former president. Boakye Gyan being a former close confidante of Mr. Rawlings will serve as a great sniper for President Mills- or so they think. There couldn’t be any other explanation to why this man who is totally disqualified to run as a PC for the NDC because he cannot fulfill the party’s requirement for at least a two year membership of the party before contesting on its ticket, will now be the sole candidate for the NDC in Jama, plus, he was publicly flanked by the party’s general secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia and other leading party members- a clear demonstration of the manipulation that is taking place just to bring Boakye Gyan to the NDC and make it legitimate- somebody whose utterances against the party in the past makes him a clear and present danger to the NDC- unless the NDC general secretary want to tell us that Maj. Rtd. Boakye Gyan was already a member of the NDC two years ago when he run as an independent in that same constituency in the Brong-Ahafo region. If that is the case, Boakye Gyan would still be disqualified on the basis that all party members who went independent in the 2008 elections are considered sacked from the party- according this same NDC general secretary who is now chief supporter of Boakye Gyan.
Those who saw it as a joke, Mills’ plan to alienate and make NDC founder and former President Rawlings ‘powerless’ to prepare the way for a ‘take over’ of the party are now laughing at the wrong side of their mouths. The evidence is very compelling. From events leading up to Sunyani, Wiki-leaks revelations through Hannah tetteh, to recent happenings in Cape Coast against Nana Konadu Agyeman- Rawlings, it is obvious that we’re heading for a final showdown within the NDC. It looks like we’re exhausting our options towards avoiding defeat in the 2012 general elections. And whatever calculations that Mills and his friends in the castle are going by, it is clear judging from their recent actions towards NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS that for them 3.1% of the NDC mass following who support her current stands in the party- assuming without admitting that percentage to be real, (because I believe NANA KONADU is more popular than Mills in reality) constitute less than the 40.000 votes that Mills obtained in 2008 from the TAIN constituency to win power. And if this is indeed their thinking, Mills and his cohorts must be the most romantic dreamers in the world today. They will wake up only when they’re on a freefall from power.
Otherwise, how can we explain the actions of Mills and his instruments of this shameful action in Cape Coast in the full glare of the police whose duty it is to enforce public order? What has president Mills turned the NDC into? When a government can openly undermine even the security agencies such as the police and engage in lawlessness- using some zombies with ‘indiscipline muscles’ called ‘macho men’ to lock up a public place secured by a high profile founding member of the ruling NDC for the purpose of addressing her supporters- and this, no doubt planned from the highest office of the land and carried out without remorse- even justifying it. The constituency chairman for Cape coast childishly proclaimed that they know what ever the former first lady was going to say in Cape Coast will not inure to the benefit of the government. For that matter, plus, they (constituency executives) were not pre-informed about the meeting was enough justification to disrupt it- unlawfully using hooligans. What a naïve constituency chairman the party has in Cape coast! Another bogus reason these ignoramuses used in justifying their untenable action is that FONKAR members say they have nothing to do with the NDC and therefore, they can’t allow FONKAR to use NDC colors in decorating the hall for the meeting. This is very interesting. These same people at the castle went about poisoning the mass followers of our dear party that the ‘thank you tour’ is a cover for campaigning to run as independent. Seeing that the use of the party paraphernalia convinces all sensible NDC people beyond doubt that NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS will stand up to fight until the rot in the party is corrected, they now want to turn round and use FONKAR as a cover to prevent her from using the NDC party colors- colors that this woman partly, if not fully choose for the party. Some of these people now talking anyhow do not even know the origin and history, let alone meaning of these party colors yet, they have the effrontery to ask NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS not to use them. In any case, FONKAR has never stated anywhere- officially or unofficially- that it wants nothing to do with the NDC. That is a palpable lie. Indeed, it is those at the castle who do not want FONKAR associated with the NDC.
Besides, there is nothing wrong if FONKAR disassociate itself from the ‘new values’ of the ‘new NDC’. We only know one NDC.
First of all, Cape coast is not the first region to be visited by NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS on her nation-wide ‘thank you’ tour. She has already visited Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Western, and Volta regions. The same channels and methods of organization were used. All such regions also have party executives who may not have supported the former first lady in her flag bearer ship bid but they did not go out of their way to encroach on her freedom to association and gathering permitted by law. Why did it happen in Cape Coast? Did we not see it coming when the perpetrators infiltrated the 31DWM and got some women to issue threats a week earlier to her Excellency not to visit the region? What they forgot is that they are dealing with a BOLD woman.
The orchestrators of this useless scheme used Cape Coast because it is there they can find people willing to do anything imaginable to show ‘primitive loyalty’ to President Mills just to earn crumbs and praise. At the end of the day, the supporters of NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS still gathered to listen to her speak. Uncalculating as those behind all this are, they didn’t realize the uselessness of their action until when it was time to explain it. Some of them have been hiding from the media- declining comments. They are wondering how this could have back-fired so much and even increased the former flag bearer contender’s popularity whiles further exposing Mills’ needless gang- war against the Rawlings’ and sending his own ‘popularity’ into the ditches.
All sensible people whose appreciation of our democracy have not been overwhelmed by avarice have condemned- root, stem and branch- the locking-up of the Cape coast town hall by agents of president Mills to prevent a meeting between NANA KONADU and her supporters. The hypocrites have remained silent- and this includes some ‘fair weather friends’ of NKAR whose refusal to openly denounce the Cape coast incident for whatever reasons best known to them is not only amazing to some of us, it is also worth taking note of. One thing is clear- and president Mills must know this. Whether or not the GANG-WAR against the NDC founder and his family succeeds or fails- the characters forming the GANG around Mills are still his worse enemies- not J.J. RAWLINGS.
But who so ever requires such a large gang to marshal forces against him to fight must be standing solidly by something fundamentally good- the truth.
‘When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men turn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice’- Rev. Martin Luther King.
Amenga-Etego SaCut NDC youth activist
