Rawlings rather remains NDC’s greatest asset ever, not Mahama

The loyalists of NDC could not have been entirely correct for asserting somewhat passionately that former President John Dramani Mahama remains the NDC’s greatest asset.

If you may recall, somewhere last year, Kofi Adams, the former National Organiser of the NDC, made a bold statement: “I have said and will continue to say; former President Mahama remains our biggest asset. If he decides to contest or declines to do same, he will still remain our biggest asset. So any member, who loves the NDC and wants us to win political power in 2020, should not do anything that will antagonize or malign him. It will not augur well for the party” (see: ‘Stop antagonising Mahama; he is our greatest asset’-Kofi Adams; rainbowradioonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 15/03/2018).

In fact, the NDC loyalists are committing political suicide, or worst still, they are living in a denial for refusing to accept the fact that former President Rawlings is indeed revered by the party foot soldiers more than any other member of the party.

After all, former President Rawlings founded the NDC and managed to bring along a lot of supporters to his corner.

It would thus appear extremely incredulous for anybody to suggest that former President Rawlings is currently irrelevant in the Umbrella fraternity.

Frankly stating, one does not have to look far for the evidence of Ex-President Rawlings’s devoted attachment to the party he convivially autographed with his blood and the profound veneration he enjoys amongst the grassroots supporters.

Mind you, his 31st December 1981 revolution commemoration speeches are clear manifestations of his unbridled attachment to the party he founded in 1992.

Let us face it, Ex-President Rawlings’s unconditional love for his brainchild (NDC) has not tapered off, not by any stretch of the imagination.

In fact, Rawlings has been expressing concern over the conduct of some party apparatchiks, whom he would passionately describe as “babies with sharp teeth”, who lack any integrity to make the party great again.

Take, for example, following the NDC’s humiliating 2016 election defeat, Ex-President Rawlings was heard lamenting somewhat plangently: “Most people are yet to recover from the traumatic shock of the December 7th election results. “But I will have to state that if we turn our backs to our history us a party, we cannot escape the responsibility for the result”.

“I kept providing the warning whenever and wherever I could, and in public as well. “But no, once again the uncouth and uncultured in our party and government chose to insult and disrespect some of us” (Rawlings, 2016).

“Need I remind you that the NDC was built on principles and values that emerged as a result of circumstances that led to our birth?”

“The fallen heroes we honour today expect of us in the least, never to relapse into those same old days. But that has not been the case.

“In the wake of the revolution we made pronouncements that summed up the state of affairs that prevailed then.

“I admonished back then that; “Ghana should be a land where it will be accepted practice and norm that those who earn the privilege to govern, should administer in humility, conscious that they are the servants of the people and are ready to submit themselves and their actions to public scrutiny and accountability” (Rawlings, 2016).

Let us be honest, some people who prefer to call themselves NDC supporters have been showing gross disrespect to their party founder. After all, didn’t the party General Secretary, Asiedu Nketia, who was proselytised and christened into the Umbrella fraternity by Rawlings, once call Rawlings a barking dog? Yes he did.

And, haven’t the NDC’s boisterous brats (the babies with sharp teeth), who are obviously not privy to their party’s history been castigating Rawlings all the time for expressing his grievances over the unobjectionable mess in his party?

The undeniable fact however is, former President Rawlings still commands respect among the teeming party foot soldiers and it is possible that some of his supporters will be aggrieved over the NDC leadership’s abhorrent attitude towards him.

Unfortunately, however, the NDC’s boisterous brats who are not privy to their party’s history have been rebuking Rawlings for rightly expressing his grievances over the irreversible mess in the party he undersigned with his blood. .

Why wouldn’t he shriek and scold on the chilling news of some NDC Members of Parliament allegedly keeping double salaries over a period of two years?

In the past, Rawlings had raised concerns over the insulting behaviour of the NDC brats, many of whom do not even have passing acquaintance with the formation of the party.

Take, for example, Rawlings had this to say during one of NDC’s National Congresses: “Mr. President, fellow Ghanaians it is said that we should not throw out the baby with the bath water, but what we do when some of the babies in the tub are babies with hard teeth, biting and spewing some very horrible invectives? Should they not be lowered out with the dirty water? After all one bad nut is all it takes to spoil the taste in your mouth.

“When we find ourselves at a wooden bridge with some planks rotten, do we wait to get new planks before removing the rotten ones or do we remove the rotten ones immediately?” (JJ Rawlings, August 30, 2012).

In so far as I am an unrepentant critic of Rawlings, I do not think the man deserves all the effusions from the members of the party he worked strenuously to bring to existence.

Given that the vast majority of the members of the current NDC executive were proselytised and baptised into the Umbrella fraternity by Ex-President Rawlings, one would have expected an outright condemnation of the incessant insults directed at the founder of the party, but that has not been the case.

However the alleged sour relations between the founder and some of the current national party executives, it is boundlessly out of order for any member to show gross disrespect to the indefatigable Rawlings.

Former President Rawlings has been lamenting: “I have worked with good people all my life. “I have worked with bad people all my life, some wicked, some with character defects but evil natured people must be kept away”.

And, who says that it will come as a surprise to some of us if we wake up tomorrow to hear that the NDC founder, Rawlings, has decided to take over and clean the party he cherishes so much?

K. Badu, UK.

k.badu2011@gmail.com