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We Are Not The NDC Without Our Core Values

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 Source: Ofosu-Appiah, Ben

: Probity and Accountability

> With the NDC delegates conference

> in Sunyani over and the endorsement of Attah

> Mills peace is supposed to return to the party and all factions are

> supposed to

> join hands, close ranks and work together in unity. However it is easier

> said

> than done and it looks like it is not going to be easy to mend fences.

> The refusal of Nana Konadu to concede defeat,

> congratulate the winner, raise his hand, give a concession speech and

> pledge

> support to Mills for the 2012 campaign is something that is going to hurt

> the

> NDC as 2012 approaches. Nana Konadu should have been graceful in defeat

> and Mills

> humble in victory.

>

> Even with the contest over,

> acrimonious statements are coming from both camps. It looks like the proxy

> war

> is still on. FONKAR believes the process leading to the elections at

> congress

> was not democratic enough and if the electoral college had been expanded

> to

> give the grassroots supporters a voice Konadu would have won but it is

> worthy

> of note that Rawlings did not allow the grassroots supporters to choose a

> leader for the party when he imposed John Attah Mills on everyone through

> his Koforidua

> declaration and religiously supported him for three consecutive elections.

> Now

> it is ironical that the candidate he imposed on everyone refuses to

> acknowledge

> him. Now Mills listens to everyone around him including the Ahwois, and

> the octogenarian self seeking and

> delusional politicians near him, and also the small boys and girls but he

> stubbornly refuses to heed the advice of the person who picked him from

> obscurity and single handedly made him who he is now.

>

> Mills is not bound to take every

> single advice of Jerry Rawlings but to be consistently and regularly

> ignored

> even though the issues Rawlings is raising are relevant smacks of

> negligence

> and arrogant display of power. Mills

> said in Sunyani that the wheels of justice grinds slowly. It needs not.

> Has he

> also heard that justice delayed is justice denied? A presidential term in

> Ghana is four years not eight years and

> does Mills need a reminder that he is already more than two and half

> years through his term? There is no guarantee

> that he will win a second term. If Mills does not believe in the core

> values of the NDC he should leave the party and form his own and can call

> it "Jesus For All Party. This "fama Nyame" president is wasting our time.

>

>

> It is absolutely important that

> Mills do everything within his power to accord the Rawlingses the

> necessary

> recognition and reverence within the NDC fraternity. The NDC without

> Rawlings

> is unattractive, it is just another political party. Rawlings is the

> conscience

> of the NDC and the conscience of Ghana. The NDC is going to need his

> charismatic appeal in the elections. He and his wife Nana Konadu already

> have

> the grassroots support network NDC needs to prosecute election 2012

> campaign.

> Nobody in the NPP dared criticized the party when they were in power.

> Rawlings criticizes his own party in

> government. The party founded on the foundation and principles of social

> justice, probity and accountability has been hijacked by a greedy gang

> worse

> than the thieving cabal in the NPP.

>

> The principles of probity and

> accountability have been thrown out of the window, while the greedy gang

> are

> engaged in property grabbing left, right and center and the president

> looks the

> other way. Has the NDC turned into another property owning party like the

> NPP? You need a strong leader who can uphold the

> tenets of the party and the principles upon which it was built. Every

> revolutionary party needs a strong leadership to keep everyone in line.

> After

> the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro and Che Guevara had to work hard to keep

> everyone in line to prevent fellow revolutionaries from looting the very

> spoils

> they had salvaged.

>

> Without such strong leadership based on

> principles, the NDC is a cabal of team B

> players, hampers and tractor thieves, gap toothed overnight millionaires,

> incompetent academics, ugly dark faced mansion building self seekers,

> septuagenarian

> and octogenarian senile demented players coming back to loot one last

> time,

> fat 4x4 driving clueless and arrogant boys and girls.

> The contest in 2012 is going to be between two equally corrupt political

> parties competing for the spoils to demonstrate who can loot the nation

> more.

> The NDC without the Rawlingses, trust me, is worst than the other parties.

> What?s the point in buying a hunting dog if it can?t chase, nor catch a

> prey. You must as well buy a sheep. The two leading

> political parties are playing watch my back and I watch your back, chop

> and let

> me chop small. I am deeply disturbed that nobody is fighting for the

> common man

> in the streets. With the NDC haven lost its conscience there is no

> political

> party to fight for the common man in Ghana.

>

> It is never true that all we need

> is another political party, an alternative bunch of suit wearers in a

> tropical

> hot and steamy weather, a bunch of plane hopping conference attending,

> talk big

> do nothing ministers. Do you think all we fought for is to have another

> NPP? In

> every house you need a conscience. A

> friend put it this way: a Ghanaian who knows nothing about truthful living

> will

> rob a robber he has just arrested. It

> looks like the lessons of elections 2008 have been lost on the NDC so

> soon. Let

> no one be fooled by the crowds that meet the president when he travels.

> They

> are all staged. Big crowds, singing and dancing crowds do not win

> elections anyway.

> If you doubt this ask Nana Akuffo-Addo. You can always assemble those

> crowds with money and the trappings of

> power. Have you forgotten about the Kasoa NPP rally in 2008? It was a mega

> huge rally but what happened? He lost the elections !!!

>

>

> If the NDC manages to win 2012

> (doubtful without the Rawlingses) then the party would have come out of

> all

> this stronger but if it loses it will be weakened beyond rebuilding and

> might

> be confined to opposition forever. All these people calling the shots now

> will

> take their loot somewhere to enjoy and will forget about rebuilding the

> party.

> It is up to Mills to reach out to all and unite the party but so far his

> lethargic leadership style does not give

> much to hope for. All that this

> president has been doing is cutting sod after sod but nothing concrete

> happens

> after that. This perpetual bible wielding president is overwhelmed by the

> job he applied for but he won't get out of the way. He has outsourced his

> job to God and always wearing his faith on his sleeves.

>

>

> Ben Ofosu-Appiah

> Tokyo, JAPAN.

> The author is a senior political

> and social analyst and also a policy strategist based in Tokyo. He

> welcomes

> your comments; Send your comments to; do4luv27@yahoo.com

Columnist: Ofosu-Appiah, Ben