When NDC Activists Begin To Sound Like NPP Activists …

One of the ironies of life is that we are often guilty of the very acts we accuse others of. It is for this reason that before a person sits in condemnation or judgement of another, he must first perform a reality check on himself to determine if he is not guilty of what he is about to condemn others for.

Currently, some NDC activists are trying to convince Ghanaians that the NPP is up to no good because they are defending and praising Rawlings whom they demonised and persecuted just a couple of years ago. Of course, this act on the part of the NPP is not only hypocritical but also nauseating. It is up to the Rawlingses to be wary of such praises. Is it not said that fear the Greeks when they send you a gift? The Rawlingses therefore need no soothsayer to tell them to fear the NPP when they hear them praising or defending them.

But, what right has the NDC activists have to ridicule the NPP for praising and defending Rawlings when they now attack and condemn him publicly. What moral right do they have to condemn NPP activists for sounding like NDC activists when they too are sounding like NPP activists? Just imagine that during the Alhaji & Alhaji programme on Radio Gold on Saturday, a panelist who was part of the Rawlings Administration and benefitted from it and is part of the Mills administration today, benefitting from it as well, had the temerity to insinuate that Rawlings' criticism of the Mills administration is due to a head disease he, Rawlings, has! Our patience for this brave coward is waning and at the opportune time, we shall expose him for who he is.

Can one imagine that one of the NDC activists who finds everything wrong with the NPP defending Rawlings had the gall to rhetorically demand to know what Rawlings achieved during his 19 years in office! To this NDC activist therefore, Rawlings achieved little or nothing during his 19 years rule. Is he sounding like an NDC member or an NPP member?

As for Kwesi Pratt, his effusions on Alhaji & Alhaji will be addressed later. We will not allow this TREACHEROUS AND DANGEROUS character take the NDC for a ride. Those who want to be fooled by him can let him fool them. But we will not let him go scot-free when he seeks to divide the NDC.

Another well known NDC activist in questioning Rawlings' call for justice attacked him with the issue of the so-called identification haircut saga that took place under the NDC government of Rawlings. This accusation is a favorite one of the NPP against not only Rawlings but the entire NDC. It is this allegation that an NDC activists is today hauling at Rawlings. Is this not strange?

In their blind rage to attack and demonise Rawlings, these NDC activists have accused NPP activists of sounding like NDC activists whereas they too are sounding like NPP activists. But while they are at it, they should begin asking themselves why the likes of Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, P.V Obeng, Prof. Awoonor, Capt. Tsikata, Totobi Quakyi, the Ahwoi brothers and other senior members of the NDC including President Mills all of who cannot be happy with Rawlings' booms choose to keep quiet.

Definitely, it is not because they are afraid to speak up.

What they see sitting, the NDC youngsters won't see standing. Those among them who are sent by their god fathers to attack Rawlings should ask themselves why these godfathers will not do the attacking themselves.

The Daily Post is unhappy with the attacks on President Mills by Former President Rawlings. We believe that even IF Rawlings' grievances are genuine, the attacks on President Mills are not right. However, we do not believe that the best way to get Rawlings to cease fire is to publicly attack him. Two wrongs do not make a right. What's more, it is wrong for a child to stand in public to attack his father for a wrong the father has done.

God abhors drunkenness. Thus, it is recorded in the Good Book that whosoever is deceived by alcohol is a fool. Yet, Ham was cursed for laughing at his father, Noah, who got drunk and lay naked on the floor. The fact that Noah messed up did not make it right for Ham, his son, to expose him to public ridicule. It is the duty of every child to cover his father's nakedness and for doing that, Ham's younger brothers, Shem and Japheth got blessed.

Shouldn't the youngsters in the NDC be emulating the example of Shem and Japheth so that even if a party elder like Rawlings goes wrong, they would not expose him to public ridicule but rather seek other avenues to get him to put an end to whatever wrong he is up to?

What do NDC activists who sit on radio to attack Rawlings for attacking Mills and his government seek to achieve? Cow him down? Silence him? Show him where power lies?

Their attacks on Rawlings only widen the cracks in the NDC, not patch them. These young men who have by and large proven their worth in government are only providing the cannon fodder for the members of FONKAR to attack back. Everyone knows who their target will be and how unbridled they can be in the use language in their attack which will make one wince. Is this the kind of internal war NDC activists who are attacking Rawlings want with just about six months to go to the polls. One can see the NPP laughing all the way to victory if this happens.

Let the young activists in the NDC not deceive themselves that it will be easy for the NDC to win the elections in December. As Ben Ephson, Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch has opined, the NDC can win without Rawlings but it will be easier with the Former President on board. Why then will the NDC want to risk going into the elections without Rawlings? Is it a risk worth taking?

Let NDC activists imagine a government of Akufo-Addo in place and some of them being invited before EOCO, BNI, Police CID all in one day and they would realize that going into the elections without Rawlings is not a risk worth taking. In 2000, Goosie Tanoh, who is not known in Ghana even today by the average Ghanaian left the NDC with a few of his friends. They did not win even a seat in the elections but they cost the NDC to lose power to the NPP. If Goosie Tanoh's departure from the NDC can cost the NDC so much, it will be the height of buffoonery for anyone to think that the absence of Rawlings won't cost the NDC.

Sure, the Mills government has done very well since coming into office. But anyone who believes that the provision of social amenities and infrastructure by the Mills government is enough to win the NDC the elections must be living in wonderland. Have we forgotten that in pro-NPP areas where the NDC has improved infrastructure drastically under the Rawlings regime, in the run-up to the polls, the beneficiaries were asking if they must eat roads. Did they not tell the NDC to come roll the roads away?

If infrastructural development alone is enough to win elections in Ghana, then the NDC should not be winning in the Volta Region; it should be winning in the Ashanti Region, at least in Kumasi.

The factors that win NDC elections in Ghana include the provision of infrastructure, the posture of the NDC juxtaposed to that of the NPP, the humility of President Mills as well as the figure of Jerry Rawlings. Those who therefore are saying the Rawlingses can go to hell are still political neophytes. If they want to commit political suicide, they are free to do so. The rest of us will not go down the abyss with them. And let them remember that nothing makes them more NDC than the rest of the party members. Their only advantage is that they have the platform to make their views known. If the platform is available to all NDC members, they would realize they are just a noisy minority; the silent majority will never tell Rawlings to go to hell. We are ready for a debate on this matter with anybody, any day.

Before we let the curtain down on this issue, we cannot help but address Mrs. Rawlings.

Dear Madam, these are unhappy times for many in the NDC because some of the leading members including you continue to give members and supporters heartaches.

Madam, we have said it in plain language that some of the party activists who attack your husband, Founder of the NDC, are beginning to sound like NPP supporters. Truth be told, however, in your attacks on President Mills, you have also sounded more like an NPP activist. We cannot understand what is eating you to the extent that you will make certain utterances against a man you were willing to be a polling agent for so he could win the 2008 elections. Madam, we know you are a Christian. The bible enjoins us to eschew bitterness. It also enjoins us not to let the sun settle on our anger. We are thus asking you to let go any bitterness you may have nursed against President Mills. The cornerstone of the Christian faith is forgiveness. Remember that it was while we were yet sinners that God gave us his son to die for mankind.

Finally, Madam, if you let your anger and bitterness have the better part of you, and the NDC loses the election in December, President Mills is unlikely to suffer. Those who will suffer are the millions who have followed your husband all these years. It is the civil servants, the politicians, the teachers, policemen, soldiers, business men and many ordinary people who have identified themselves in one way or the other who will suffer. For, a man like Akufo Addo as President of Ghana is the most fearful thing anyone can think of. Did his own friend, Kofi Coomson, not say he cannot sleep with his eyes closed if Akufo- Addo becomes President? Under Akufo-Addo, some will be killed.

Some will be thrown in jail. Some will lose their jobs while some will lose their lives. And for the rest of their lives, these persons and their children will hold you and your family in contempt. They will curse you. They will never forgive you. We do not want that for you.

Every true NDC person must continue to seek the path of reconciliation between Mills and Rawlings. United we stand; divided we fall!