WHAT should have been a normal occurrence in any maturing Political Party has, due to mismanagement and lack of foresight, degenerated into chaos..almost sending our ruling Party into disarray. Vice President Mahama, during the launch of Professor Mills' campaign described his intra-party opponents as the 'parochial few', there is also the Baba Jamal version of drunkards in a Yutong bus, Allotey-Jacob is also firing all cylinders from Cape Coast describing Ex-President Rawlings as needless, if not 'useless' and perhaps capping it all is Nana Konadu Rawling's 'counsel' that the NDC needs redemption apparently from the 'team B' players including Prof Mills. I want to agree with Nana Konadu Rawlings that the NDC truly, at this moment, needs redemption but not from any particular individual but redemption from the NDC itself!
One may wonder why all these bickering and self-destructive intra-party politics of a Party in government and the simplest of answers has to do with Nana Konadu's attempt to contest a party's own constitutionally sanctioned Primaries to elect a flag bearer. Is this really a crime? Should this be a reason for this useless and destructive criticisms bringing disunity into the ruling party? if it were to be an Anathema or a curse to challenge the sitting President then why is that provision not repealed from the party's constitution? A dedicated member of the party decides to abide by provisions of the party's constitution and hell is breaking lose in a party that is successfully trying to show the world of the entrenchment of intra party democracy?
It is however imperative to note that the sources of law in any organised institution, Party or Country is not only what is written black and white in the constitution but there are also constitutional conventions and tested beneficial practices and customs which are equally authoritative not in terms of legal consequences but Political and moral ramifications of which Nana Konadu Rawlings should have known and known better that her timing and campaign message is simply wrong and ill-advised. It also appears Nana Konadu's ambitions are an attempt to dispel the notion that the Rawlingses are irrelevant to the successful running of the NDC as some within the premises of power try to say, albeit needlessly. However depending on her real motives and perhaps unstated ambitions she still retains that constitutional right to pursue her dreams and this should not lead to chaos as we are witnessing. The current chaos makes the ruling party weak and if not properly managed can send the party into opposition. I initially felt Nana's move, while democratic and constitutional, wasn't in the party's interest so while Party executives espouse and accept it Publically as a further sign of deepening democracy in the NDC, they would proceed PRIVATELY and behind the scenes talk her out of this potentially suicidal move and HERE HASTILY ENTERED the grandiosity of Kwasi Pratt Jnr, Alhaji Bature, Allotey-Jacobs and others.
Kwasi Pratt, appearing to love the NDC more than the Rawlingses, virtually swore to ensure Nana Konadu never gets the opportunity to contest, she was insulted and demeaned by Alhaji Bature who described her move publicly as senseless and impossible while Allotey Jacobs kept firing unprintable words of intolerance and other shameful and immature invectives all because they disagreed with the chosen path of a party member exercising her rights. This was a private matter and basic wisdom should have told these people not to come out publicly with such insults, after all she wasn't committing any crime. This is how the already big NDC hernia got further distended. I am not sure exactly where Dr 'Bishop' Tony Aidoo is and what his position is in all of these but I understand he somehow has a healing antidote to this big Hernia.
The headache of President Mills, in my opinion is not beating Nana Konadu at Sunyani, but going on to win the general elections where he will need all hands on deck. The apparent showmanship of Nana Konadu I guess, is not really about what happens in Sunyani per se, but NDC winning the general elections without the active participation of the Rawlingses in the campaigns. Beating Prof Mills in Sunyani will rather be a double win for the Rawlingses but the real loss of the Rawlingses is not the outcome of Sunyani but the outcome in the general elections. Is the NDC ready? Vice President Mahama referred to his intra party opponents as parochial few...should Prof Mills win in Sunyani I wonder the sort of campaign message He will give this parochial few to send to the people. By this is He not destroying the already existing bridges of possible integration and post-Sunyani unity? Baba Jamal says Rawlings can keep his blessings ..yea we wait to see whether the overwhelming votes from Volta region were because of their love for Baba Jamal and Mills' or Rawlings NDC.
Just recently moves were being made with spins from the same Alhaji Bature who said Nana Konadu is going nowhere, to get Asantehene to help convince Nana Konadu out of the race because it could end up sending the party into opposition. Good show but is it not too late? This was the basic wisdom they should have known right from the beginning. If they really realise that her mere presence in the race, her disapproval of Prof Mills could serve a doom for the Party, then why the insults? Why did they say she was going nowhere, why did they say, and some continue to say the Rawlingses are irrelevant? The insults to Nana Konadu and her husband did not only come from party shots but even more from supposed allies who felt they loved the party more. A party Chairman even said his testicles may be cut off if Nana Konadu becomes the President. So should the unexpected happens and Nana Konadu becomes the elected flagbearer will John Mahama, Bature, Allotey Jacobs and the Betty-Moulds resign from the NDC? Wont that make you bad losers? And should Prof Mills win wont it also make you bad winners if you fail to integrate the factions? Is Nana Konadu actually serious in her thinking that she and 'my husband-the founder' alone can campaign and win an election without the active participation and help from the currently accepted and popular Prof Mills and other party members?
Clearly the NDC has a handicap to overcome, the handicap of a foolishly excessive aggression and intolerance, the handicap of bigotry, and the lack of foresight from both sides of the divide. We need a stronger NDC to make the coming elections worthwhile, that the elders of the party will rise and take their rightful position to reconcile the party at least to ensure a clean campaign devoid of insults and slander that will not make it difficult if not impossible to achieve a post-Sunyani unbroken NDC. I Personally believe for now a change of governing party every 8 years will do Ghana more good than harm to ensure accountability, unless an incumbent GROSSLY mismanages the affairs of the country within the initial 4 years, something I don't think Prof Mills has done...(yet). But should things continue the way it appears now then the NDC has itself to blame. It is just obvious that the factions will need each other to ensure a win and the earlier they act the better.
NDC, I wish you very well.
By NANA A.D AKYEAMPON
ointegrity@yahoo.com
