I Cannot Leave NDC Alone ? Obed Asamoah

Dr. Yao Obed Asamoah, last week at a ceremony to inaugurate constituency executives of the Ablekuma Central in the Greater Accra Region, told critics, who felt he was unduly obsessed with political hatred for the National Democratic Congress, that politics is all about vying for political space. In doing that therefore he emphasised that there is no way a party or politician would stay clear off other parties or politicians on a modern, civilised, healthy political turf.

He, however, indicated that in struggling for the hearts and minds of the electorate, politicians must strive to do so devoid of lies, verbal and physical abuse, vilification and threats of violence or the use of violence itself. In his keynote address, he therefore sounded notice to his party, political opponents and detractors that in that scheme of political arrangement, it would be impossible for him to leave the NDC alone, since politics is about issues, analyses and marketing of ideas.

`Don`t forget that we are in competition with many other political parties for political space. Success in this effort implies that you demonstrate difference between our parties and others; that you demonstrate how your values are superior to those of other parties; that you face criticism or attacks which you must respond to and that you market your candidates and policies in contradistinction to others.

`In discharging this assignment, it is impossible not to make reference to other political parties. That is why I find it childish that some persons think that in my speeches I should leave the NDC alone and concentrate on our policies. I can never leave the NDC nor other parties alone.` He defended charges on the part of NDC spin doctors and serial callers to the effect that he resigned from the NDC and formed the Democratic Freedom Party because he lost the NDC national chairmanship position; and also that he stole NDC cash, by repeating his call on the NDC to use the appropriate legal and judicial processes to justify their claim that he stole party cash, if they have evidence, rather than hiding behind cheap, vile propaganda to assail his personality.

He also added that, if it was merely about personal interest in the NDC chairmanship, he would have simply kept quiet about the Mills leadership issue and other matters of internal democracy just to retain his position. `Secondly, those who expect me not to talk about the NDC forget that there is a barrage of vilification against me that invites response?NDC elements accuse me of making away with their money which [they claim] I am using to organise the DFP; never mind that they are the same elements who claim the DFP is being financed by the NPP. Now, which is which? And you would think that by now they would have supported their claim that I made away with their money by publishing figures of what was entrusted to me, divulging who did so in order that their claim can be verified and the amount misappropriated determined?or they can report me to the police to make appropriate investigations and come out wit the facts. They won`t do that?,` he fumed, pointing out that the problem of the NDC is not Yao Obed Asamoah, but the NDC itself.

Probably re-echoing his remark that he cannot leave the NDC alone, he called on the nation and electorate as well as his detractors to ask themselves what became of key functionaries of the [P]NDC, like the late Vice-President Kow Nkensen Arkaah, who was collared at a Cabinet meeting, former PNDC Secretary John Agyekum Kufuor, Courage Quarshigah, P.V. Obeng, Kwesi Botchwey, Goosie Tanor, Kweku Baah and, lately, stalwarts on the field, including the fire-eating Frances Essiam, the NDC`s formidable former Women`s Organiser.

Reminding the newly elected executives of the Ablekuma Central constituency of his party on the need to present a new face and image to the electorate by way of attitudes and habits, he stated, in concluding his message: `Certainly, the bad habits of the NDC are a taboo in the DFP. In engaging in political discourse?you must concentrate on issues, values and principles, with no insults?`