NDC will lose 2012 elections - Ras Mubarak

Mohammed Abdulai Mobarak alias Ras Mubarak, 31, an activist of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who contested the position of National Youth Organiser and lost, has told The Chronicle that it will be very difficult for his party to survive the 2012 general elections, if things do not change for the better.

According to him, the government's much talked-about Better Ghana agenda was gradually degenerating into a farce, and therefore stressed the urgent need to make amends before things get out of hand.

"It would be too difficult to go out and ask the suffering masses to re-elect a government that has conveniently frozen scholarships; has done little about providing opportunities for the more than sixty thousand graduates annually; not brought justice to families who were emasculated under Mr. Kufuor, and has spent its first year floundering," he said.

This according to him, were some of the reasons why former President Rawlings has been expressing reservations about the slow pace at which the Mills administration was handling the affairs of the country, saying, "obviously, former President Rawlings has plenty of reasons to be worried, because promises of a better Ghana are degenerating into a farce."

Having campaigned in the various constituencies across the length and breadth of the country, as candidate for the position of National Youth Organiser, Mubarak said he was overwhelmed at the extent of discontentment at the grassroots level of the NDC. He believed the level of discontentment among the rank and file of the party was a verdict on the government's failures. The NDC activist said, "party members have justifiable anxieties over the direction of things in the country.

"They are worried because of the lack of opportunities, poor social services, justice for families who were emasculated under Mr. Kufuor. and the gradual and soft-touch approach to fulfilling the Better Ghana agenda," he noted, adding, "the economy may be growing but any unbiased observer knows life is so difficult for the working class."

Though he admits that the Mills administration has done some good work in the areas of agriculture, with GDP growth in agric soaring up to 6.2 percent last year, against a target of 5.9, whilst 5,000 youths had begun training in mobile phone repairs and assembling under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) nationwide with 1,800 from the three Northern regions, he indicated, the extent of discontentment at the grassroots level of the NDC is serious.

Whilst appreciating the fact that President Mills was not walking away from the challenges confronting the nation, he said "if things do not turn around soon and fast, it would produce more internal and political recriminations."

Mubarak also took on the Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide, The Insight and The Enquirer newspapers respectively, Messrs. Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr., Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Raymond Archer, together with Alhaji Bature, a media practitioner and a known supporter of the NDC, for their continuous criticisms of Mr. Rawlings.

According to him, the outpouring of grief and sympathy from all manner of persons across the country especially those who traveled long distances to show solidarity with the Rawlings family when their house was gutted by-fire over the weekend should send a clear signal to the Alhaji Natures and Kweku Baako.

He accused Mr Baako of overstepping the line of civility, and resorting to what he describes as "journalism of personal vendetta against Jerry Rawlings."

"What Malik, Kwesi Pratt and now Raymond Archer don't know is that the NDC is not like the main opposition party," he said, emphasissing that "under the NPP, President Kufuor's bribe-taking or source-greasing friends in the media over praised him, and he became a roadblock instead of a catalyst to positive change."

At the time, he said people like Gabby Otchere-Darko, who gave constructive criticisms, were marginalised, while journalists like Malik Kweku Baako were praising Mr. Kufuor.

The failed National Youth Organiser further said, "if Barack Obama were a Ghanaian and a member of the NDC, the Batures and Pratts would have used their appearances on radio and television to attack him for his courage to speak out against old politics."

Years before he became president, he recalled how Obama had been critical of the Democratic Party and US politics in general, and the repeated attacks on the leadership of his party even writing in page 38 of his book - The audacity of Hope that "Democrats are, well, just confused."

Mubarak stressed, "Rawlings is not the first, and would not be the last party member to express reservations over certain aspects of governance under Prof. Mills."

This he said, was evident in the fact that Ghana's first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah did it and went as far as describing some elements in his party as traitors, without naming them.