Former president JJ Rawlings has accused some National Executives of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) of plotting against some aspirants in the party’s flagbrearship race.
Former President John Mahama late last month disclosed his intention to lead the party ahead of the 2020 elections after reflecting on several calls on him to contest.
He would be joined by Second deputy Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin, the former Vice–Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, (UPSA) Joshua Alabi and former NHIA CEO Sylvester Mensah. Also, there are speculations former Finance Minister Professor Kwesi Botchwey is lacing his boots to join the race, with a 41-year-old Banker Nurudeen Iddrisu also announcing his intentions.
“Some aspiring candidates are abused by some national executives who are supposed to be non-aligned at least publicly,” Mr. Rawlings said Monday when he addressed cadres and members of the NDC at the commemoration of the 39th anniversary of the June 4th uprising at Madina in Accra.
He also tore into the concept behind the party’s Unity Walk, suggesting that it is cooked to serve an insular agenda aimed at promoting a particular candidate in the party’s flagbearer contest to the detriment of others.
“When we make reference to unity,” he stated, “it should not be a parochial agenda aimed at marketing some individuals.”
“The unity drive should be all-encompassing driven by the passion and desire to repair the cracks that led to the 2016 [electoral defeat],” he added.
The NDC, according to him, is still committing the blunders that led to “our deplorable lost in 2016” where people are sponsored to denigrate those of them “bold to speak the truth.”
We need to rise up
Mr. Rawlings further bemoaned how some “shameless” persons within the NDC with “deeply malicious motives”, for over a decade, spewed falsehood about the party’s history to muddy the story of the June 4 uprising.
“Indeed, many of these personalities have shamelessly disassociated themselves from our history in a bit to create the impression that it is a blot on the image of the party,” he stated.
“It was that suicidal tendency,” according to him, which led to the party’s humiliating defeat in 2016 elections with former President John Maham as presidential candidate.
He said for the NDC to regain the Jubilee House, it needs to rise up from the ashes of 2016 and that can only be achieved with the readiness “to defend and practice the social democratic principles that define who we are supposed to be.”
The NDC, he observed cannot continue to celebrate “opulence and mediocrity” and count itself as a valuable alternative to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
