NDC founder and leader, Mr. J.J Rawlings loves politics. For a man who started off on his road to political power on a platform of distrust of and hate for politicians, his metamorphosis into one himself is probably one of the most bewildering transformations in the history of Ghana�s partisan politics.
Since he attempted a mutiny in 1979, the former airman has been eating, sleeping, dreaming, digesting and spewing politics. This so consuming that he just cannot let go.
Why politics seems so attractive to him is a subject that psychologists may delve into at some time in the future, but right now, he wants to be and is in the thick of things political! His boom speeches have become legendary; some would say notorious. He may think he is helping his party and the country with these boom speeches but they often end up attracting more controversy than smoothening ruffled political and social feathers.
He has been at it again and the outburst, as expected, has started rolling and gathering its own brand of prickly political moss! Is he helping or sinking his party, which scraped through the last presidential elections with the slimmest of margins � the slimmest in Ghana�s political history? Since the return into government of the NDC after 2008 elections, Mr. Rawlings has on a number of occasions criticized President Mills for what he believes is the �go-show� pace of the administration.
His latest outburst, which yet again shows the depth of his frustration with the administration, is the threat that he would quit the NDC if President John Evans Atta Mills and members of his administration do not sit up and live up to what he described as the expectations of Ghanaians. What these expectations are, are not difficult to guess: Persecution and incarceration of members of the former NPP administration.
In other words, eve-up with the former government in relation to its prosecution and jailing of NDC ministers and operatives when it was in power from 2001-2009. But instead of sending shivers down the spines of the former administration, now the main opposition, there is a feeling that the NDC founder�s outbursts world rather work to the advantage of the NPP, for which reason they would like him to maintain that kind of garrulousness and quarrelsomeness.
A member of the NPP, over the weekend, told The Mail that, �We are glad, let him keep talking�When we complained when he was doing it too Kufuor, they thought we were wrong, now he is doing it to his own men�We are always happy and I pray that he does not only talk, but beat them.�
The NPP member, who is a former Member of Parliament said though some of the comments by Mr. Rawlings on the government may have some merit, �the way he goes about it is wrong�and we have always said that when he used to do that to us.�Though he was happy, the NPP man, was quick to caution that, ��I am happy that he is troubling Mills, I think Rawlings is still dangerous, if he is given any chance, he can do what he knows best � a coup
Mr. Rawlings may also be unwittingly give the NPP ammo for its future campaign sound bytes.l a source close to one of the party�s strategic committees revealed to The Mail that the NPP is compiling all the negative words Mr. Rawlings is spewing against President Mills and would use them against him and his party in the 2012 elections.
�For sure, we are taking not of everything he says�if he say Mills is not performing well, he has to tell us why Ghanaians should vote for him again,� the source said.
While the NPP is finding some solace in the NDC founder�s self-inflicting barbs, there is consternation and uneasiness within the NDC. The Mail�s NDC friends have also expressed worry about their founder�s dangerous and damaging words. �We don�t know what to do, I wonder if he did not vote for the NPP � the way he is talking� we can�t gag him, but to me he is just giving the NPP ammunition to fight us,� a worried party member said. �We have made some mistakes�. He said. �But as our father, you don�t come out openly and let the whole world know what we have done wrong�we should not wash our dirty linen in public��
An NDC activist had this to say when contacted by The Mail: �I am of the view that the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills was a teacher and a civilian� He is, in spite of seeming slow, sure of what he is doing�He will surely deliver on his campaign promises made to Ghanaians during the elections. He should be given the chance and peace of mind to govern� He has the competence of taking us to the Promised Land at the end of his term of office. I am happy about the sentiment Rawlings has been expressing about Mills and I humbly request that if there is any advice to be given to him, it should be given behind closed doors as well as settle all grievances in the same manner.
This is because it is the hope and wish of our enemies to break the party and prevent it from implementing our democratic ideologies. Let us not let the vulture sit on our fence and the enemies rejoice in the downfall of the party�Let us top the factionalism among the party and unite to build the true Better Ghana.�
The founder of the NDC issued his threat when he met some constituency chairperson of the party drawn from twenty-two constituencies in the grater Accra Region on Tuesday, November, 17. He told them, �if we don no wake up to correct the mistakes, I will not have anything to do with the party. H have died so many times for the party, been humiliated both locally and internationally. I cannot die for the greedy bastards who have wormed their way into government!�
On the 4th of July, just about 6 months in office, Mr. Rawlings took the Mills Administration to the cleaners, warning that from the way things were going, the NDC was heading for a one-term presidency.
His attacks on former President Kufuor also began in July 2001 when the NPP was barely 6 months in office. He sustained those attacks all throughout the eight years of the Kufuor Administration and has not stopped, even with that administration out of power only that this time, his own party, now in power, is also at the receiving end of his tongue lashing, which is music to the ears of the NPP�
<<Print>>