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Opinions of Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Columnist: Sarpong, Justice

NDC Hijacked High Profile Corpses For Political Gains

This article is in response to the NDC rented Newspaper, The Catalyst article titled; "NPP Crocodile Tears Flow For Aliu" that appeared in the forum on 11/19/12

One of the NDC rented Newspapers, the Catalyst accused NPP of shedding crocodile tears for Aliu Mahama because it did not make him the NPP Presidential candidate in 2008, how can the fools at Catalyst resort to this cheap populist journalism? What did they base this premise on that NPP cried crocodile tears at Mills and Mahama's funerals? According to Catalyst, NPP did not enskinned Aliu Mahama to the 'throne'of its 2008 Presidential candidacy so we have no business expressing condolences to his family. Who are these fools to tell us this when Aliu himself or his family did not hold any grudges against NPP?

The NPP ,NDC and all the other Political Parties that are not one man's Parties have a process in place in selecting or choosing its Presidential candidates through a rigorous process called the Primaries. Aliu contested and lost in 2008 because like Mills, Aliu was a good man but he was scandilized by the Ya Na and Mobillas deaths even he was not popular in the Northern region where he is from and a member of the Dagomba Royal family.

In politics, the prize of success is winning and if one cannot even win his state or region, then he or she will have a a hardtime winning National elections. In 2000, Al Gore lost in the Presidential race by failing to win his own State, Tennessee. If Gore could have won his own state, Florida would not have been an issue and he would have won the Presidency in 2000. Fast forward to 2012 in USA. Republican candidate Milt Romney lost at his own state, where he has been a Governor, Massachussetts and his Vice Presidential Partner,Paul Ryan also failed to help the ticket by losing from his own state, Wisconsin. The point is that, it is difficult to win a National election when you can't even secure your home state or region and Aliu lost in his home region.Nobody prevented Aliu Mahama from becoming the NPP Presidential candidate in 2008.

According to the Catalyst rented NDC paper, NPP should not have been part of the people who mourned Aliu Mahama because they did not coronate him as the NPP Presidential candidate in 2008. We don't do coronation in NPP neither do we do declarations as NDC is known for.

"The NPP denied the late Aliu Mahama the opportunity to contest the presidential election on the ticket of the party in the 2008 elections,"

Foolish rented ndc newspaper, how did the NPP prevent Aliu from contesting the Presidency? He contested in the NPP primaries and lost. We don't have a Monarchy where we enstool or enskin people to the Throne, we have a democracy where everybody is free to contest.

NPP believes in the democratic process and we do not ascribe to the communist tactics of the NDC who used inferior communist tactics in 2000 in the SWEDRU declaration that made Mills its Presidential candidate. The same communist tactics was adopted in Kumasi when Mahama was made the only candidate on the Presidential ticket of NDC and was chosen by Declaration. If the NDC believes in this form of selecting their Presidential candidate, let them have it but we will not follow that communist nonsense.

"Aliu’s cry that he had faithfully served his 8-year term as an apprentice to President Kufuor and it was time he was given the opportunity to succeed him on the party’s topmost job as presidential candidate leading to the possibility of him becoming the President of Ghana went unheeded"

Aliu was a gentleman and did believe in the democratic process and accepted his defeat in the NPP contest. He did not protest and left to form his own Party as Gosie Tando did in 2000 because NDC did not give him a chance to contest for the NDC Presidential candidacy. Aliu stayed in the Party and campaigned for Nana Akuffo Addo in 2008 and he was doing the same in 2012 when he unfortunately died before he could see the result of his selfless efforts to see an NPP Presidential candidate as the President in 2013.

Who loves funeral more than NDC? They fought the Mills family to use Mills corpse and funeral for political gains and could not even determine where to bury him. What did NDC do when Mills died in a very mysterious way? They decided to bury him at the Flagstaff house and went ahead and dug three graves, what a strange way to bury one person in three graves without consulting the family. Then when the public protested, they set up a commission to find a popular burial place for Mills when Mills family from Otuam and Cape Coast were demanding his remains to be interred in one of those places. Finally a park close to the Castle was chosen and re-named Asomdwehene park where Mills was buried at the consternation of his family.

They did the same with Aliu Mahama's corpse by deciding to bury him at Osu cemetry and then Asomdwehene park without the input from Aliu Mahama's family, so who loves funeral more than Ndc when it hijacks corpses for political gains? In this case unlike Mills where the family after twisting of limbs accepted Mills to be interred in Accra, Aliu Mahama's family got their wish and buried Mahama at Tamale where he can rest in peace with his own people instead of a strange place in Accra.

Of the two political Parties, NDC and NPP, who can be said to shed crocodile tears when NDC were celebrating Mills death? Yes, NDC celebrated Mills death even by President Mahama. This is what some NDC members said about President Mills death.

"The death of President Mills was ‘God-sent’ because if he had died later than the time he died, the political fortunes of the NDC would have been affected." ----Anita Desouza, NDC National Women Organizer----

"The death of President Mills was Divine intervention that would propel the NDC to greater heights ---Former President Rawlings----

"The death of President Mills was timely and represented a change of the baton to a ‘younger generation", ----President Mahama----

Can Catalyst tell Ghanaians with what Anita Desouza, Rawlings and John Mahama of NDC said which of the Parties were crying crocodile tears? NDC was happy of Mills death because they believe they have a better chance of winning the Presidency with Mahama instead of Mills, how callous can NDC be when they were "high-fiving" themselves behind closed doors with Mills death?

Justice Sarpong

Houston, Texas

(CARDINAL of TRUTH)