Rawlings cautions party

Accra, March 31, GNA - Former President Jerry Rawlings on Monday charged the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) not to abdicate its responsibility to the electorate, saying they will be killing the party if they do so.

Mr Rawlings said "usurpers" with parochial interests, had hijacked the Mills administration "hell bent on entrenching their positions" on the ruling government, according to a statement signed by Mr Kofi Adams, an aide to the former president. He was speaking at the National Executive Committee meeting of the Party in Accra.

Mr Rawlings said some of these "usurpers who had been hiding in rat roles" during the heady days of the electoral campaign, had today surfaced to make themselves decision makers.

Former President Rawlings said the "sins" of the previous administration would not necessarily destroy society. What would destroy society, he intimated, was the inability of the NDC to stem the wave of corruption it inherited by not taking drastic actions. "The NDC's victory was borne out of the corruption of the NPP but when the new government fails to take action to arrest the situation then society crumbles and corruption becomes the order of the day," said.

Touching again on the people who had reportedly installed themselves at the Presidency, former President Rawlings said some of these people wanted to destroy the NDC, others wanted to protect the investment interests of the NPP and a third group were intent on consolidating political and financial power at the expense of the hungry Ghanaians who voted the party into power.

President Rawlings said it was imperative that all members of government recognised the fact that they were not elected as independent candidates but as members of the NDC. "We should not be seen to be behaving as if we were elected on our individual merits. We were elected on a party platform because of a certain campaign agenda central to the party's ideals. If we do not consult and act as if we owe no responsibility to the people of this country and the rest of the party structure then we will be killing the party."

The former President said he was particularly worried that erroneous impressions were being created that he had his men within the current ministerial structure and hence had no reason to complain. "Stories have been told about how my wife also has about six cronies with major appointments. Let me make it clear to you that we were not consulted on majority of these appointments. And even in situations where there have been any consultations at all no effort has been made to give us feedback if counter opinion has prevailed," he stated.

Mr Rawlings enjoined all members of the National Executive Committee to voice out their concerns about the manner the country is being governed because criticism was crucial to the success of any leadership.

He cited a meeting during his tenure of government when Tsatsu Tsikata took him on after he had criticised the then GNPC boss. "After the meeting some leading party members came to me pleading on

Tsatsu's behalf and I told them he did the right thing. He had an opinion contrary to mine and he did not hesitate to voice it out. Let us all do the Same," the former President said. 31 March 09