Sir John: JJ Will Never Be Our Reference Point

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, has told The Enquirer that the position of former President J.J. Rawlings against the Mills administration would never be the reference point of the party.

“It is just a coincidence that the former president talks about some of the issues the NPP is raising against the government,” he said.

According to him, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has over the years claimed that former President Rawlings speaks for the people, so what he was telling them was coming from the people.

“If he is talking for the people, there is no need using him as a reference point at all,” he said.

There are claims within certain quarters that the NPP would use what the former President has been espousing as the failures of the government as major campaign tool.

But Mr. Afriyie told The Enquirer via phone yesterday that the reference point of the NPP would be the good people of Ghana who are are presently suffering. He told The Enquirer that Ghanaians have witnessed the abysmal performance of the government and former President Rawlings is part of the people.

“You see, using what he says to campaign will simply means that the NPP does not have alternative measures for Ghanaians,” he said.

Mr. Afriyie told The Enquirer that Ghanaians are fully aware of the hardship the government is perpetrating on them.

“As a party, we have our own programmes, but the educating Ghanaians on what the next NPP administration can and will do is more important than using somebody as the reference point,” he said.

He told The Enquirer that the campaign of the NPP was going well and Ghanaians are expressing their disquiet with what is prevailing in the country now. “In the history of Ghana since Independence, unemployment is high, the private sector which is supposed to be the engine of growth is not moving and these are some of the things the NPP is talking about,” he said.

“You see, things are not moving and the electorate are the best judges so for people to think that the NPP will use what the former president talks about is wrong,” he said.