JJ Booms At NDP Congress

The National Democratic Party (NDP) seems to be making serious incursions into the fold of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), with the latest catch being the founder of the NDC, former President Jerry John Rawlings.

Mr Rawlings is said to be waiting for the NDP congress to unleash venom on the NDC leadership, especially ‘the old evil dwarfs’ who have virtually hijacked the party he founded with his blood.

A day after he indicated his preparedness to support his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings’s decision to run for the flagbearership position of the NDP, a breakaway party from the NDC, the former President’s name has popped up as the one scheduled to be the ‘special guest of honour’ for the NDP’s national delegates congress slated for Saturday, October 13, in Kumasi.

A full-page advertisement placed on page 53 of yesterday’s issue of the state-owned Daily Graphic newspaper said Mr Rawlings, who had been linked to the new party, would take centre stage at the congress.

Sources said Mr. Rawlings had already accepted the invitation and confirmed his participation.

Interim General Secretary of the party Dr Rockson Mamboa has indicated that the event, expected to take place at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, would see not less than less than 7,500 members and 2,500 delegates attending.

Unlike other congresses that elect executives, the NDP scribe said, “we are going in there for the national executives and then we can also endorse our flagbearer.”

Mr Rawlings is therefore expected to storm the place in the company of his wife before the event starts at 8am on Saturday, with the support of his aides.

Nana Konadu is contesting after incessant appeals from the grassroots.

Rawlings told journalists at a CDD programme on Tuesday, “I would support her (his wife) as I do for a good number of candidates. If she intends to stand for the new party, I guess it might be right for her to resign from the NDC.”

He said, “Frankly, I will support any party with a high level of credibility and integrity, and that I know they (NDP) have.” The former President added that “that doesn’t mean I am leaving the NDC either.”

Rawlings’s short speech at the NDC manifesto launch could best be described as a dress rehearsal of what he is expected to say at the NDP congress on Saturday.

For him, even if what his wife was embarking upon “does not amount to much, the very fact that they are putting together a party with a high level of moral credibility is an investment for the future”.

NDP Here To Stay

The Interim National Youth Organiser of the NDP, Dr David Sunu, said the party would not “stumble and fall” as its detractors had hoped for but would grow to restore integrity to the nation’s politics.

The election of the flagbearer, he explained, would put “the doubting Thomases to shame”.

“…For all those who believe in restoring integrity to the politics of this country…for all those who think that participatory democracy is the way to go, for all those who believe that we all must contribute not only during elections but also at every step of the developmental process; and that politicians must not take us for granted, they all must come on board the agenda of the NDP,” because “our nation will be our future,” he stated.