NDC is a progeny of JJ's coups – Nitiwul

Deputy Minority Leader Dominic Nitiwul has said the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), was birthed out of a coup tradition, a statement that caused uproar on the floor of Parliament Tuesday February 24, 2015 during the commemoration of the 49th anniversary of the overthrow of Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

Nitiwul said the NDC – a progeny of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), which was led by former Military Leader Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings – cannot run away from its coup ancestry.

The PNDC morphed into the current NDC after Mr Rawlings had ruled for about eleven years as a Military Leader from 1981 to 1992 before becoming a civilian leader.

The PNDC regime was the third in a series of coups led by Mr Rawlings. The first one was thwarted on May 15, 1979 and Rawlings, a young Military pilot at the time, was arrested, court marshalled and held on death row.

He was, however, rescued by his colleague junior soldiers, who together went ahead to topple General Akuffo and the Supreme Military Council.

Rawlings later formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and conducted what it termed "a housecleaning exercise", to purge leadership of corruption and injustice.

The AFRC, after three months organised an election which was won by Dr Hilla Limann of the People's National Party (PNP).

However, on December 31, 1981 Rawlings toppled Limann in another coup and installed the PNDC as the Government of the time, with himself as Chairman.

Contributing on the floor of Parliament Tuesday, Nitiwul made copious reference the NDC’s coup background and said all coups deserved to be condemned.

He grudgingly withdrew the statement after a heated back-and-forth between him and the Speaker of the House.