Atta Mills to quit politics ?

Less than a week since its national press secretary, Vincent Assiseh relinquished his position in the party, The Dispatch reports that former vice-president and NDC's presidential candidate in the 2000 elections, intends to take a long break from politics.

According to the Dispatch, a Ghanaian private newspaper, close associates of the law professor hinted it that he intends to take a "Sabbatical" to a university outside Ghana, to teach and write some books.

"They declined to state whether the Professor was quitting politics for good but one of them, a leading NDC member, said there was the need for the NDC to take the reorganisation process very serious in order to strengthen the existing structures," The Dispatch reports.

The leading member told the paper that "one of the first prerequisites for a stronger NDC is the urgent need to reconcile the various factions within the party. I must admit that being in power might have plastered the divisions within our ranks. I belong to the school of thought within the party which believes that our 2000 defeat was a blessing in guise to enable us realise the hard task ahead of the party after the Rawlings era."

The paper say its ongoing investigations have revealed that although "many NDC members would deny their existence, there are perceptions of the existing of the Fante Confederacy, the Northern Caucus, the Volta Group and the Rawlings Support Group.

One of the immediate problems, the paper says is how to politely dislodge ex-president Rawlings "as the life Leader of the party, without hurting his ego and antagonising or alienating his support base, which many agree forms a sizeable portion of the NDC's following. Those who think ex-president Rawlings should take a back seat but still play an important part in the re-organisation argue that a sizeable percentage of Ghanaian voters are floating voters who are not die-hard Rawlings loyalists.

There is also a school of thought within the group that there is the urgent need for the party to try and disabuse the minds of Ghanaians "who are being fed with media-orchestrated reports of malfeasance allegedly committed by the NDC officials."

A member of the party's media committee told the paper that the independent newspapers are "paying the NDC back for being very unfriendly during their time in power."

Meanwhile, a special assistant to the former vice-president told newsinghana that the report in The Disptach is inaccurate. He said the Professor has no such intentions adding a comprehensive statement will be issued on the matter.