Hamza Sheriff, a die-hard National Democratic Congress foot-soldier, has taken a swipe at the government, saying President John Evans Atta Mills has turned the party’s grassroots supporters into beggars.

“The President and his government have turned their own party supporters who protected the ballot boxes in 2008 into beggars,” he said angrily, adding, “We move from ministry to ministry begging for money before we can make ends meet. Is that what they want? We shall advise ourselves in 2012.”

Hamza, a known serial caller, walked into the offices of Daily Guide in Accra on Wednesday to vent out his frustrations. He said, “After coming into office, my own party promised that they were going to outperform the New Patriotic Party (NPP) but today what do we see? The hardship is too much. Our members are suffering too much.”

He said it was now an established fact that party activists who made great sacrifices at the expense of their lives and defended the ballot boxes in 2008 had been totally neglected by President Mills, his appointees and the party’s leadership.

“People around the Presidency and most of the appointees feel that four years is forty years and they have suddenly forgotten where we came from. The President is not being giving the right information.”

Hamza said even though the President might have “good vision” for the country, the actions and inactions of majority of his appointees were wrecking his vision. “Now when you walk on the streets you see some NDC activists who could not even afford square meals a day in the run up to 2008 elections, driving expensive cars. They have surrounded the President and are not allowing him to reach out to the suffering masses who sacrificed for the party.”

He said employment opportunities were non-existent and whilst people struggled to make ends meet, the city authorities, in collaboration with the police, persistently harassed them.

Hamza recalled recently the sentencing of some yam sellers on the Graphic Road, Accra, and the brutalization of hawkers as a classic case of insensitivity on the part of the Mills administration, lamenting, “The government is not providing jobs yet when the people make efforts to sell and make a living the AMA come in to arrest, brutalize and sentence them to jail.”

He said the yam sellers who were jailed were NDC sympathizers who would hate the party forever, even after they have been released. He therefore called on President Mills to order their immediate release.

Hamza also condemned the brutalization of hawkers at La Paz, Accra, by city guards, saying, “It’s this same mass unemployment situation that brought down some governments in the Arab world.”

He said, “Assuming Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings did not contest President Mills at the just ended national delegates’ congress, would President Mills not know that there are problems in the party and that the party’s foot-soldiers are suffering?” “The NDC is digging its own grave. From the look of things, the NDC will set a new record as a one-term party if the trend continues,” he warned.

He said Ghanaians had become discerning electorally and could no longer be deceived by political parties with phantom promises, as is happening now.