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General News of Saturday, 13 November 2010

Source: Kannyiri Thadious Banyen

The rancor and recent developments in the NDC

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA (LEGON) BRANCH OF The Tertiary Educational Institutions Network, TEIN Of NDC

THE RANCOR, GROWING INDISCIPLINE, AND SELFISHNESS IN OUR PARTY: the interest of the party is supreme

Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, Fellow Akatamansonians, fellow Citizens, we great you in the name of Unity, Stability, and Development; We write as tertiary students of the NDC and as future leaders of our great party and nation to express our concern, worry, and disappointment over certain unfortunate developments in our beloved party, the NDC.
We have observed with an intellectual eye, in trepidation and displeasure, a growing sense of disunity, factionalism, and acrimony in our dear party. One very unique and unfortunate feature of this internal wrangling in our party is the active engagement and participation of some ranking members of the NDC. The truth is, all these personalities matter in very unique and immeasurable ways to the party, but we will like to emphasize here that in our collectivity lies our strength and the growing media battles and internal rancor is to say the least frightening and heart breaking to we, the youth.
No army, no matter how powerful can win a battle fighting on two fronts, internally and externally. We cannot win a party as weak as the New Patriotic Party in 2012, with all our great achievements in government if we are fighting ourselves as well as fighting them. We are even more worried that certain sections of the youth are beginning to play into this game of factionalism. The future of our party lies in our hands and if we allow the older generation to divide us, then we destroy our future and we risk destroying the party we have fought for and continue to risk our lives daily serving. We risk making a CPP and PNC of our great party. Remember, they were also great in time past but the youth then allowed the elders to divide them to the future detriment.
We wish to state here clearly, that TEIN-NDC, University of Ghana Branch does not belong to any faction in the NDC, we believe in the principles of the NDC, the Leadership of the NDC, and the Government of the NDC. We are members of the NDC, and will not stand by and allow any group of individuals to destroy the future of the NDC which we aspire to lead one day. We wish to state our admiration for the Former President and his Family for their immense contribution towards restoring sanctity to Ghana, maintaining and improving democracy, and founding a great party we have all come to believe in. We would like to also acknowledge the sitting President, Prof. J.E.A. Mills and his family for leading the party into victory, and for the great and marvelous works they have achieved so far in government. We however wish to state that the NDC is bigger than the two groups of people and they should try and iron out their differences in the better interest of the party they have both sworn to serve. We hold you both in high esteem and learn from you daily. Please show us to live together in unity and do not allow this division to destroy what we all believe in.
We call on all and sundry, who believe in unity, stability, and development to join in the call for a seize fire at the top hierarchy of the party, especially from the two major factions of the party. We agree to disagree and we need to start settling our disagreements internally. When the ‘foot soldiers’ agitate publicly we are told they are wrong because they did not exhaust internal conflict resolution mechanisms but we turn to do exactly as they do. Are the rules for the meek and weak? Let us find a lasting solution to these problems and all interested parties should resort to the appropriate channels, less you invoke the rage of the youth, especially TEIN. We call on the National Chairman, The General Secretary, N.E.C., F.E.C., The Conflict Resolution Committee, and all well meaning NDC members to do their best to bring peace, unity, and stability to our dear party immediately. We have an election to prepare for and what we do not have is time, so let us unite and fight an eminently easy battle.
We shall follow this press release with a petition to be signed by as many TEIN members as possible from the University of Ghana and other institutions across the nation who believe in finding an immediate and lasting solution to this problem. Our members are not happy and call on us daily to help in every way to stop the internal wrangling. We do have other plans if these two calls are not heeded to or do not lead to an immediate and lasting solution.


ON TEIN AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
We wish to inform the good people of Ghana that we, TEIN-NDC, University of Ghana Branch did not officially attend the workshop that was organized by the Greater Accra Regional TEIN based on certain internal principles that guide our activities including not receiving an official invitation to the program, not knowing the agenda of the program, and the speakers and topics of the workshop were not also revealed. We therefore did not see it prudent to attend the program since we believed the branch was
We wish to however state that we are members of the Greater Accra Regional TEIN and will remain members and fight with the group for our shared beliefs, hopes, and aspirations. We however wish to caution that if for any reason we come to believe that the Greater Accra Regional TEIN is taking sides in the ongoing rancor in the party, we shall not hesitate to immediately withdraw our membership and continue fighting the good fight we signed up with them to fight for the interest of the youth in the party.
We will like to also advise the National Youth Organizer to find a more appropriate solution to the problem. Denying the contribution of TEIN, the existence of Greater Accra Regional TEIN, and continually coming to the media to openly fight us is not at all going to solve the problem. Indeed, as ‘constitutional believers’ we acknowledge the fact that the concept of Regional TEIN is not within the party’s current constitution, but we believe that the time is come for us to do the right thing, to ensure that TEIN becomes the NETWORK that it is supposed to be and that the youth front of the party is strengthened. You should look at this development with a positive eye no matter who is bringing the idea up or who is supporting it. We appeal to your office to find constitutional means of adopting the idea as we have vowed never to rest from now till 2012 and beyond until our concerns are addressed. We are many! You are one person, no matter how powerful.
We wish to end by reaffirming our love and trust in the leadership of our party, in the ideals and ideologies of Former President J.J. Rawlings, and in the principles and beliefs of President J.E.A. Mills. The nation could not have a better party to lead it, they could not recount the contributions of a better former president, and they definitely could not boost of a more caring and understanding president poised to better the nation for all. Our past, present, and future is guided by the spirit of social democracy.
Long Live the Leadership of the NDC!
Long Live the youth and future of the NDC!!
Long Live the Government of the NDC!!!

…………………………………
Kannyiri Thadious Banyen
(President, TEIN of NDC, University of Ghana Branch)
(+233 (0) 209 373 513 /kannyiri@yahoo.com)