We’re experts at destroying our own – Rawlings to NDC

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has criticised members of his own party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), for undermining one another.

”We seem to have become masters of destroying our own and spend endless resources denigrating rivals because their opinions vary,” the founder of the NDC lamented at a conference with former NDC appointees at the Mensvic Hotel in Accra on Saturday 12 May 2018.

He continued: “Some of the words that have been exchanged between party members in the past few weeks and months makes me wonder how we expect to sow unity and stability in the National Democratic Congress”.

The conference was organised by former Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) who served under the past government with the aim of devising strategies to win back power for the NDC in 2020.

In his view, the voice and force of conscience and conviction is the only true weapon that the party needs to re-organise itself towards 2020 and beyond.

“Our history, strength and survival have always hinged on the power of conviction – a firm belief in the pursuit of truth, integrity, probity and accountability. Having a voice of conscience and conviction comes with true sacrifice. It is not an easy road. Those who hold strong beliefs and stand by them tend to suffer abuse, ridicule, insult and sometimes physical abuse but they remain resolute because truth cannot be adulterated. Truth is life and the truth eventually overcomes,” he added.

He said his message for the NDC people is to “wean ourselves of selfish tendencies and desire to seek political power for economic benefit”.

For him “that cancer has eaten deeply into our party. Let us pursue truth with a conscience and the power of conviction – a belief in the ideals that established this party; a belief in the battles that we had to fight since 1979 and a quest to embrace ideas in an atmosphere of tolerance and brotherliness. The strength of the NDC lies in attaining political power through the power of the people not the power of the affluent”.

He was of the opinion that if the NDC relegates its true ideals “we may attain power on a weak foundation and never be able to manage the country in an atmosphere of true participatory governance, which is what our successes have always thrived on”.

Read Rawlings’ full speech below: