The NDC is a resilient party - Danso-Boafo

Ghana's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, His Excellency Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo, has assured members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the party will not die a natural death as the nay and doom sayers are predicting.

The High Commissioner was addressing members of the NDC at the inaugration of the Birmingham and West Midlands branch of the party in Birmingham.

He recounted the challenges and difficulties the NDC faced since its formation in 1992. He said in the face of all these difficulties, the party remained resilient:

"At times when you read Ghanaweb, you hear stories or you listen to Peace FM and some of these stations, you will think that the party is about to collapse. We are not going to collapse. The fact of the matter is, look at the history of the NDC, look at the challenges that this young party has faced."

He said in 1992 nobody gave the NDC any chance to win the elections because the party consisted of individuals with no credentials, and when the party encountered difficulties in 2000, people started writing its obituary:

"From 1992 when the party contested its first elections, you saw the difficulties we faced. People thought we couldn't make it. People thought we had no tradition, people thought the party consisted of individuals with no names, consisted of a bunch of veranda boys, rascals, therefore gave us no chance. When we encountered problems in 2000... people started writing our obituary."

According to Professor Boafo, the NDC overcame these difficulties and in 2007 when the party again encountered the breakaway of the DFP, the argument was that the NDC survived in 2000 because it was in power, but in 2007 in opposition, the party was going to die a natural death. Howevered, the party went on to defeat the then omnipotent New Patriotic Party.

"In 2007, when again we encountered the DFP situation, they thought that was the end of the NDC, they said we managed to survive in 2000 because we were in power but in 2007 in opposition, the NDC will die a natural death. Did the NDC die a natural death? It survived and ended up defeating the omnipotent at the time, so they thought, NPP.

Every political organisation has its perculiarities, it has its difficulties, but we in the NDC have demonstrated the capacity to overcome our problems. So if anybody tells you that because of some hiccups we are facing currently, we are going to disintegrate and therefore lose the elections, tell that person to go back and study the history of the NDC."

He therefore assured members of the NDC that by 2012 elections, there will not be any faction within the party, the only faction remaining will be the NDC.

"By the time we face 2012 elections, all these factions would have disolved and the only thing remaining will be the National Democratic Congress."

The High Commissioner also observed that, the NDC as a political party has a different character and orientation, and that orientation is the commitment and service to mother Ghana.

"Those of us who are members of the NDC have different character, we have a different orientation. Our commitment to national service and our commitment to mother Ghana and our commitment to the people of Ghana is very different."

The Commissioner who was at his eloquent best on the night, told the cheering crowd that the government of the NDC has absolutely nothing to hide when declaring proceeds from the oil production in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (815) 2011. He stressed that the NDC is not "in the business to steal."

"The petroleum revenue management act 2011, requires our government to publish the amount of oil revenue taken from the ground to the level of proceeds quarterly. This is the first quarter's presentation. I decided to bring it here to share with you that we as a political party, and we as a government have absolutely nothing to hide."

He lamented that as a political party, the NDC is not good at telling their story; the successes and the challenges and the resilience of the party in dealing with these difficulties.

"As a political party, we have not been too good at telling our story. The successes we chalked, the problems we faced, the difficulties we encountered, and our ressilience in overcoming these difficulties."

The Chairman of the NDC UK and Ireland chapter, Nii Horace Ankrah, who chaired the function, called on the branch members and the branch executives to eschew bickering, gossiping and back-stabbing attitudes.

"see yourselves as individuals interested to serve... but not individuals interested in accolades and as players of the unfortunate aspects of politics such as gossiping, pull him/her down, I don't want to see him or her administration progress, back-stabbing attitude."

He used the oppotunity to announced that the NDC "shall hold the first ever chapter conference on the 28th January 2012 in Milton Keynes and use the day to launch the chapter's operation 2012."

The highlight of the night was when the NPP, in a rare and unprecedented gesture, delivered a goodwill message at the inaugration of the NDC branch. Both the High Commissioner and the Chairman praised the NPP and said this was an indication of the maturity of democracy in Ghana.