As a young boy growing in ‘3-town’ in the late 1980s through 1990s, one could hardly hear any other name apart from ‘JJ’, this name was louder and more common than even the name of our parents who lived in same room with us.

‘Junior Jesus’ as some affectionately called him was a leader with extreme charisma and power, interestingly; he was feared and loved simultaneously by both his ideological proponents and opponents; I remember a friend narrated a story about how he shockingly (He disliked him) joined an enthusiastic crowd following Mr. Rawlings at Ashaiman in the build up to the 2008 election until the reality dawned on him.

Growing up, I never thought there will be any other better leader than Mr. Rawlings and that informed my choice of social democracy as a preferred political ideology. One would have thought Mr. Rawlings will go into retirement with a ‘head held high’ standard he had earned both locally and globally but that was never to be.

When Mr. Kufuor took office, Mr. Rawlings was very critical of his style of leadership and consistently blemished him with mostly unsubstantiated allegations suggesting the country was in the wrong hands, infact, Mr. Kufuor has never known peace even though he has been off power for almost a decade.

Many felt some of his concerns were genuine though political motivated, hence it became worrying when Mr. Rawlings started same with the ‘good old Professor’ of blessed memory; his criticism of Prof. Mills’ government started very early that many wondered what was his motivation. Mr. Rawlings and his wife gave Prof. Mills ‘a hell of a time’ and maybe that is the reason the good old Professor could not complete his first term.

Instead of being a father of a nation and a peace broker like Madiba, Mbeki and even our very own Kufuor, Mr. Rawlings thought otherwise.

I must put on record, I have never admired Mr. Kufuor until he became an Ex-President; he has carried himself in a manner that is most admirable, adorable and worthy of emulating, indeed Mr. Kufuor is a complete statesman and a true definition of a complete leader.

For the National Democratic Congress, it is time the party distances itself from Mr. Rawlings, I know the party is in a dilemma as to the decision to take but the party can be guided by these two verses in the Holy book; Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you” and Mathew 18:9 “And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell”. Enough of the hypocrisy and ‘amedokui tatra de amenu’, even Barcelona parted ways with Neyma and made a strong statement, ‘NO INDIVIDUAL is bigger than the football club’.

NDC must elect strong leaders who can ignore Mr. Rawlings without necessarily showing him disrespect, Prof. Mills managed that situation quite well and the in-coming leaders must do same.

It is time to do in-house cleaning, the likes of Dela Coffie and Teye Nyaunu who have repeatedly shown gross disrespect to the leaders of the party must be punished severely to deter other persons with ‘running mouths’, some persons who have shown consistent desire to rundown the party like Martin Amidu must be dismissed outright but not asked to resign to serve as a strong warning that the party is guided by codes of conduct and standards.

It is time to re-build, get the bad nuts out in line with what our elders say ‘deku deka koe gble na bubua wo’, re-strategize and get some new innovative breeds to join the process.

Tanyo Stewart Writes!

The writer is a former adjunct lecturer at University of Professional Studies (Research & Business Strategy) and Currently a Business Development Manager for a number of Institutions.