: Probity and Accountability


> With the NDC delegates conference
> in Sunyani over and the endorsement of Attah
> Mills peace is supposed to return to the party and all factions are
> supposed to
> join hands, close ranks and work together in unity. However it is easier
> said
> than done and it looks like it is not going to be easy to mend fences.
> The refusal of Nana Konadu to concede defeat,
> congratulate the winner, raise his hand, give a concession speech and
> pledge
> support to Mills for the 2012 campaign is something that is going to hurt
> the
> NDC as 2012 approaches. Nana Konadu should have been graceful in defeat
> and Mills
> humble in victory.
>
> Even with the contest over,
> acrimonious statements are coming from both camps. It looks like the proxy
> war
> is still on. FONKAR believes the process leading to the elections at
> congress
> was not democratic enough and if the electoral college had been expanded
> to
> give the grassroots supporters a voice Konadu would have won but it is
> worthy
> of note that Rawlings did not allow the grassroots supporters to choose a
> leader for the party when he imposed John Attah Mills on everyone through
> his Koforidua
> declaration and religiously supported him for three consecutive elections.
> Now
> it is ironical that the candidate he imposed on everyone refuses to
> acknowledge
> him. Now Mills listens to everyone around him including the Ahwois, and
> the octogenarian self seeking and
> delusional politicians near him, and also the small boys and girls but he
> stubbornly refuses to heed the advice of the person who picked him from
> obscurity and single handedly made him who he is now.
>
> Mills is not bound to take every
> single advice of Jerry Rawlings but to be consistently and regularly
> ignored
> even though the issues Rawlings is raising are relevant smacks of
> negligence
> and arrogant display of power. Mills
> said in Sunyani that the wheels of justice grinds slowly. It needs not.
> Has he
> also heard that justice delayed is justice denied? A presidential term in
> Ghana is four years not eight years and
> does Mills need a reminder that he is already more than two and half
> years through his term? There is no guarantee
> that he will win a second term. If Mills does not believe in the core
> values of the NDC he should leave the party and form his own and can call
> it "Jesus For All Party. This "fama Nyame" president is wasting our time.
>
>
> It is absolutely important that
> Mills do everything within his power to accord the Rawlingses the
> necessary
> recognition and reverence within the NDC fraternity. The NDC without
> Rawlings
> is unattractive, it is just another political party. Rawlings is the
> conscience
> of the NDC and the conscience of Ghana. The NDC is going to need his
> charismatic appeal in the elections. He and his wife Nana Konadu already
> have
> the grassroots support network NDC needs to prosecute election 2012
> campaign.
> Nobody in the NPP dared criticized the party when they were in power.
> Rawlings criticizes his own party in
> government. The party founded on the foundation and principles of social
> justice, probity and accountability has been hijacked by a greedy gang
> worse
> than the thieving cabal in the NPP.
>
> The principles of probity and
> accountability have been thrown out of the window, while the greedy gang
> are
> engaged in property grabbing left, right and center and the president
> looks the
> other way. Has the NDC turned into another property owning party like the
> NPP? You need a strong leader who can uphold the
> tenets of the party and the principles upon which it was built. Every
> revolutionary party needs a strong leadership to keep everyone in line.
> After
> the Cuban revolution Fidel Castro and Che Guevara had to work hard to keep
> everyone in line to prevent fellow revolutionaries from looting the very
> spoils
> they had salvaged.
>
> Without such strong leadership based on
> principles, the NDC is a cabal of team B
> players, hampers and tractor thieves, gap toothed overnight millionaires,
> incompetent academics, ugly dark faced mansion building self seekers,
> septuagenarian
> and octogenarian senile demented players coming back to loot one last
> time,
> fat 4x4 driving clueless and arrogant boys and girls.
> The contest in 2012 is going to be between two equally corrupt political
> parties competing for the spoils to demonstrate who can loot the nation
> more.
> The NDC without the Rawlingses, trust me, is worst than the other parties.
> What?s the point in buying a hunting dog if it can?t chase, nor catch a
> prey. You must as well buy a sheep. The two leading
> political parties are playing watch my back and I watch your back, chop
> and let
> me chop small. I am deeply disturbed that nobody is fighting for the
> common man
> in the streets. With the NDC haven lost its conscience there is no
> political
> party to fight for the common man in Ghana.
>
> It is never true that all we need
> is another political party, an alternative bunch of suit wearers in a
> tropical
> hot and steamy weather, a bunch of plane hopping conference attending,
> talk big
> do nothing ministers. Do you think all we fought for is to have another
> NPP? In
> every house you need a conscience. A
> friend put it this way: a Ghanaian who knows nothing about truthful living
> will
> rob a robber he has just arrested. It
> looks like the lessons of elections 2008 have been lost on the NDC so
> soon. Let
> no one be fooled by the crowds that meet the president when he travels.
> They
> are all staged. Big crowds, singing and dancing crowds do not win
> elections anyway.
> If you doubt this ask Nana Akuffo-Addo. You can always assemble those
> crowds with money and the trappings of
> power. Have you forgotten about the Kasoa NPP rally in 2008? It was a mega
> huge rally but what happened? He lost the elections !!!
>
>
> If the NDC manages to win 2012
> (doubtful without the Rawlingses) then the party would have come out of
> all
> this stronger but if it loses it will be weakened beyond rebuilding and
> might
> be confined to opposition forever. All these people calling the shots now
> will
> take their loot somewhere to enjoy and will forget about rebuilding the
> party.
> It is up to Mills to reach out to all and unite the party but so far his
> lethargic leadership style does not give
> much to hope for. All that this
> president has been doing is cutting sod after sod but nothing concrete
> happens
> after that. This perpetual bible wielding president is overwhelmed by the
> job he applied for but he won't get out of the way. He has outsourced his
> job to God and always wearing his faith on his sleeves.
>
>
> Ben Ofosu-Appiah
> Tokyo, JAPAN.
> The author is a senior political
> and social analyst and also a policy strategist based in Tokyo. He
> welcomes
> your comments; Send your comments to; do4luv27@yahoo.com