Revolt to rock NDC; revived FONKAR fingered

Functionaries and supporters of the governing National Democratic Congress jubilating over the current internal wrangling in the opposition New Patriotic Party must equally gird their loins as fiery domestic strife is just about rocking the NDC.

Flawless information available to The aL-hAJJ has revealed ongoing discussions among certain bigwigs in the governing party to start a revolt against the Mahama-led NDC government.

This paper's Intelligence indicates some aggrieved NDC kingpins, who are also associates of the NDC founder, Jerry John Rawlings, are resourcing former leading lights of the defunct Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), but who have now been integrated into the NDC, to resuscitate the moribund group.

The mandate of the yet-to-be revived and rebranded FONKAR, The aL-hAJJ sources have disclosed, is to start a rebellion against President John Mahama and his government, citing non-performance and corruption and therefore, undeserving of being in power beyond the 2016 elections.

Leading the resuscitation of FONKAR and uniting its members under one umbrella is a Rawlings confidant, and former Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, Michael Teye Nyaunu, who, it is being alleged, has received funding for that purpose from the said NDC chieftains.

A dependable source told this paper that the former Lower Manya Krobo MP is capitalizing on grievances of ex-FONKAR members, including those occupying regional, constituency, ward and branch positions in the NDC who have been complaining of neglect, a situation that is said to be breeding despondency, to win souls.

This development, a former leading figure of the once deadly group told The aL-hAJJ, "has encouraged many ex-FONKAR members, including those holding various positions in the NDC to buy into Teye Nyaunu’s idea on the need for us to regroup".

The aL-hAJJ can also confirm that as part of the regrouping endeavor to go for the kill, Teye Nyaunu and some executives of the National Democratic Party two weeks ago convened a meeting at YMCA at Adabraka to discuss modalities on how to get all FONKAR members on board.

Sources at the Tuesday, May 5, 2015 meeting disclosed to this paper that participants discussed how former FONKAR members holding positions in NDC would be urged to resign en masse citing neglect, abuse of power, corruption among others to consolidate the charge against the Mahama-led NDC administration.

The source said, though the meeting, which was attended by about 60 former FONKAR members, came to an end without a resolution, “we have all been tasked to reach out to our colleagues who couldn’t attend. We have also been asked to encourage them to attend the next scheduled meeting in June.”

This paper has also gathered that another meeting to conclude decisions on how to deal ruthlessly with the Mahama-government has been scheduled for Saturday, June 6, 2015 at Agormenya in the Eastern region.

Any decision to be arrived at, The aL-hAJJ sources intimated, will be fashioned around former President Jerry John Rawlings' expected June 4th "boom" speech during which he is expected to launch blistering attack on appointees of the Mahama administration and the government itself during the June 4 celebrations.

As a precursor to this deadly plot, the NDC founder, Chairman Rawlings only recently, has begun lashing out the Mahama government for failing to tackle corruption and also failing to cure the country of some of its endemic ills.

"The former President’s recent derogatory comments that the late President John Atta Mills' death saved the NDC from electoral defeat in the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections was not in isolation", a source told this paper.

Rawlings in a statement issued last week, noted “I did not campaign for him, (President Mahama) neither did I campaign against him so let’s give him his due and acknowledge the fact that he did most of the work by himself. This was the reality. This time round almost everyone’s political credibility has suffered terribly, including Mahama and that’s why I was saying that the new hope will now come from reinvigorated and reenergized party machinery.

If advantage is not taken to do what needs to be done by the party leadership I am not too sure 2016 will be favourable.

So far, the poor performance and corrupt characters are taking advantage of the support bases’ fear of the opposition to embolden themselves in perpetuating themselves and their crass behaviour. They have grown insensitive and do not seem to give a damn because they know the vulnerable and insecure electorate will continue to support the NDC because they are nervous of an opposition take over.”

Meanwhile, persons neck deep in the regrouping of FONKAR members told The aL-hAJJ that due to neglect, former members of the group, who denounced Nana Konadu and her NDP to campaign for President Mahama in the last election, are beginning to revise their notes and are contemplating making amends with the former first family.

They are said to be battled ready to do the bidding of former President Rawlings and Nana Konadu as they did prior to the death of President Mills, to shred the Mahama government.

“When Kofi Adams and Sidi, who were amongst us during the battle against Mills won their respective positions at the NDC national congress, we thought they will rope some of us in, especially those of us who have taken positions in the party at various levels, but nothing like that has happened. We feel dejected and disillusioned than before. For now what I can tell you is that we are all waiting for June 4th and the June 6 meeting then we will know what to do,” a former FONKAR member who does not want to be named stated.