Posted: The Chronicle Thursday, April 23, 2009
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy, believes all is not well with President John Evans Atta Mills.
After observing the activities and operations of the Mills administration for the past three months, he noted that the President looks quite weak, tentative, and not completely in charge of his own government.
He made these comments in an interview with The Chronicle, as a follow up to his opinion piece titled ‘The implosion of the NDC’.
Dr. Kennedy said this may be an intended or unintended side effect of the frustrations the President has been going through from both members of his party, and at the hands of former President Jerry John Rawlings.
According to him, he had credible information from NDC insiders, to the effect that behind the scenes, members of particular factions barely speak to members of other factions created in the party, identifying them as the Rawlings, Mills and Mahama factions.
Though the government is barely in place, he noted that there was a scramble to succeed President Mills, by those who have calculated that he cannot, or will not ran again.
This, according to him, is what compelled the President to come out to state that there was only one President in the country, and that “when the people of Ghana voted, they voted for only one President. They did not vote for President number one and President number two.”
Given his party affiliation, most people would expect Arthur Kennedy to be happy that the NDC is having difficulties, considering the fact that it is a cardinal rule in politics that when one’s political opponent or enemy is in the process of destroying himself, he should not interfere.
The rationale for this rule is that when a party’s opponents are suffering from self-inflicted wounds, they stand to benefit. However, Arthur Kennedy emphasised, “we should all be concerned about the NDC, because their stability and cohesion are tied to that of our country.
When the NDC and hence its government implodes, it may take the country down with it. While I want the NPP to win the next election, there must be democracy for there to be a democratic transfer of power.”
To him, this is why the welfare of the NDC, as party and government, should be of concern to every Ghanaian, between now and January 2013.
“We have seen this before. Between September 1979 and December, 1981, the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) was engulfed by factionalism and infighting. Then, as now, members of the party attacked one another in public.
The President was openly defied in public and in Parliament. Even one of his budgets was rejected,” he recalled with nostalgic memory.
As the government at the time staggered from one crisis to the next, he emphasised, people lost confidence in it and in democracy, which led to the 31st December, 1981 coup, in which Ghanaians woke up to the sound of martial music, and the announcement of ‘so-called’ liberators who had come to rescue them from the PNP.
Dr Kennedy thus quoted Santayana who once said, “Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat its tragedies”. “I am not suggesting that those involved have any sinister motive. It is just that eventually, such disparate actions, coalesce and take on a life of their own, beyond anyone’s control, and lead to untoward consequences for the governing party and the country,” he stated.
With all candour, he said, “I am not making this foray into NDC’s divisions, because all is completely well on the NPP front.
But, while the nation can afford a divided NPP for a while, it cannot afford a divided NDC. Our national interest requires, for now, a united NDC,” asking, “how can we restore amity and comity to the NDC?”
First, he said, it was important to heed the reminder of President Mills that Ghanaians voted for only one President, saying “it is crucial that all of us do our very best to support the President as he discharges the mandate given to him by the people of Ghana.”
To him, this means that all institutions and individuals must give the President their support, and resist the usurpation of powers and functions, which is reserved only for the President.
He also had cause to advice the NDC to find ways of hearing dissenting voices from their party in private, thereby urging former President Rawlings to show more support for the man who he plucked from political obscurity, and worked so hard to make President.
“It is regrettable that after working so hard to get President Mills elected, the former President is undermining President Mills.
He must find more appropriate channels to voice his concerns. As one who has held the office of President before, President Rawlings is in a unique position to appreciate the pressures of the Presidency, and hence to show more understanding,” he stressed.
That notwithstanding, Arthur Kennedy stressed on the need for the President to also show more respect to his party, since, according to him, “he did not win elections as an independent candidate. He won on the ticket of his party.
Therefore, he must involve his party and its structures in making decisions in which they have legitimate interests and must have input.”
After observing the activities and operations of the Mills administration for the past three months, he noted that the President looks quite weak, tentative, and not completely in charge of his own government.
He made these comments in an interview with The Chronicle, as a follow up to his opinion piece titled ‘The implosion of the NDC’.
Dr. Kennedy said this may be an intended or unintended side effect of the frustrations the President has been going through from both members of his party, and at the hands of former President Jerry John Rawlings.
According to him, he had credible information from NDC insiders, to the effect that behind the scenes, members of particular factions barely speak to members of other factions created in the party, identifying them as the Rawlings, Mills and Mahama factions.
Though the government is barely in place, he noted that there was a scramble to succeed President Mills, by those who have calculated that he cannot, or will not ran again.
This, according to him, is what compelled the President to come out to state that there was only one President in the country, and that “when the people of Ghana voted, they voted for only one President. They did not vote for President number one and President number two.”
Given his party affiliation, most people would expect Arthur Kennedy to be happy that the NDC is having difficulties, considering the fact that it is a cardinal rule in politics that when one’s political opponent or enemy is in the process of destroying himself, he should not interfere.
The rationale for this rule is that when a party’s opponents are suffering from self-inflicted wounds, they stand to benefit. However, Arthur Kennedy emphasised, “we should all be concerned about the NDC, because their stability and cohesion are tied to that of our country.
When the NDC and hence its government implodes, it may take the country down with it. While I want the NPP to win the next election, there must be democracy for there to be a democratic transfer of power.”
To him, this is why the welfare of the NDC, as party and government, should be of concern to every Ghanaian, between now and January 2013.
“We have seen this before. Between September 1979 and December, 1981, the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) was engulfed by factionalism and infighting. Then, as now, members of the party attacked one another in public.
The President was openly defied in public and in Parliament. Even one of his budgets was rejected,” he recalled with nostalgic memory.
As the government at the time staggered from one crisis to the next, he emphasised, people lost confidence in it and in democracy, which led to the 31st December, 1981 coup, in which Ghanaians woke up to the sound of martial music, and the announcement of ‘so-called’ liberators who had come to rescue them from the PNP.
Dr Kennedy thus quoted Santayana who once said, “Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat its tragedies”. “I am not suggesting that those involved have any sinister motive. It is just that eventually, such disparate actions, coalesce and take on a life of their own, beyond anyone’s control, and lead to untoward consequences for the governing party and the country,” he stated.
With all candour, he said, “I am not making this foray into NDC’s divisions, because all is completely well on the NPP front.
But, while the nation can afford a divided NPP for a while, it cannot afford a divided NDC. Our national interest requires, for now, a united NDC,” asking, “how can we restore amity and comity to the NDC?”
First, he said, it was important to heed the reminder of President Mills that Ghanaians voted for only one President, saying “it is crucial that all of us do our very best to support the President as he discharges the mandate given to him by the people of Ghana.”
To him, this means that all institutions and individuals must give the President their support, and resist the usurpation of powers and functions, which is reserved only for the President.
He also had cause to advice the NDC to find ways of hearing dissenting voices from their party in private, thereby urging former President Rawlings to show more support for the man who he plucked from political obscurity, and worked so hard to make President.
“It is regrettable that after working so hard to get President Mills elected, the former President is undermining President Mills.
He must find more appropriate channels to voice his concerns. As one who has held the office of President before, President Rawlings is in a unique position to appreciate the pressures of the Presidency, and hence to show more understanding,” he stressed.
That notwithstanding, Arthur Kennedy stressed on the need for the President to also show more respect to his party, since, according to him, “he did not win elections as an independent candidate. He won on the ticket of his party.
Therefore, he must involve his party and its structures in making decisions in which they have legitimate interests and must have input.”
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