NDC Boss Strikes

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 11 June 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu & A.R Gomda
Dr. Kwabena Adjei, Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has furiously lashed out at persons who, according to him, are trying to cause trouble in the party by bickering over its leadership towards the 2012 presidential race.

He particularly hit at Herbert Mensah, while avoiding Mr. Rawlings and his wife Nana Konadu, like a plague.

“Some people are trying to rock the boat, and it is time for us to tell them that we can’t continue to sit down and then see them rock the boat,” he huffed and puffed.

Kwabena Adjei’s anger came on the heels of a fierce encounter on Radio Gold last Wednesday between Herbert Mensah and Ato Ahwoi, over who said what about the health challenges of President John Evans Atta Mills prior to the 2008 presidential elections.

While the NDC capo avoided mentioning the names of the ex-First Couple, he was not charitable with the Rawlingses’ pal Herbert Mensah, saying, “And who is that Herbert? I don’t know him anywhere. When did he join the party?”

When pushed to get closer to the names he thought were behind the ongoing fracas in the NDC, he shouted: “You want to put words in my mouth. Don’t you yourself know what is happening?

Don’t you know what is happening? Why do you want me to say it? Don’t you know what is happening? I mean we are fed up with what is happening now.”

For those following recent developments, they could only relish a guess when the NDC National Chairman said:

“We don’t want to talk about it, but it has come to a point when we now want to tell those people that if Prof Mills doesn’t succeed, nobody will succeed, nobody! It should be clear to them. If people want to make sure that they undermine Prof Atta Mills so that they will come to power, they lie…”

About how the President was taking the unfolding events, he said the man was unshaken, adding that anyone who takes the First Gentleman for granted was underestimating him, given his record as a former Vice President and a sportsman.

“Some of you people take the man for granted. A professor of law who has been a vice president before and is the President of the Republic of Ghana: Why do you people think you can underestimate a man like that?

A sportsman like that? His demeanour is cool. He’s not worried about all this nonsense that is going on, he’s not!” he stressed.

The verbal clash between Herbert Mensah, a close associate of the Rawlingses’, and Ato Ahwoi, a leading member of the NDC and a pal of President Mills, alongside the flaunting of a Nana Konadu For 2012 bid, had come under a scathing attack from the party chairman.

He served notice that a group of NDC persons was busy rocking the boat of the party, warning that he and others would not allow them to have their way.

This latest response from the National Chairman of the ruling party had widened the scope of the internal wrangling, deepening the schism that now exists in the political grouping.

He expressed worry about what for him was an in-house machination from the highest echelon of the party- a conclusion informed by a careful watching of unfolding events, according to him.

President Mills, contrary to what had been peddled about his health status, he said, was well and not sick.

“There is nothing wrong with President Mills. President Mills is not ill. President Mills is doing what he can to promote the Better Ghana agenda. That’s it!” Dr. Adjei said.

“The likes of me have sat down; we have not talked about anything; we have watched events; we are worried. We are worried because this is coming from within our own ranks and from the highest echelon of our ranks,” he added.

On Tuesday, Herbert Mensah, a businessman and an associate of the Rawlingses, clashed with a man considered as a member of President Mills’ kitchen cabinet over alleged discussion about dumping Mills in the run-up to the last elections.

During the last June 4 celebration in Tamale, a group of party activists flew a ‘Nana Konadu for 2012’ kite and ended up opening a Pandora’s Box, whose fallouts were said to be causing disquiet in the ruling party.
While some had spoken openly about it, others preferred to keep mute.

Presidential Aide and National Youth Organiser, Ludwig Hlodze, when contacted yesterday by DAILY GUIDE for comment, declined the request.

Asked how the President felt about the raging issue, Ludwig said he had taken a personal decision not to comment on it, though he admitted it was part of his duty to respond to such issues.

The recent challenges facing the ruling party, which threaten its very foundation, had compelled leadership to issue a stern warning against what it described as mushroom organisations within the party.

Whilst it reaffirmed the rights of every member of the NDC to aspire to any position within the party and the country at large, the FEC maintained “these rights must be exercised within the confines of the NDC constitution and the constitution of the Republic of Ghana”.

At a press conference to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the formation of the party in Accra yesterday, General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah said, “The FEC also notes with concern, attempts to undermine the sitting President and leader of our party by certain individuals with the objective of furthering the presidential ambitions of some members of the party in 2012.”

He noted that the modus operandi of these potential aspirants had been the promotion and support of these supposed mushroom organisations within the party to begin and intensify agitations based on genuine challenges the leadership was trying to address.

Though he did not mention the name(s) of any individual or group of persons, it was obvious that Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah was referring to the recent promotional campaign for wife of former President Rawlings, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, to contest President Mills at the party’s next congress to become flagbearer.

The party’s General Secretary therefore stated emphatically: “The Functioning Executive Committee (FEC) takes a serious view of these developments and wishes to remind all concerned that the first commitment of an NDC member is to accept the constitution, aims, objectives, policies and programmes of the party.”

This, he said, was because Article 38 (a) of the party’s constitution provides for rules of conduct for party members which states inter alia “that every member of the party shall ensure the unity and cohesion of the party at all times”.

The FEC reminded those pursuing any such ‘hidden agendas’ of the decision the party took at its 2002 congress, not to approve or encourage the formation of such parallel structures within the party.

Meanwhile, a former pal of Mr. Jerry John Rawlings and Number Two man in the erstwhile AFRC junta, has stated that the ex-first couple has continued to irk Ghanaians by what he describes as their delusions.

Retired Captain Kwadwo Boakye-Gyan declared that as far he was concerned, the two persons were desperate for power because of the country’s imminent oil resources.

Rawlings, he said, was a person he knows very well and who had the capacity to manipulate and use pretences to achieve his selfish ends.