Apply To Join NDC. Mosquito Tells JJ
Jerry John Rawlings
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Mr Nketia appears to be waging a personal battle against the NDC founder as he sets a new rule for Mr Rawlings before the latter can be allowed to stand on the party’s platform.
“Time changes everything and in the past we never wrote a letter to invite him to attend NDC functions, but I can say that certain changes have popped up in this year’s election…henceforth, the relationship which would exist between us would be based on official letter writing,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Okay FM.
This was after the spokesman for Mr. Rawlings, Kofi Adams, made suggestions to the effect that the former President had changed his mind from his initial position of not campaigning and had now decided to join the NDCs campaign trail after meeting with some former executives of the party.
But a statement issued from the office of the former President, moments after Kofi Adams made the announcement, contradicted his claim, with Mr. Rawlings saying that “I am four years older than I was in 2008 and all the exertion plus my international roles mean I am a tired man.”
Mr Rawlings said he was hoping to retire after the last election but “unfortunately things did not fall into place the way they should have”.
Though he expressed the wish that President Mahama would win the upcoming elections, Mr. Rawlings stated, “As a party we have failed in several aspects of governance, particularly with respect to offering confidence to the people that they will receive justice at all times.”
However, the NDC General Secretary virtually said the founder had to indicate by writing before he could be allowed because of previous experiences where the former president had distanced himself from party programmes, warning them not to use his name to win support without getting clearance from his office.
“Whatever we do that we have not sent him an official invitation, you realise that those in his office would put it on the radio (news) as if it is a new thing but it wasn’t like that previously,” Mr Nketia said.
“So now that we have realised that we can only deal on official basis, then when everything is coming [from him], then we expect that they will also follow the rules that they have established for us to understand how they’ve made their minds.”
Though he admitted that he and his colleague members of the National Executive Committee of the party had not heard or received any such communication from Mr. Rawlings himself , he noted, “If we hear any such thing from him, whatever response we have; we will communicate it to him.”
Asked why the demand for Mr. Rawlings to submit an official letter or communication before being made to join the campaign, Mr Asiedu-Nketia said, “It has become important and I think that his office has come to realise that henceforth we will be dealing with them on documents.”
Mr Asiedu-Nketia, a former Seikwa-based banker, did not agree to suggestions by some members of the party to the effect that the election of US President Barack Obama automatically meant a win for their candidate, President John Mahama.
That, he said, was in view of the fact that Americans did not vote in Ghana.
That notwithstanding, the former Seikwa Presbyterian Middle school teacher indicated that some lessons could be drawn from the American elections, claiming that the Republicans destroyed the US economy whilst the Democrats came to fix it.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu