NDP catalogues 10 Mahama ‘sins’ against late president Rawlings

The National Democratic Party, NDP, founded by the wife of late former President, Rawlings says the National Democratic Congress, NDC which is currently the biggest opposition party led by John Mahama is not fit to defend its founder and former president’s legacy.

During a press conference on Monday, the NDP General Secretary, Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong castigated the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, NDC for shedding crocodile tears over the death of their founder and former President Jerry John Rawlings.

The accusation is believed to find roots in the estranged relationship between the late Flt. Lt Jerry John Rawlings and his party which continued to widen before his demise.

Jerry Rawlings, who once used his blood to seal the NDC manifesto in 2000, took on his party after 2009 after helping it recapture political power in 2008.
Blasting the then-new NDC leader and president, Prof. Evans Atta Mills, Jerry Rawlings accused his party of corruption and abandoning the party’s founding values of probity and accountability.

A criticism continued and played out in the media as some leading members of the NDC retaliated.

The nine-year fight culminated in Rawlings playing next to no role in the NDC for the 2012 and 2016 general elections. His wife, Nana Konadu after an unsuccessful attempt to become the NDC’s flagbearer in 2011, broke away to form the National Democratic Party ahead of the 2012 polls.

Barely three weeks to the 2020 presidential elections, Jerry Rawlings died, unreconciled with the NDC.

Prior to his death, Jerry Rawlings said his last vote in a presidential election was for the NDP presidential candidate, his wife.

It is believed that the NDP has come out now as defenders of the man whose party was wrestled from him by a cabal within the NDC.

The Secretary-General went on the attack on Monday:

1.Some events in the past show that there are attempts by some elements in the NDC to discrete the legacy of Rawlings. These acts are been perpetrated by persons who have shown a desire to constantly humiliate Jerry John Rawlings and his family.

2.It is worth noting that these acts of deliberate orchestrations to humiliate the Rawlings family began long ago, it began right from the period when certain individuals many of whom were direct beneficiaries of the revolution and the party that he formed even at the peril of his life.

3.They felt the need to use their temporary hold on the NDC to relegate him to the background in other to enjoy the juicy fruits borne from his sacrifices. They have tried to harvest where they have not planted.

4.For the past decade these elements led principally by the Ahwio’s and the Mahama group orchestrated series of coordinated attacks aimed at destroying the legacy of Jerry John Rawlings, this they did by sponsoring political neophytes JJ himself aptly described as babies with sharp teeth to unleash barrages of insults and spew damning political rhetoric on the persons of Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings.

5.Even the eventual ostracization of Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings from the NDC was inadequate to appease them as recently as this year, Prof Jane Nana Opoku Agyemang, the running mate of the NDC wrote the forward of a book by Prof Kwabena Ahwio aimed at destroying the legacy of Jerry John Rawlings.

6.In the weeks leading up to his demise, President Rawlings made it known to all persons he had meetings with that he was extremely heartbroken that neither the leadership of the NDC or the flagbearer had made any statement in defense of the founder or to correct the lies said in the book “Working with Rawlings”.

7.Today the political henchmen who were utilized for such diabolic assignments have been rewarded with high positions in the NDC and the others are expecting big positions under a Mahama government.

8.Those who produce forwards of books that cast the founder of the party in a bad light are hoping to occupy higher positions in government on the ticket of the party which was formed on the sweat, blood of Rawlings.

9.All Rawlings did was to be a voice of conscience reminding them of his enduring principles of probity, accountability, and anti-corruption which the NDC disregarded when they assumed the rails of power as a result, they sought to silence him in order to prevent him from publicly speaking against them for their unprecedented levels of corruption.

10.We are troubled that some of these same persons upon the demise of President Rawlings now seeks to lead in mourning the man, they have begun to shred crocodile tears, they spent thousands of dollars to sponsor a video made in Washington DC by one Kevin Taylor who is tipped to be Information Minister in the event of a Mahama comeback to insult president Rawlings.