Sankofa – Down The Memory Lane (4)

FLASHBACK! Jerry John Rawlings in his hey days

IF TODAY the leadership of the NDC is celebrating the anniversary of June 4, 1979, it should be considered an irony of fate. Rawlings’s PNDC which forms the root of the NDC, sought to destroy all and everything positive which Rawlings’ June 4, 1979 sought to instill in the society. December 31, 1981 which gave birth to PNDC and June 4, 1979 which gave birth to the AFRC lay in the opposite sides of the political divide. They are like oil and water; they cannot mix together.

While June 4, 1979 stands for probity, accountability and transparency in public and political life and complete eradication of any form of military coup d’état, December 31, 1981 on the other hand stands against everything June 4, 1979 sought to achieve.

If today, the leadership of the NDC is ranting like Macbeth and afraid of the NPP government visiting their past, it is because on June 4, 1979, their godfather established a standard for themselves in political and public life. It is sad to note that all the gallant men who stood for June 4, 1979 have fallen by the way side and those latter day saints of the NDC who had little or nothing to do with June 4, 1979 but rather took advantage of December 31, 1981 coup d’état to rise from rags to riches are the loudest among those justifying the PNDC/NDC misdeeds while hiding behind June 4, 1979.

The NDC was formed for a purpose which had nothing to do with the tenets of June 4, 1979. The NDC was formed to perpetuate the tyrannical military rule of the PNDC in civilian cloth, after much pressure from the international community. On the eve of its formation, the NDC brought on board the remnants of the PNDC era who had not fallen out of or eaten up by the PNDC atrocities. The NDC at its inception was a rainbow coalition of compatible and incompatible bedfellows with one binding force. Mr. Rawlings realized that he needed the people in NDC to survive and the people in the NDC also realised that they needed Rawlings to survive.

The bond then was one of fear. The NDC, from its PNDC days, consisted of persons of interesting characteristics. Along the line, it picked up more of such characters. The PNDC/NDC had persons who were forced to park their cars on inclined planes while going to bed at night because they could not afford to buy new car battery or hire an old one. There were those whose wives had to retail charcoal on the floor to see to the survival of the entire family. There were those whose clothing smelt of local maggi cubes when they were appointed as ministers and chief executives.  There were those whose houses were so filthy any decent person would refuse to accept a cup of drinking water from them in those houses. There were those who could hardly afford a pair of decent shoes and therefore chose to see friends off walking bare footed. There were those who rode at the back of tribalism, nepotism and old boyism to gain undue advantage to acquire ill-gotten gains. We know all of them.

All of them, by joining the NDC, suddenly moved from the poverty of a church mouse to a modern day Bill Gates.

But this is just one side of the story. There were those intellectual giants who, had they decided to use their enormous talents to serve the society first and their pockets second, could have succeeded in moving both society and their pockets on a path of salvation. Sadly enough, they selected their pockets first and left society behind. There were also those who felt that they was no way any of the minority parties could win power and therefore chose to haul insults  on their mother political parties after decamping to the NDC.

In all these, the NDC played politics of exclusion and mediocrity. One had to belong to the NDC to be recognized and accepted. The NDC brooked no criticism.

My elder brother, I.K. Gyasi used to be a columnist of THE MIRROR. The day he wrote in THE MIRROR that once Mr. Rawlings left the political scene, the NDC would collapse, he was sacked as a columnist. The NDC nominated another elder brother of mine, Abraham Gyesie as Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports. At the vetting in Parliament, my brother was so impressive that he won whole-hearted acceptance on the then minority in Parliament. The NDC felt uneasy. One NDC minister asked my brother which party he belonged to, which my brother answered Ghana. His nomination was immediately withdrawn.  On hindsight, it was the hand of God which withdrew his nomination.

About three years back, when my name was put out for membership of the New Times Corporation Board of Directors, somebody somewhere put two and two together and came up with the solution to my family tree leading to I.K. Gyasi and Abraham Gyesie, my two elder brothers. The decision was taken to throw my nomination into the dust bin. The only reason it did not happen was that somebody knowledgeable was firm and resolute.

For anybody who lived in this country during the destructive tendencies of the Acheampong’s NRC/SMC, the corrective regime of Rawlings’ AFRC, and the devastating demolition work of Rawlings’ PNDC, it should pass all understanding why anybody would want to stand up and be counted as a member of the NDC. I will consider it the greatest insult to anybody’s education, intelligence, religious and moral upbringing and conscience to be counted among that group. However, there is a phenomenon referred to as stomach politics.

Today, persons who were themselves victims of June 4, 1979 and December 31, 1981 and suffered needless injustice and humiliation are vocal defenders, apostles and disciples of June 4, 1979 and December 31, 1981 under the NDC umbrella because of their massive transformation from the valley of poverty to the riches of the mountain top.

Could anybody have imagined the 2000 parliamentary and presidential elections without the NPP? Obviously, the NDC would still be in power with its imperfections and atrocities. It is for this reason that the NDC should be saved from self-destruction. The big question is: can the NDC purge itself? Can it behave like Ampadu’s proverbial lion which has just returned from Mecca and has therefore decided not to go out and hunt for preys? I wonder. The signs coming out of the NDC camp clearly indicate that it would be a gross disservice to lump everybody within the NDC as corrupt and persons without conscience. What then is keeping such people under the umbrella?

The NDC operated a mafia organization which knew how to keep its members under lock and key using either blackmail or financial destruction. There were those whom it was reported were shown their dossier at anytime they squirmed. There were those who also could not go back to their old life of either poverty or average living standard and therefore kept quiet and remained in check. Once an NDC, always an NDC. Those who took bold steps to fall out of line to form the National Reform Party (NRP) ended up completely bankrupt financially while they were also rejected by the other political divide. That is the stigma which follows the NDC.

When some members of the Savannah Group, known to be relatively clean, tried to assert their independence in Parliament, the Ewe Mafia and the Fanti Confederacy quickly organized a world press conference to show them where power laid, all in the name of castigating the NPP administration. Such is the terrible state of the NDC. But the NDC should not be allowed to destroy itself if our new political democratic dispensation is to succeed.

With the CPP lying on an operating table with a heart problem, waiting for a suitable donor, the NRP bankrupt, the UGM on timeout, the GCPP existing only in the mind of its founder and the PNC hopping on one damaged leg, the future of Ghana’s opposition is with the NDC. The NDC must be saved from destructive tendencies of its own leaders. Let us all hope and pray that either a second Moses will come from the wilderness or a second Daniel will come to give judgement to save the NDC and in the process ensure a successful and perpetual run to Ghana’s democracy.

In all these, one should not lose sight of the fact that the NDC leadership does not believe in multi-party democracy and yet the party wants to be treated like Caesar’s wife with full respect and national honours accorded to war heroes. With the current posture of the NDC, what it has failed to appreciate and understand is that if you want to be treated like Caesar’s wife, you must not only be physically beautiful but also morally beautiful. On both scores, the NDC is flat-footed. All the same, everybody in love with democracy must put hands on deck to save the NDC from pulling the trigger of the gun it has pointed to its own head.

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By Kwame Gyasi