Rawlings Predicts NDC Defeat, But Mills Sees Victory

SCARED by the stiff challenge President Mills faces from Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings in the flagbearership contest of the ruling National Democratic Congress, the entire government was virtually brought to its knees yesterday, as officials abandoned their duties and followed the President to the party’s headquarters to pick up his nominations forms.

Some parts of the nation’s capital, including Nkrumah Circle, Ring Road, Ridge and 37, witnessed needless and costly traffic for close to four hours as President Mills and his entourage moved to the Kokomlemle headquarters for the forms and later converged at the Kuku Hills for the campaign launch.

Many members of the public expressed anger at what they saw as the needless inconvenience created for residents of the capital and the productive man hour lost to the nation, as a result of the thousands of people induced and bussed from across the country to demonstrate support for the President.

It is estimated that $50m was lost in productivity alone, all for humble President Mills to pick up nomination forms. President Mills stated emphatically that he would win the party’s presidential nomination with a landslide and subsequently go ahead to lead the NDC to win the 2012 general elections.

But the founder of the party, former President Rawlings, thinks otherwise. He has predicted defeat for his party in the 2012 general elections if the delegates to the July congress should make the mistake of electing incumbent President Mills as the party’s presidential candidate.

“You may win [the presidential nomination] but you will go and lose the national election. Let us wake up to the reality on the ground. This reality is on the ground and anybody knows it. If any elections were conducted today, we all know our fate. Let’s stop being selfish and do what we must do. I am not saying it out of spite because I had supported my friend when all the people around him deserted him”, he stated Wednesday.

Speaking at the campaign launch of his wife for the party’s flagbearership slot, Mr Rawlings said the NDC started losing the 2012 election right from the first week President Mills assumed the presidency, stressing that the party finally lost it all eight months ago. He accused President Mills and his functionaries of using financial and other material inducement to influence the delegates in their desperate attempt to win the July presidential nomination.

In the view of the NDC founder, President Mills and his functionaries have become so “intoxicated” that they have completely lost touch with the grass roots of the party, as well as the realities on the ground.

“Let’s not allow ourselves to make this mistake again. It may be painful, nervous and jittery but that is the only medicine we have to take. Let’s wake up to the reality. The truth is staring at us in the face but some of our comrades up there seem to be so intoxicated and have lost touch with the reality on the ground,” he cautioned the delegates.

Michael Teye-Nyaunu, Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, lamented that President Mills was ruling the country as though the NDC had not been in power before. Mr Teye-Nyaunu, who likened the NDC government to a Yutong bus veering off the road, said the bus (party) was heading for an accident.

The MP explained that the Yutong bus contains people with different principles – some who have been sleeping, others who have been sitting and watching the driver drive recklessly, and are afraid to call him to order, while there were others who would always speak their minds fearlessly.

Mr Nyaunu insisted that the only way to prevent the bus from having an accident was to change the driver. He therefore urged members of the party to unflinchingly support the former First Lady’s bid to become the party’s, stressing that was the only way the party could be rescued.

Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings accused President Mills and his loyalties in the NDC leadership of buying votes and support ahead of the party’s upcoming July presidential nomination. She described the practice as shameful as it contravenes the party’s core values of probity, accountability, justice and sacrifice.

“A true blooded NDC leadership does not buy support, no we don’t buy support, a true blooded NDC leadership does not buy votes, we don’t buy votes, we work towards the votes, indeed we do not buy delegates. This tendency is destroying the spirit and the strength of the NDC and it’s a shame”.

Mrs Rawlings said she accepted the various calls on her to contest the party’s flagbearership race because the “governance that we have experienced since 2009 does not inspire confidence or give Ghanaians any hope for the future”.