Dear Founding Fathers, Members of Council of Elders, Executives at all levels of party structure, Members, Supporters and Sympathizers of the great Akatamanso:
I acknowledge that without your support our great party—the NDC— would not have coped, adapted and sustained its survival until today.
Before and immediately after the Koforidua Congress in 2005, the NPP communication machinery painted the NDC as violent and undemocratic in an aggressive spin.
The unprofessional handling of the 2005 Koforidua Congress led to the breakaway of a faction of the NDC led by the very National Chairman who organized that historic Koforidua Congress in the first place. It was under that tumultuous circumstance that I became the National Chairman of our great party. We seriously tried to broker peace with the breakaway faction to no avail.
Ever since Koforidua, the internal democracy of the NDC has been excellent in deed. It has surpassed those of all other political parties whose apostles claim to be the democrats above those of the tried and tested jurisdictions of United Kingdom, the United States and India.
Ever since Koforidua, the NDC has witnessed the democratic attributes of unity, tolerance, understanding, peace and love. I, among others, have in my neutrality as the party Chairman promoted and sustained those sterling democratic qualities as principles of our party’s democratic adaptability and survival.
It should always be borne in mind that the NDC is positioned at the left-of-centre on the ideological spectrum. The NDC’s ideology, vision and mission are predicated on good political behaviours and as well as on the compulsive need to serve the people and serve them loyally. Anything in the form of undemocratic behaviours, negative campaigns, violent elections, blatantly unethical and unprofessional campaign conduct would invariably serve to derail the party and threaten its survival.
Party chieftains and members should always be reminded of the fundamental principles of probity, accountability and responsibility which form the foundation on which the NDC is built. Let us understand that the NDC is NOT:
a rightist or conservative party of any description;
a property-owning democratic party; and
a party for sale to the highest bidder.
This Press Statement is to alert all, especially the new NDC executives and members, that there are neither shortcuts nor backdoor strategies to power in the NDC.
NDC NATIONAL CONCRESS 2014
Experiences from the recently held Regional Conferences foretell the undemocratic behaviours likely to characterize the forthcoming Kumasi Congress. The situation is anticipated to be even worse than what happened in Koforidua in 2005 if what I pick from the grapevine has any atom of truth.
It is also rumored that some party members who do not contribute a pesewa to the party for its grassroots operations have amassed so much money which they intend to use to influence the election of their favourites at the National Congress. Let us avoid this tactic because it has the potential of annihilating great NDC within the shortest possible time.
Whosoever in his or her desperation for power is orchestrating these alleged diabolical plans is making a fatal political mistake, and should desist from actualizing it in the supreme interest of the party and state. The monkey-de-work-baboon-de-chop political disorder must stop! It must stop now to save the NDC from disintegration and total destruction!! The earlier delegates and other party members begin to appreciate that the NDC is not for sale to the highest bidder the better the NDC’s chances are as a robust and surviving political party.
The National Congress will take place in Kumasi on 13-14 December 2014. It promises to be a ground-breaking event—ground-breaking in the sense that it will seriously consider NDC Constitutional Amendments that are critical to NDC’s strength and very survival.
There is no doubt that the progressive party-building intention of the National Democratic Congress has on record been demonstrably very clean, peaceful and festive. The Congresses in Tamale in 2010, Sunyani in 2011 and Kumasi in 2012 attest to this enviable democratic record—a record that must be jealously guarded and sustained at all legitimate costs.
The NDC under my Chairmanship has endeavoured to evolve sustainable conventions and applicable rules of appropriate ethical conduct.
Hence the political edifice of the NDC has become unparalleled in the annals of Ghana’s political history. The magic of the NDC is a wonder in the whole of Africa. Let none, in his or her over-ambitious craze to leadership at any level of party structure carelessly attempt to reverse or obliterate the history and currency of this enviable record.
To differentiate, elaborate and adapt the NDC in our singular aim to keep it on a survival course, party members are therefore strongly advised:
NOT TO bring, display or distribute money and other items that are intended to influence delegates before and during the National Congress;
NOT TO stir up hatred or violence using the services of the so-called macho men on congress grounds;
NOT TO hoot at or embarrass any Congress candidate, delegate or elder on the congress grounds.
The incumbent NDC National Executive Committee (NEC) which is organizing the 2014 National Congress shall not be held responsible for any untoward act emanating from the failure on the part of any party member to heed the foregoing pieces of advice. NEC shall neither protect any person enacting specified or unspecified disciplinary conducts inimical to the smooth and safe running of the impending National Congress. For the love of our party and nation, let us all dedicate ourselves to making the Kumasi Congress as smooth, clean and peaceful as ever.
I wish every contestant in the National Congress good luck. Let’s all of us go by the rules and come out of the Congress as victors or vanquished. Thereafter, we can with ease and sibling-feeling collectively pursue the National Democratic Agenda for a BETTER GHANA.
May our homeland Ghana be perpetually blessed by God Almighty.
Long Live the NDC!
Long Live Ghana!!
Issued by:
Hon. Dr. Kwabena Adjei
Incumbent National Chairman of NDC