Mills can't be trusted, says NDC group

The charge is that President John Evans Atta Mills is not a leader to be trusted.  This is the verdict of a group of members of his own party, who believe that for the ruling party to present President Mills to the electorate in 2012 for re-election would mean automatic defeat for the National Democratic Congress.

Members of the Coalition of Worried NDC Members have, therefore, urged delegates of the NDC congress in July to save the party now before it becomes too late.

They have further warned that President Mills, the leader of the NDC, is preparing the ground to contest on the ticket of the Convention People's Party should he lose the July NDC congress.

It is recalled that NDC billboards in 2008 carried the slogan, 'Vote for Mills, a President You Can Trust." The NDC group has described this as a big con job on the people of Ghana by their own party, members of which, they say, were innocently taken in by the deceptively sincere nature of the law professor.

The statement issued yesterday and signed by Martin Mensah Abeiku, spokesperson of the group, said members of COWOM associated themselves with a growing public sentiment that the former Vice President to President Rawlings has been a failure as president. 

"The unpleasant truth is that the President has failed Ghanaians and cannot be given a second term,” COWOM charged in their statement.

The group also accused President Mills of not showing enough commitment to upholding the core principles upon which the NDC was formed.

“We are tempted to believe that some people want to sacrifice the core principles, surrounding the establishment of our dear party (NDC) for that of another, just to satisfy their whims and caprices,” the statement read.

 The group expressed dissatisfaction about the manner in which President Mills and his “cronies”, especially members of GAME, are managing the affairs of the NDC.

They accused the President of promoting the agenda of the Convention People's Party, alleging that Prof Mills would attempt to seek a second term presidency on the back of the CPP if he should lose the NDC presidential primary.

“In the past few months, Prof Atta Mills and his GAME have demonstrated that they are more concerned about the activities of the Convention People's Party (CPP), rather than our party - the ultimate National Democratic Congress. There are many publications in the media that justify these claims. The fact is, we are reliably informed that H.E J.E.A. Mills is using state resources and that of the party to sponsor some personalities who are contesting for national positions in the upcoming delegates' congress of the CPP,” the NDC group claimed.

It explained: “These actions have become necessary for Prof. Mills and his team to take because their fear is that Prof. Mills is faced with the likelihood of losing his flagbearership slot for NDC, come 9 th  July. These and many other things are what they are doing to keep their presence in the CPP, so that should in case [sic] Prof. Mills loses at Congress, he would immediately contest on the ticket of the CPP, through the planned machinations of his puppets in the CPP.”

The group cited a statement issued by the pro-CPP group, Sankofa Convention People's Movement urging delegates of the NDC to vote for President Mills as the flagbearer in the July 9 primary in Sunyani as part of the evidence of his political flirtations with the CPP.

“We want to state that we are not concerned about what President Mills does with the CPP; we also don't have problem with the above stated revelations. But our main concern has to do with the fact that President Mills must come out clearly and tell us whether he wants to contest on the ticket of CPP or the NDC,” the statement added.

The NDC group insists President Mills does not deserve another opportunity to run for the presidency of the ticket of the ruling NDC.

“We are of the opinion that the best candidate to represent the NDC in the 2012 elections is the former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.  She has constantly shown that she is a visionary leader, honest and a mother who is much concerned about the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian and that, she is not prepared to align our party with another party which does not share in our common goal as social democrats,” they noted.