Rawlings calls on government to be assertive

Former President Jerry John Rawlings, saying he was

concerned by the “slow pace of things” in the ruling National Democratic Congress

(NDC), said on Monday that the party needed to be more assertive and “show the

people that they were elected into power”.
He said the NDC government had allowed people “we don't want to call enemies

but are really enemies” to have a field day.
“The issue of morality was central in our campaign leading to the consolidation of

power. We should not betray the confidence of the people,” he told reporters after

coming out of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Accra.

Sources said the closed-door meeting was meant to review the state of the party

and the direction it should go.
Formers President Rawlings, who is the founder of the NDC, advised members in

national leadership positions who were “behaving as independents” to consult the

party where decisions were to be made.
“They should know that they won the election on the platform of a political party

and they should not take decisions without the input of the party.”

Mr Rawlings described some appointees as “mediocre” adding that, “the

presidency has surrounded itself with people who are taking undue advantage to

misbehave and are doing things in the wrong direction, and everyone in the party is

complaining”.
Moments later, Vice President John Dramani Mahama, who was leaving the

meeting to attend to other state issues, said although people's expectations of

government were very high, things ought to be done in consonance with the dictates

of the constitution.
He said on appointments, the party had to satisfy the constitutional requirements

that there should be regional, ethnic and gender balance and the constitutional demand

that most of the ministers should come from parliament.

The Vice President said the party's Nungua meeting was to discuss some of the

issues raised by the former President and the forum should be the best procedure to

address any grievances from members of the party who thought things should move

in a certain direction.
Mr Seth Ohene, Communications Director of the party, said diverse opinions and

issues were raised at the meeting, and the party was confident of resolving them at the

end of the meeting.
GNA