I won't give up - JJ Rawlings

Former President, JJ Rawlings

The former President, JJ Rawlings has asked Ghanaian policy makers and leaders to start looking at where they want Ghana to be in the next fifty two or more years from now. He said the country is blessed with so much resource and yet offers very little hope and opportunity for children of the next generation.

Jerry Rawlings praised president Mills for the constructive things he is doing for the people but said “the people of Ghana could not feel it because we have not moved fast enough to deal with the criminals in the Kufour regime that messed up the economy so badly, terrorised and emasculated the people for the last eight years.” He said a section of the media “would keep distorting what he says, but I am not giving up.”

Speaking on Norway's management of its oil resources, the former president said he was impressed by the country's ability to manage and spread its oil wealth among its people. He cautioned that “Ghana's untapped oil cannot be the beginning of the end for the country.

“We must use it to help the people of Ghana,” he added. Mr. Rawlings told an excited gathering of NDC members and guest at the inauguration of the Norway branch of the party that he had had “very fruitful discussions with members of the Norwegian parliament and some senior members of the Labour Party of Norway.”

Ex president Rawlings expressed optimising that the Mills led administration would look up to “a noble country like Norway and tap into their wealth of knowledge in the oil and gas industry.” He said Norway's Oil for Development Programme was a very good module and urged that Ghana must look at ways of incorporating some of the things in the programme that might be of help to Ghana.

Stressing on political development in Ghana, the former president said it was important for “us as a righteous party, a party which defends virtue to take a moral high ground. The former President encouraged members of the NDC not to give up if they wanted the party to survive.”

Mr. Rawlings said “the NDC needed to change leadership style to bring the people with us.” He urged members and sympathisers of the NDC “not to compare us to the NPP. I am comparing ourselves to how much more we could be doing” he added.

A six member executive board was sworn in as the newly constituted board of NDC Norway.

The oath of office was administered by International Relations Director of the NDC and former legislator Hon. Kofi Attor.

Mr. Attor urged the members to put their shoulders to the wheel and make the NDC more visible in Norway. He said the NDC would be holding its congress shortly but stressed that no chapter in the Diaspora would receive an invitation to congress if members had not been elected and duly inaugurated.

The newly sworn in members pledged to dedicate their service to the NDC at all times.

Ras Mubarak
Oslo, Norway