NDC LEADERSHIP MUST WAKE UP FROM THEIR SLUMBER

The current executive under the chairmanship of Dr Kwabena Adjei did a yeoman's job in winning victory for the NDC in 2008. The 2008 elections, which went into the history books as the closest Presidential Elections ever held in our country was a very difficult one for both the then incumbent NPP and the NDC. It was an NDC's elections to win considering that the NPP under His Excellency Presidency Kuffour had concluded a full 8 year term in office. But victory didn't come to the NDC on a plate of gold.

Two years down the line and another two years to the next general elections, the leadership of the NDC appears to be still basking in the victory of the 2008 elections. They have virtually closed their eyes to the glaring realities manifesting itself on the Ghanaian political landscape and sadly our leadership appears to be lost in political dreamland.

As at now, the party has failed to publish and make available to its officers across the country the revised constitution supposedly agreed upon during our Tamale Congress. For a party that believes so much in democratic procedures of going about things, one may wonder what set of laid down rules and regulations the party is currently being run on. Can the leadership tell the ordinary NDC member on the street of Teshie Tsuibleoo which version of the party's constitution is currently in use? Or are we now using an “unwritten constitution” in the NDC? We ought to be serious!

What about our impending Presidential Primaries? Does anybody know when this will be held and the modalities to be followed? Since August 2010 when the opposition NPP expanded its Electoral College to ensure that polling station executives across the nation take part in the process of selecting a Presidential Candidate for the NPP, has it ever crossed the minds of the leadership of the NDC to at least ignite a debate within the various structures of our party to identify the merits and demerits of such an exercise?

Maybe I need to get practical to drum home the message to our party's leadership. We are going into competition with a contender that until recently was the market leader, isn't it prudent that when the competitor increased its retail outlets from 2,340 to about 115,000 we sit down and assess the implications of such a move and its impact on our corporate survival? Can MTN pretend not to be bothered if all of a sudden Tigo increases its retail outlets from 2,340 to 115,000? If we own Coca Cola, wouldn't we call for an emergency management meting if out of the blue Pepsi Cola increases its distribution and retail outlets by that astronomical 4,800 per cent? It is so amazing yet pathetic that a Party that won the last elections by ONLY 40,000 votes, and which had to go through a second round and a by-election in Tain for it to win, should be sitting as if unconcerned about this development.

It is becoming clear that the current executive of the NDC with their collaborators at the Castle are afraid that should there be a transparent debate on the subject, there could be major swing to a more democratic NDC leadership electoral system which could damage the chances of the incumbents. This fear is partly because although many candidates for Party positions campaigned towards the Tamale Congress last year to support NDC FOOTSOLDIERS and the YOUTH in general, the Party Chairman and others, after getting the nod at Congress, suddenly came out against NDC foot-soldiers to the extent of even denying their very existence. At the same time, many commentaries have been alluding to a situation where the Party leadership has been collaborating with the Castle to undermine the role of the Founder and his wife, and to some extent the more vocal and independent-minded amongst the cadre corps. The effect of all of this is that the Castle and the Kwabena Adjei led executives are afraid that should there be a wider voting within the NDC, the incumbent will lose hence this exhibition of the proverbial ostrich's tendencies.

Again, one can feel the disenchantment within the rank and file of the party. Outside the corridors of the power players, the government has managed to wean itself from the party's grassroots functionaries and the party leadership too appears to be clueless about that. Across the country, our branches and wards are no more in existence. In some places, even Constituency meetings have ceased. As for the Youth and Women meetings, the least talked about them the better. In a threshold of an election year, can this happen within any serious political party, more so a party in government?

Somebody walk to Dr. Kwabena Adjei and his other executive members, take off their spectacles, tap them into reality, look them straight in the eyes and deliver this message to them for me, “the 2012 elections is just around the corner. It is ours to win and they can't afford to fail us. It's about time they woke up from their slumber and do the needful. For winning an election, like we saw in 2008, is no “cat-killing business”. Need I say more……?

God bless our homeland Ghana.

Nii Ayi Anteh
Ledzokuku Constituency
([email protected])
(The writer is also a branch chairman in the Tsui Bleoo Electoral Area of the Ledzokuku Constituency)