We will not respond to Rawlings' ‘boom’ speech at Aflao – NDC

The National Organizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Yaw Boateng Gyan has said that the party has decided not to make any official comments about ex-President Rawlings' boom statement at Aflao on Sunday.

According to him, Mr. Rawlings is the founder of the party and if he sees it right to openly chastise the government all the time that is his own trouble and not the party's.

At a rally at Aflao on Sunday as part of celebrations to commemorate June 4 this year, former president Rawlings stated that he wished his party would win the December elections but that cannot be possible because they have rejected the June 4th principles and failed Ghanaians.

He said he was not surprised the NDC is on the path to failure because President Mills himself admitted during an interview that there is nothing wrong with NPP flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo becoming president of Ghana.

Many people have said that a lot of Mr Rawlings' statements at Aflao were an endorsement of the NPP and Nana Addo, but Mr. Boateng Gyan told Adom News that this is not first time Mr. Rawlings is chastising a government so the party will ignore him.

He also indicated that it is surprising that ex-President Rawlings, who used to call Nana Addo 'that short man', now knows him (Nana Addo) by his real name and even says good things about him.

Yaw Boateng Gyan stated that there are many persons within the NDC who are ready to work hard to ensure that the party retains power in the December general elections, adding that the party's concentration is on its 20th anniversary celebrations which comes to its climax on June 10.

Government officials and party executives have like Mr Gyan openly voiced out their frustrations at the former President's continued criticism of the government and the NDC.

Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa recently said on Metro TV's Good Morning Ghana that people are getting fed up with Rawlings. He stressed 'people are deserting that camp because they have realized that, it is not a worthy cause' and that 'it is left with just one or two people due to vilification and attacks on the president'.

Meanwhile, a Political Science Lecturer at the Methodist University, Dr. Bonsu Osei Owusu also stated that Mr. Rawlings had given the NPP more weapons to win the December elections.

He said he does not see what Mr. Rawlings said as a direct endorsement of Nana Akufo-Addo but added that if what he said was anything to go by, then the NDC will be badly affected.

Source: Yaa Asantewaa/Adom News