Sack Greedy Bastards – Rawlings Charges Mahama
FORMER PRESIDENT and NDC Founder Jerry John Rawlings yesterday tasked President John Dramani Mahama to be bold and dump what he described as the 'bad nuts' in his government whose inactions are casting a slur on the image of the government and the party if he really wants to emerge victorious in the 2012 elections.
He said all was not well for the party, especially as the polls approached, stressing that President Mahama's ability to quickly restore integrity to the presidency, the government and the NDC as a political party would go a long way to determine whether he could win the impending elections.
Mr. Rawlings said the NDC was at the crossroads; therefore decisive and bold actions taken by the NDC leader would be crucial to determine if the ruling political party could win the trust of the populace and go ahead to win the impending national polls.
He said some elements in the party and government had been leading lives which sharply contradicted the values of the NDC like honesty, justice, integrity and truth which had held the NDC over the last two decades.
Addressing party delegates during an extraordinary congress of the NDC to endorse President Mahama as the NDCs flagbearer for the impending polls, he noted that doing away with people who did not respect the core values of the party was the best choice for the NDC, at least for now.
Though Mr. Rawlings was not specific with regard to the government officials whose head should roll, the NDC founder stated that throwing away the bad nuts in the party could help the NDC to restore hope and trust in the electorate.
Mr Rawlings said though it was not normal for a parent to throw away a baby with the bath water simply because the midwife was bad, sometimes it made sense to discard bad babies whose actions and demeanour did not portray that indeed they were babies.
Mr. Rawlings disclosed that some of the 'babies' in the party were now behaving as if they were old enough and ready to flex their muscles with the real party stalwarts, lamenting that these party 'babies' had lately been biting and hurling invectives that were very venomous.
He added that the party needed to work around the clock to restore credibility before the elections were held in December.
Mr. Rawlings noted that if there was civility among party members, hopefully, the past mistakes that had affected the party badly could be corrected before the national elections were organized.
He cautioned 'lazy' party members that usually sat in their homes in Ghana and abroad, waiting for others like him to sacrifice for the party to win elections so that they could be appointed as top officials, to quickly revise their notes as things would be different this time.
He insisted that every party member that wanted to benefit from the party being in power should join the campaign trail now, saying, 'Let them come and feel the taste of the hardships we went through to win the polls in 2008.'
Recounting his revolutionary days in 1979, he said he had been sacrificing for the party which he formed for the past three decades without rest, indicating that it was time for other party members to campaign for the NDC so others would see their efficiency.
The NDC, he stated, was made up of different groups and interests; therefore it was crucial for the party's leadership to unite them so that they could collectively campaign to enable the party to emerge victorious.
Mr. Rawlings urged NDC faithful to join him congratulate President Mahama for his rapid response to his (Rawlings') appeal to the presidency to provide streetlights in some villages where serial killings of women were rampant lately.
He disclosed that he had over the past year been telling key government officials to help provide streetlights in those villages but his constant appeal was not heeded by them.
Mr. Rawlings expressed shock that those government officials behaved in manner that displayed that they did not want the serial killings to be made public, stating that the efforts of a private media house ( DAILY GUIDE ) helped to expose the brutal killings.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr & Ernest Kofi Adu, Ksi