There’ll Be Newer NDC -Haruna Iddrisu

Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader in Parliament, says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) shall come newer than it was in government.

According to him, when the NDC is able to find itself in government again, it will change its actions and style, saying the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has taught the NDC some lessons.

The recent happenings in this government, where employees are being dismissed from their places of work, Haruna Iddrisu said, is a lesson the NDC has learnt in a bitter way.

Addressing a crowd of NDC supporters in Ashaiman, where the party celebrated its 25th Anniversary, the Minority Leader said: “You can witness what is happening in Ghana today, where workers, believed to be supporters of the NDC, are being sacked from their offices.

“This calls for a sincere unity among us, as members of the NDC…this is a party that never discriminated against any Ghanaian.”

He explained that the NDC government did not dismiss sympathisers of the NPP, explaining that the NDC believed in national cohesion in nation building.

“But if, today, the NPP is teaching us how to do it in a different way, we too, will change our actions and style when next we find ourselves in government,” he said.

Continuing, Haruna Iddrisu said the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and NDC’s short history is better than that of the Danqua-Busia-Dombo United Party (UP) and NPP tradition, explaining that Ghana has seen more infrastructure development in the former than the latter.

For this reason, he told the NDC supporters to be proud of the party’s legacy, which, he said, was also in the deepening of decentralisation.

In this regard, he encouraged the supporters to put the humiliating electoral defeat they suffered in 2016 behind them, as they chart a path of unity to correct the wrongs when they were in government.

“The future is what we have to focus our attention on, so that we will be battle-ready to face the NPP in 2020.”

He promised the crowd that the Minority in Parliament would put the government on its toes, saying that the Minority would continue coming out with constructive criticisms that will benefit Ghana.

On lawlessness, Haruna Iddrisu charged the government to allow the rule of law to work, and stop shielding acts of violence that have been visited on innocent citizens, since the NPP assumed office in January 2017.

Haruna Iddrisu said when they were in opposition, the NPP blamed the NDC government for borrowing, “but when they came into power, they are borrowing and borrowing. The NDC Minority in Parliament is waiting for the government to come with another excuse to go and borrow.”

He commended the supporters of the NDC for turning out in their numbers to climax the silver-jubilee birthday celebration of the party, which saw former presidents Jerry Rawlings and John Mahama, Asiedu Nketia and Kofi Portuphy, among other party bigwigs, at the Ashaiman Divisional Police headquarters park, popularly known as the Mandela Park.

The NDC’s silver-jubilee anniversary was held under the theme: ‘Mirroring the Past into the Future’.

From Inusa Musah, Ashaiman