Rebuilding the NDC demands better internal communion, not the raving and ranting of Rawlings - Part I

Folks, writing about the manner in which Rawlings and his wife have done things after exiting political office calls for volumes if one wants to exhaust what has issued forth from them to make them irrelevant in our time.

But we don’t have the time and relevance to do so. We will cut everything down to this point: Whether the Rawlingses like it or not, Ghanaian politics has moved far beyond what they did when their p0olitical sun shone.

They have failed to accept the fact that time changes and with that change come new rulers with new perspectives on nation-building. The only glimmer of hope that seems to be fuelling the Rawlingses’ frail cry on the horizon is that they seem to have found a working partner in Akufo-Addo. They will be nothing without that accommodation.

But it’s all a ploy if not a trap for them. Can they wake up to take their steps so they don’t fall into the traps set for them? The NPP hasn’t ever liked the Rawlingses and won’t do so now that it has firm grips on power.

The ridiculous aspect is that the Rawlingses don’t know what this NPP camp is made of. That is why they are walking speedily toward the booby-trap while deceiving themselves that destroying the NDC will create new opportunities for them to exploit. Pitiable fools whose kind the world has seen and won’t want to have anymore.

Folks, I will end here by saying that the NDC can regenerate itself if those genuinely seeking its resurgence commit itself to its ideals. It is not just a matter of undercutting anybody emerging as a contender for the flagbearer position; but it is a matter of a genuine personal introspection that should involve an analysis of why the party is where it is today and what it can do to rise above pettiness.

In truth, the NDC could have won Election 2016 if it had put its house in order to tell Ghanaians the truth of its stewardship (Aren’t we already being told about development projects lacking under Akufo-Addo?).

It is the same for future elections. What eluded Rawlings and his wife must not elude those who began with the Rawlings cause and have survived the whirligig, seeing all that the Rawlingses benefited from their political calling while those supporting them lost it all.

The Rawlingses will go away as Nature calls (No one can fight against Nature); but a vibrant political party as the NDC must not go down with them. That is why I encourage all those who know the history of Ghana before and after independence, even to our time (and beyond) to hasten slowly. Listening to politicians rattle whatever their minds give them to say is one thing.

Using one’s head to explore issues regarding one’s aspirations in life is another. What next? Let the Rawlingses talk about gloom for the NDC; but let those who know where they are from learn how to serve the cause of the NDC and move it beyond the scope of the nay-sayers.

For the NDC to survive, it doesn’t need the Rawlings goodwill that has now metamorphosed into curse. I have said all along that political parties that seek to be vibrant don’t have to remain focused and fixated on the personality and interests of their founders. Human life is transient and finite. What happened to the Great Osagyefo and why his cause is lot in our time should inform how the NDC behaves.

The NDC is at that point and must redefine its course of action beyond what the Rawlingses cough out. At his age now, Rawlings cannot rejuvenate the NDC. He did his best when he had the opportunity. Having not been favoured when his political sun set, no one should expect him to be the one to return the NDC to power. Ghanaians know all that he stands for and will not be influenced in the polling booth by his stance anymore. Times have changed.

All that talk from him of the NDC’s breaking apart is nothing new. It is just an attempt to worm his way back into the main fold of the party to call the shots. And such shots won’t persuade the voter to get the NDCD back to power. Folks, I bet you, those voting in Ghana in this period have more to fear about Rawlings than to admire.

That is why the NDC must cautiously tread and put him where he belongs. The funny thing is that whenever he appears in the news with the NPP, he gains more goodwill than if he does so with the NDC. So, why waste time bringing him on board?

Truth be told—bitter though it may be—those who hate Rawlings are in the Danquah-Busia camp because of how his government hurt them politically, emotionally, financially, and otherwise. If you ever get the chance to talk to any of them, you should get to know as much as some of us do.

The only major problem that militates against the NDC is that it cannot separate itself from Rawlings and stand on its feet to be recognized and respected for all it has to offer Ghana and Ghanaians. Mills tried it only to be undermined by Rawlings (“Atta Mortuary Man”); Mahama tried it only for Rawlings and his wife to rush to bed with the NPP to doom him. Now that Rawlings seems to be looking beyond Mahama for an NDC flagbearer, what should we expect?

Rawlings isn’t God. He has seen his better days and enjoyed them at the expense of the poor tax-payer who is daily reduced to a life of nothingness because he has no stray in the corridors of power to hang on to. Rawlings and his lot can do and say whatever pleases them; but the NDC beyond him shouldn’t pander to him. Let the NDC go ahead with its rebuilding efforts. Those who can’t fit in should fit out!!

We have heard it before, seen evidence of it, and are now persuaded that the NDC can go beyond the self-interest of the Rawlingses. Nothing from there should derail the process. Once the NDC knows why it lost Election 2016 and once it still has the viable material to fight its cause, it should plough on undeterred, unperturbed, and focused. Those who seek the build the future should not sit down and prate over the past. I wish I were in Ghana to join the political mobilizers in the trench.

The painful truth is that the failures of this super-duper incompetent Akufo-Addo government will open the “Sesame” for the NDCV so it can prevail over the electorate to return to power. Ghanaians are now poised to judge their governments by what they promised to do and what they could deliver within their tenure, not by the empty and dirty rhetoric by the Rawlingses.

They are no political match-makers to defer to. Those still tied to Rawlings’ politics of attrition (as a military or civilian political hybrid) and cannot see the separation—where Ghana was in his hands and where it is going in this contemporary period—deserve no place in the NDC of our time. So much for now.

I have spoken, and will return…
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Sunday, April 29, 2018