The NDC Youth With Conviction of Principles (YWCP), largely, a transmutation of FONKAR, has issued a four week ultimatum to the Mills� administration to begin physical reconstruction of �Ground Zero�, the gutted North Ridge residence of the former First Couple, the Rawlingses, or risk their wrath through unceasing street protests.
The group, among a litany of demands, is also asking that the NDC General-Secretary Asiedu Nketia be made to resign from his position and render an unqualified apology for his irrational and misguided comments; that deputy Information Minister, Baba Jamal, be immediately dismissed and Major Boakye Gyan, (who they described as a clear and present danger to the party) should never be allowed to run on the NDC ticket for parliament.
On Valentine�s Day, February 14th, 2010 a blazing inferno engulfed the North Ridge residence, an old colonial relic of former President Jerry John Rawlings, razing it to the ground.
Some 20 months ago hence, the former first family have still not been properly housed by the state prompting them to seek for alternative accommodation.
At a press conference held at �Ground Zero�, National Coordinator of the aggrieved YWCP, Alhaji Mohammed Nasiru said the group will hit the streets at the expiration of the ultimatum if their demand is not met.
�The YWCP will never accept any explanation from the Mills/Mahama Government as to why our Party Founder and the only other living former President is still officially homeless more than one year after his residence was completely gutted by fire. We can no longer tolerate any more excuses from our own Government...We demand that president Mills openly denounce the unguarded statements made by General Secretary of the NDC Asiedu Nketia and deputy information minister Baba Jamal. The deafening silence of president Mills is giving us the impression that he has endorsed these statements. We demand that the president come clear on these matters," the YWCP spokesperson said.
Read Below the full statement issued by the group.
PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE NDC YOUTH WITH CONVICTION OF PRINCIPLES (YWCP) HELD ON THE BURNT RESIDENCE OF NDC FOUNDER AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF GHANA, H.E FLT. LT. J. J RAWLINGS, RIDGE-ACCRA
Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, all true adherents of the NDC party values and principles gathered here, we the NDC Youth With Conviction of Principles (YWCP) have organized this press conference as an urgent step to denounce and expose what we consider a planned and projected agenda by the Mills leadership to obliterate the foundation of the NDC and its embodiment � Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the said agenda is no more a secret one as several concrete actions, inactions, utterances and commentaries from various elements within the Mills government hierarchy have come to confirm not only the true existence of such a malicious agenda, but also to give credence to what some of us have been saying for a long time- that non-believers of the NDC party tradition, its values and principles have taken over the leadership of this party.
It is no longer anybody�s own imagination to conclude that there is an obliteration process ongoing, and unless it is truncated urgently, the NDC party, the only truly nationalists movement born out of the popular will of the people of Ghana and inspired by his Excellency Flt. Lt. J.J RAWLINGS could soon meet its nemesis under the Mills leadership.
It is almost certain.
We the NDC Youth with Conviction of Principles, inspired by the timeless values, ideals and virtues of our party have vowed to protect and defend its foundation blocks- the only way to avoid a near sure collapse of the NDC political tradition.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are not imagining things. Let us set a few examples that will make clear this malicious agenda to pull down the foundation of our dear party- the NDC.
Not too long ago, a published diplomatic cable by whistle blower website Wiki-leaks revealed sufficiently the plan of the so-called �new NDC� to replace our party tradition with a borrowed political tradition. The said cable titled �NDC HOPES TO BRING MINOR PARTIES INTO THE TENT� with reference ID: 09ACCRA29, Hannah Tetteh, current minister for trade told a foreign diplomat in confidence that the so-called �new NDC� under President Mills plans to bring people and political groups into the NDC by first making the NDC founder and former president �powerless�.
Ms. Hannah Tetteh also confided in U.S. Ambassador Teitelbaum that the NDC would no longer be a Rawlings traditional party but an Nkrumahist party when the mission of this �new NDC group� is accomplished. Ms. Hannah Tetteh who has shown no commitment to NDC values and principles has virtually denounced Article 6 of the NDC Constitution which states explicitly that the Party was established on the Vision, Ideals and Inspiration of H.E President J.J Rawlings.
According to Ms.Tetteh, by that denouncement, the party would then drift from its original principles and values of probity, accountability and social justice to revive the failed principles of the CPP.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, true NDC members present, Ms. Hannah Tetteh, upuntil this moment as we speak, has not denied the content of these leaked diplomatic cables- a clear admittance of her involvement in this scheme.
Just when we in YWCP began to wonder about these machinations from our elected leaders, one of the most venomous critics of the NDC party tradition Retired Major Boakye Gyan announced his joining of the NDC and hisintention to contest for Parliament on the party�s ticket.
Boakye Gyan who described the NDC party not too long ago as an �illegal entity� now says in his first remarks after supposedly joining the NDC that �I know President Mills to be an Nkrumahist and I am an Nkrumahist true and true. I cannot sit down for the so called founder Jerry Rawlings and his wife who are determined to destroy Mills and his government to succeed�.
From his statement, Boagye Gyan is joining the NDC to fight against its Founder. The YWCP wonders what business Boakye Gyan, a man who describes himself as an �Nkrumahist true and true� and who sees our party as an �illegal entity,� has in the NDC- a party founded by J.J Rawlings. And especially when his statement has been given public support by the General-Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketiah. Are we going to sit down, true believers and lovers of the NDC tradition, for people to openly announce that they�re joining our party solely to fight and destroy it? Are we going to sit down and allow our party general secretary, who we elected and is accountable to us, to go about recruiting people determined to destroy our Party foundation? Absolutely not!
This is the same General-Secretary, Johnson in his quest to perpetuate this malicious agenda of the so-called �new NDC� who recently said that �the barking dogs that chased away people in the NDC party have themselves been eliminated�. We are demanding the General-Secretary John Asiedu Nketiah point out to us the �eliminated barking dogs� he refers to in the NDC.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, Fellow Party Members and the general public, the YWCP, without reservation, questions the competence and loyalty of the General-Secretary of the NDC who openly supports people who say that President Rawlings and his supporters have appropriated a provision in the NDC constitution that says the Party was founded on the ideals of the former president, to call him founder as if to say that the NDC constitution which indelibly embodies thefounder�s ideals is not clear enough.
We want to state clearly and categorically that the NDC Founder and Former President of Ghana, Flt Lt J.J. Rawlings, is entrenched in the constitution of the NDC. Flt Lt J.J. Rawlings is the Founder of our party the NDC; He was the founder when the NDC was formed, he is theFounder today, and he will always be the Founder of our great NDC party. No one and No group of people can take that away from the NDC. No one and no group of people can take that from we the members of the NDC party- not even a malicious clique of usurpers.
Ladies and Gentlemen, We are aware of plans included in this obliteration agenda of the Mills leadership to amend article 6 of the NDC constitution that states succinctly that our party was founded on the ideals and philosophy of H.E Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. Interestingly, even absurdly, these same people fighting against the very NDC constitution are the very people who drafted it- not J.J Rawlings.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the YWCP will not hesitate neither will we mince words in telling you that President Mills has mistreated the NDC founder without regard for his status as the founder of the party on which he Mills won the elections; and without regard for his status as a former president of our country. Under President Kufour�s eight-year regime, President Rawlings was denied his privileges and protocols for exposing the rot in that regime. His freedom of movement was restricted and his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings was hounded using the judiciary. We all thought that was utterly contemptible. We all condemned it- including President Mills. Little did we know that under President Mills, our own Founder will be subjected to even worse treatment.
President Mills and his team quickly after the Sunyani Congress organized a NEC meeting and announced Vice-President John Mahama as running mate without duly consulting with the Party Founder and elders in accordance with the provisions in our Party Constitution. We see this development as a gross violation of the Party�s Constitution that should not be countenanced.
We all woke up ladies and gentlemen of the press, on February 14, 2010 to the inferno that engulfed the residence of our Party Founder and former President of Ghana H.E Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. It�s been over a year now and we are still at �Ground Zero�. We are all here today to see for ourselves the state of that accommodation (Ground Zero).
As you can all see, we are actually sitting on the piece of land that carried that building which no longer exists. There have been several media reports orchestrated by government agents to suggest that this house is being rebuilt and may even be almost completed. Such pure lies from our own Government that we put in power cannot be countenanced any longer- not by the NDC youth with conviction of principles (YWCP).
Just this week, BABA JAMAL, Deputy Information Minister, known to be a non-adherent to truth, but who speaks for the Mills/Mahama Government said to the media with regards to this burnt house, and I quote:
��There are more important matters for government to deal with instead of such �unnecessary distractions�. Asked how far government has gone with the reconstruction of the burnt residence of our Founder, the Deputy Minister added, �I won�t waste my time on that issue and if there are more important matters to be discussed, let�s discuss those�. Further asked if the accommodation of the former president and party founder is not an important matter, BABA JAMAL asked �Is J.J Rawlings the only former president of Ghana that we should bother government on the issue of his accommodation?�
The comments of the Deputy Minister are distasteful and impudent, and make him totally unfit to occupy the position of Deputy Minister of State in an NDC Party in government Founded by H.E. Jerry John Rawlings. In this regard, we of the YWCP particularly demand the immediate sack of BABA JAMAL as Deputy Minister of State for showing gross disrespect towards our Founder and his wife through his recent unguarded comments concerning the burnt house (Ground Zero).
The YWCP will never accept any explanation from the Mills/Mahama Government as to why our Party Founder and the only other living former President is still officially homeless more than one year after his residence was completely gutted by fire. We can no longer tolerate any more excuses from our own Government.
The YWCP is giving the Government an ultimatum:
(i) We are charging the Government, within four (4) weeks to begin physical reconstruction of the burnt Ridge residence (Ground Zero). Failing that, we shall come out in our numbers to begin street protests and demonstrations until our modest and justified demands are met without any conditions.
(ii) We demand that the NDC General-Secretary Asiedu Nketia be made to resign his position as the NDC General-Secretary and render an immediate unqualified apology for his irrational and misguided comments. We have had other former general secretaries of calibre such as Hudu Yahaya and Joshua Aryeh of the NDC, as well as Dan Botwe and Ohene Ntow of the NPP, but to the best of our knowledge, none of them have gotten that notorious with such high level corruption as our so-called General Secretary.
For example, the same general secretary has been alleged to operate a block factory near the Bui Dam, operating several fuel filling stations, engaged in cocoa sack importation as well as building of mansions outside of Ghana.
(iii) We demand that Boakye Gyan, a clear and present danger to our party never be allowed to run on the NDC ticket for parliament.
(iv) We demand that president Mills openly denounce the unguarded statements made by General Secretary of the NDC Asiedu Nketia and deputy information minister Baba Jamal. The deafening silence of president Mills is giving us the impressionthat he has endorsed these statements. We demand that the president come clear on these matters.
All these demands, ladies and gentlemen, fall within the frame work of a resistance movement that is beginning from here- and now- and not only demanding but also taking concrete and practical steps to see a truncation of the ongoing process of obliterating the very foundation of our political tradition and the values, virtues and principles therein. We deem our mission urgent as we all can see the speed with which our beloved party is heading towards its demise.
The apathy, despondency and pure confusion that exist among the NDC supporters today are just a prelude to what could be an end to our beloved party- a party that so many people sacrificed their entire lives to build over the years.
This morning, a statement was released signed by Kwamina Awhoi, Sherry Ayittey, Iddrissu Mahama, E.T. Mensah, Totobi Kwakye: these same people are pursuing this so-called �New NDC� Agenda. They have come out to condemn Obed Asamoah without mentioning Asiedu Nketia�s involvement and endorsement of Obed Asamoah�s statement and actions. This smacks of hypocrisy and lacking sincerity.
These same people endorsed similar statements in the past including E.T. Mensah himself who made similar condemnable statement that we cannot repeat because of its offensiveness. The Eastern regional chairman of the NDC, called our founder all kinds of negative names and can these same people say they did not hear any of these offensive comments? If they did, where have they been all this while?
They left these insults to fester for a long time and now that we the young people are standing up and saying enough is enough, these same people have released this statement feigning their belief in our founder.
NDC members, this is a SCAM! Do not fall for this.
Ladies and Gentlemen, if we the youth refuse to stand up now and defend our tradition, we will have no NDC party to inherit tomorrow.
We call on the rank and file of the true NDC party tradition, thefoot soldiers, the cadres and all those who truly believe in the unique political tradition of the NDC to say enough is enough and join us to resist this dangerous trend that is threatening to overwhelm us.
We shall not cease our agitation and protests until we see the restoration of NDC values and principles by this Government. We shall not rest on our oars until we see our Party Founder and Former President given the deserved honour by a government of our own Party.
And we shall not rest- no matter the cost- until we see the down-fall of the people who are actively working against the good of our beloved NDC Party tradition.
If President J.J Rawlings and his young colleagues could have had the courage in 1979 to stand up to the pure rot and injustice that engulfed our nation at the time, and at the peril of their lives, we the youth of today see it as a moral obligation to stand up and democratically resist all attempts by people with parochial interests and agendas within the NDC to destroy the virtues that bind us together as a political movement.
We the youth want to inherit a future NDC with its original ideals without dilution or corruption. We the youth of NDC want to inherit an NDC that continues to stand strong on its tradition of probity, accountability and social justice so that we can build on this and improve life for all Ghanaians.
NO JJ NO VOTE FOR THE NDC IN 2012
WE MUST RESTORE NDC VALUES NOW!
SIGNED: NDC Youth with Conviction of Principles
Source: Peacefmonline.com
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Comments