Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Wednesday, June 07
, 2017
Former Trade and Industry Minister, Ekwow
Spio-Garbrah has admitted that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) veered
from the track of probity and accountability and must go back to uphold the
principles before it is too late.
“I wish to appeal particularly to the
leadership, members, supporters, sympathisers and grassroots activists of our
beloved party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was founded by
Jerry John Rawlings on the ideals of probity and accountability to do more in
making these ideals a reality.”
Mr Spio-Garbrah stated categorically
that if former President John Mahama contests to become the flagbearer for the December
2020, he (Spio-Garbrah) will not join the race.
Delivering a speech at the 38th anniversary celebration of the June
4, 1979 ‘revolution’ in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital on Sunday, the
former minister, said “if that is done, this will ensure that we reconstruct
our party on these noble ideals which in the past have propelled us from
victory onto victory in competing with our opponents of the property owning
class.”
He said “as we commemorate 38 years of
the June 4th uprising, may we as a nation, solemnly reflect and
remind ourselves of the social and economic conditions that prevailed in our
country during that era and which culminated in the June 4 incident that
sparked a popular revolt against all manner of injustices in our Ghanaian
society, including high levels of corruption, thievery, general indiscipline
and impunity.”
He admitted “it is sad to note that
thirty-eight years on, the vices of corruption, nepotism, cronyism, etc., which
led to the eruption of June 4th in 1979 have slowly crept back into our
everyday life and arguably surpassed the obnoxious period preceding the June 4
event,” adding “our nation is once again grappling with the canker of
widespread, extreme corruption that has permeated the whole of our society,
including officialdom.”
He said “as a nation, we seem not to
have learnt the lessons June 4 sought to teach us,” adding “Government after
government, since we adopted multi-party democracy in 1992, has been accused of
corruption by succeeding ones.”
“Now it is common to find governments
using the so-called, Corruption Perception Index to compare their own levels of
corruption with others, thus implicitly admitting that they are corrupt but perhaps
doing better than others,” Mr Spio-Garbrah said.
He said that “no matter the level of
perception, corruption is a canker in our society, which if not nipped in the
bud, would eat away the very fabric of society, resulting in enrichment of a
few in positions of trust and abjectly impoverishing the masses of our people,”
adding that to check the impunity, it is imperative for us, as a nation, to
revisit the lessons of probity and accountability which June 4th sought
to teach us.”
He suggested that the NDC leadership
should prioritise the establishment and operationalisation of a training school
and programme for elected party officers at all levels to ensure that the next
generation of party executives and leaders are people of integrity and are able
and willing to defend these ideals of social democracy so as to make the NDC
more competitive in future elections.
“We are a grassroots political party
of the Social Democratic ideology. We
owe it as a duty to cater for the needs of the common man and woman on the
streets, on farms, fisher folk, market women, teachers, nurses, other workers, as
well as countless millions of our unemployed
young men and women.”
Mahama Message
Former President John Mahama, who does
not appear to have had any association with the celebration of June 4th
since he became both Vice President and subsequently President, suddenly issued
a statement to commemorate the occasion.
He said in a statement issued and
signed by his Special Aide, Joyce Bawa Mogtari in Accra that “June 4, as one
of the recognized anniversary days of the NDC, is a day of accountability.”
He charged the NDC members to ensure
the values of the June 4 Revolution were not eroded.
Interestingly, it was during his time
that corruption was elevated, with wanton stealing of money by his appointees.
President Mahama said that this year’s
June 4 celebration coincided with the 25th Anniversary of the NDC,
which falls on June 10, saying “this twin events present another opportunity
for members of the NDC to rededicate themselves to the values of the June 4
Revolution, which brought into being the 31st December Revolution and the
National Democratic Congress (NDC).”
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