By William
Yaw Owusu
Tuesday February
27, 2018
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has observed
that the unguarded utterances of some key figures of the National Democratic
Congress (NDC) are going to make the party stay in opposition for a very long
time.
Mr Rawlings, who is the founder of the NDC, said a
few leaders of the party are in the business of justifying corruption and
wrongdoing, which almost everybody is against, and noted that that is going to
make things difficult for the political grouping.
Nii
Lante’s Vow
Mr Rawlings was reacting to NDC Member of Parliament
(MP) Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye’s statement to the effect that when the NDC
wins the 2020 general elections, it will set incarcerated member, Abuga Pele,
free.
Abuga Pele, who was a former National Coordinator of
the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) – now Youth
Employment Agency - and until recently the NDC MP for Chiana Paga in the Upper
East Region, was sentenced to six years in jail last week alongside the Chief
Executive Officer of Goodwill International Group, Philip Apkeena Assibit, who
was given 12 years for causing financial loss to the state in a $4 million
scandal.
In the ensuing reaction, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, NDC
MP for Odododiodioo Constituency in Accra, during the party’s Eastern Regional ‘unity
walk’ – which featured former President John Mahama last Saturday - told Citi FM that the NDC was working hard to
win the general elections in 2020 and release Abuga Pele.
He said specifically, “It is unfortunate, but I can
only say that this will not dampen the spirit of the NDC. Between 2001 and
2004, they sentenced Tsatsu Tsikata, Dan Abodakpi, Ibrahim Adam and Kwame
Peprah. It did not stop us from winning elections in 2008. We are going to win
the elections and bring Abuga Pele out.”
JJ’s
Tweet
Former President Rawlings reacted via social media
platform - Twitter - to the MP’s comment, saying political power cannot be used
to free the guilty.
“Stealing and corruption put no one above the law.
Those who have committed crimes deserve to be punished,” he said, adding, “If
the quest for political power is to release wrongdoers from prison, then the
NDC is laying its own foundation to remain in opposition for a long time.”
He said, “Fortunately, this kind of talk belongs to
a handful of people in the NDC leadership who have gained power and influence
they do not deserve; and the sooner they are packed off, the better for the NDC
and this country.”
Mr Rawlings posited, “Obviously, the corruption by
some of those who were in office, resulting in a humiliating defeat in the last
elections, does not appear to have affected their conscience and reasoning in
anyway.”
Moral
Compass
He said the NDC had lost its ‘moral compass’ and
needed to find it without any further delay.
“The NDC needs to regain its moral compass. A party
born out of the explosive circumstances of our past should not find itself so
high on the scale of corruption.
“Just as the negative elements in various parties
are networking to protect their misdeeds, so also must the positive-minded
personalities and supporters in the various parties also network to contain and
keep such elements from political power,” he said.
The former president added, “While the current
circumstances favour patriotic forces the most, the unpatriotic elements are
more bent on collaborating and exploiting the constitutional climate.”
In what appeared to be subtle election tutorials
aimed at NDC foot soldiers, Mr Rawlings charged, “Let’s make changes for the
better. Clear the bad and retain the good. Bring on board other patriots.”
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