Can the NDC survive the Rawlingses onslaught?

THE question on the lips of many supporters of the National Democratic Congress is whether the party can survive the latest move by the Rawlingses for the spirit  and soul of the party.

The former president defied convention last Saturday by not only attending the National Delegates Congress of the NDC-breakaway party, the National Democratic Party (NDP), but also endorsing its presidential candidate who happened to be his better half, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.

Before then, the former President shocked many political commentators when he opened his doors to the leader of the opposition, New Patriotic Party.

Those two events have political undertones that have tickled many NDC sympathisers on the wrong side.

Although, the Nana Akufo-Addo visit is a recommendable act which should send signals to sympathisers of the respective parties that politics is a game of ideas, its timing is not sitting well with some party sympathisers.

Like a bee, the two incidents have stung some NDC supporters who are using the social media to vent their anger and frustration about the behaviour of their party’s founder.

“I knew Rawlings had sacked himself from the NDC when I heard him make this statement about the NDC on the platform of his wife's party yesterday: "THEY are lucky John Mahama has brought THEM a bit of hope." He has lost the moral high ground to continue to hold himself out as the founder of the NDC!,” Atta Kwame Agbai fumed on facebook.

In his response to Agbai’s comments, Ebo Dadzie wrote “dat was why it was wrong 4d e ndc 2 call jj founder of de party as no single person can found a party! u made him feel extra important.. dat was why he treated prof like dirt! anyway dat never-be-4gotten day@sunyani brot him n wife down 2 earth .. boooom..!! n a deadly silence dziiiiinnn.”

Ebo’s sentiment is shared by many other people  that the NDC is responsible for its present predicament. By indellibly putting the name of the former President in the party’s constitution as the founder, the party has opened up itself to what Yaw Nkansah-Asare described on twitter as “repeating the CPP’s cycle of doom” obviously in reference to the the struggles of the CPP after the demise of its enigmatic founder Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

Admittedly, the struggles of the CPP goes beyond the death of Nkrumah. No political party could survive the suffocating sanctions especially those imposed on the CPP from the days of the National Liberation Council, when the party’s name was banned from the country’s political system.

That the leadership  of the NDC have been left confused about the next move of the former President is an understatement.

The NDC constitution is not grey on the consequence of the actions taken by the former President especially when he has not resigned from the party.

Article 40 of the party’s constitution establishes the grounds on which disciplinary action may be taken against a party member.

The basis for disciplining a member of the NDC include   breach of any of the provisions of this Constitution and   anti-Party conduct or activities likely to embarrass party or bring the Party into hatred, ridicule, or contempt.

As to whether the NDC, per its current circumstance can crack the whip to discipline its founder who has since 2009 never stopped at lashing out at the ruling party remains to be seen.

The former President, by his utterances at the Baba Yara Stadium, has removed the smoke-screen behind which his salvos were hidden---send the NDC to opposition and take control of the party.

Hear him “proper revolution” which will lead to a house cleansing will rock the ruling party after the 2012 elections.”

"The revolution will take effect before we can join hands,” he boomed at the endorsement of his wife.

That was not all the NDC founder also made some predictions that has the tendency to haunt the party as it gird its loins for the 2012 elections. He had stated that majority of the NDC’s parlimentary aspirants would lose because they bought their way through the primaries.

After months of antagonism, what is relatively unclear is the sudden turn around after the death of President Mills only to revert to taunting and labelling of his perceived enemies in the NDC.

From greedy bastards, konongo-kaya through to babies with sharp teeth and evil dwarfs, the former President’s perceived ‘enemies within’ have received it all.

The former President’s tale of contradictions lately continue to keep the NDC in  wonderland.

When he met the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, he spoke volumes about the spark the President Mahama had brought to the NDC after the demise of the late President Mills. At the Kumasi Congress,he repeated similar sentiments but did not spare the ‘babies with hard teeth’ and those he said did not campaign for the party in 2008 but were not enjoying what they did not toil for.

The biggest wound he inflicted on the NDC was his appearance at the NDP Congress to endorse his wife and also scream his characteristic high moral ground outbursts.

Even before the dust settled on his rendition in Kumasi, the former President turned around to tell Citi Fm that the former President Mahama is likely to win the 2012 elections courtesy incumbency advantage.

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has once again given the strongest indication that President John Dramani Mahama is “capable of winning the elections in his own right.”

Rawlings admitted that “in spite of that huge and heavy turnout [at the NDP congress], I believe John is capable of winning an election in his own right. Besides, he has the additional advantage of being in government.”

Then, he makes a case for his wife. “In the meantime, someone in this country has to show enough respect and pay our political debts to the women of Ghana,” he added.

The NDC leadership finds itself in a quagmire for two reasons. First, the party was quick to sanction its former General Secretary and now the Chairman of the NDP, Dr Josiah Aryeh, for actions it saw as a betrayal of the party when he was alleged to have had some engagement with the NPP months before the 2004 elections.

Secondly, the party unleashed its disciplinary rod on Kofi Adams, a Deputy General Secretary of the party, for being one of alleged voices planning to scuttle the late President Mills’ chances of winning the primaries and subsequently the 2012 elections.

Compared to the two incidents, the former President’s own seems rather grave for the party, but who in the NDC can bring him to order?

The NDC is now at a cross road. Will it push it be able to dismiss the man who has become its centre of focus and at the same time an albatross?

Admittedly, the utterances of some leaders of the party has not helped the case of the party. By merely  dissmissing  criticisms the man whose ideology the party was founded, some leaders of the party began digging the root that held the NDC firmly as a tree. With the root exposed to the harsh realities, it could only find an antidote by adopting mechanism for survival.

 Many Ghanaians are not preview to the backroom engagements to quench the fire the former President  started as soon as the late President J.E.A Mills announced that Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMCEs) who worked under the Kufour regime should be at post to ensure a smooth transition

Whatever the NDC leadership decides, one thing is for sure, Flt Lt  Rawlings is not likely to keep mute soon, his ranting will continue. The party, in the interest of unity and cohesion will have to find means of moving on, probably without him. After all, whether the NDC likes it or not, its founder will  shed the mortal coil someday. Will the NDC rely on him when he departs to the celestial realm.