General News of Monday, 12 September 2005

Source: Ghanaian Voice

Attacks To Devalue Rawlings

A leading member of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Tony Aidoo has said that the attack on the former president Rawlings is an attempt to devalue everything that Rawlings did for Ghana.

Mr. Aidoo in an interview revealed that the attack is not only devaluating him but also creating the impression that for the period that the former President and his Government were in power, they did not do anything for the country. He appealed to the people who were in association with the former president which was not only interpersonal based but functional, political and governmental to be aware that they are also under attack and that they have a duty to themselves, if not to the party to come out and defend the former president, individuals too can issue a statement to defend him because they are conversant with the facts and it is a matter of bringing the facts out and allowing the facts to speak for themselves. He expressed that to what extent should people continue saying that without the former president the party cannot stand, he said the party can stand if only the leadership is prepared to do the good works Rawlings is doing now.

He pointed out that that there will always be NDC sentiment both within and outside the party. The political detractors know that Rawlings is the strong point of the NDC therefore they want to bring him down so that the party will also come down. He again stressed that even within the NDC, it is unfortunate that there are some people who are jealous of the position Rawlings occupies so they more or less issue statements or join forces with the external political detractors and they sometimes plant stories and a whole series of things to reinforce the animosity that arises as far as party propaganda is concerned. He added that people attack the former president to the extent that his political opponents pick on to criminalize his legacy in order to dismember the NDC.