NDC CONGRESS ESHUN STINGS MOSQUITO

It is indeed true that when a dog bites a man it is no news, but when a dog groans in pain from the bite of a man it is news.

As the NDC National Congress draws near, there seems to be a strong urge by those contesting against the old executive to dethrone them to put in place a new National Executive Committee to achieve the party's "A Better Ghana" agenda in order to keep the party in power.

One of these is Mr. Kweku Eshun, the Parliamentary Candidate for North OkaiKoi Constituency in the last election, who is currently vying for the position of General Secretary of the Party. In a recent interview, he literally sank his fangs into the feeble body of Mr. Asiedu Nketia, the incumbent General Secretary aka General Mosquito, tearing his administration into shreds, and calling for a change at Congress in mid-January this year.

Mr. Nketia, who is embattled due to current developments in the party that show signs of the Rawlings factor winning in most of the regions across the country, seems to suffer a gloomy fate in the upcoming National Congress of the party. This is coming on the heels of insinuations he has made against the founder of the party, President Rawlings, and former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings. These seem to be making him unpopular among party members. Speaking on Radio Gold’s newspaper review programme on Monday, January 4, 2010, Mr. Eshun predicted that he would crush General Mosquito at the Congress. “I am confident,” he stated emphatically.

Asked why he thought General Mosquito’s administration was poor, he replied that there were many reasons, but the most important was that since General Mosquito assumed office the Party had continued to rent a place for its head office. This he stated was not a sign of good performance by leadership of big political party as the NDC. He stated that as General Secretary, General Mosquito was supposed to superintend over “this great party of ours, which since he took office has not been able to initiate action to put up its own office.”  “This is not a good signal for a good administrator. I am not saying he could have finished building one by now, but if he had put a programme in place since he took over, the Party would have made progress with the provision of an office complex for the party.

Mr. Eshun explained that even though the National Executive as a whole failed he was zeroing in o n General Mosquito because for now he was the one he was contesting.

He said the administrators have woefully failed despite the fact that the party won the last elections. “I don’t think we should sit there and watch the people become disillusioned the way it is happening now. This is because if things are not corrected, we may not be able to go back to them in 2012 to ask them to vote for us.”

He stated that he was drawing the attention of all the foot soldiers, the women NGOs to give him their support to enable him excel, insisting that the current executive members have failed so much that they should not be allowed to continue in office.

When the host of the radio programme, Mr. Suhuni, asked him whether he was aware that there was a dinner party organized by the NDC sometime last year, the purpose of which was to plan for an office building for the party, he snapped that might be just window dressing.

Regarding his campaign, Mr. Eshun, a smart and soft-spoken man, said it was going well, and that he had visited almost all parts of the ten regions in the country even though he was yet to really begin his campaign towards the Congress.

Turning to the reason for his confidence to win against General Mosquito, Mr. Eshun said he was drawing on signs from the last parliamentary elections when he stood on the ticket of the NDC in Okaikoi North. “Although I could not win, the constituency which is a strong hold of the NPP which it had won by between 25,000 to 35,000 votes since 1992, I pulled votes in the last elections that indicated a difference of only a little over 2,000 and this rings a bell”. “It tells you that we did so much work. I also know the promises that we gave people when we went around the country during the election campaign. We promised them that if nothing at all, those of them who lost their jobs when NPP came to power would at least have their jobs back. We also promised that we were going to make the party people smile, but we haven’t done that. We think the administrators have failed. We do not think we should sit there and watch the people disillusioned like that. Can we go back in 2012 and ask them to vote for us again?” he queried.

He also lamented that there was so much gap between the constituency executives and National Executives. He explained that the NDC party does everything with the grassroots - the people on the ground.

“We are Social Democrats generally, so everything we do should be for the benefit of the grassroots. It was the people in the various constituencies who helped us to win, but he goes round telling people that he is the General Secretary who won the elections for us. I am telling him that is not true. “I was also a parliamentary candidate but he never came to my constituency. I don’t know how many constituencies he went to. It was the constituency executives and members who made sure that we won the elections, and I am asking, what have we done for these people on the ground?

“The NPP sacked some workers perceived to be NDC sympathizers and I am saying that the government must ensure that these workers are made to return to work or legal action should be taken.

Mr. Suhuni pointed out that some workers who were victims of the NPP action have returned to work, citing the examples of the NADMO and DVLA bosses who have been called back, and asked if Mr. Eshun knew any more of such workers who have not been recalled. Mr. Eshun replied quickly that he knew a lot more but was not on the programme to mention names.

The aspiring General Secretary said he was worried about the foot soldiers, those party members on the ground who are disillusioned by the inaction of the party executives. “It is incorrect. That is not what we promised the people. If you go to very sensitive government institutions, it is NPP functionaries that are manning the places.

In response to a question as to why people were opposed to the NPP functionaries being in key positions, Mr. Eshun explained that it did not augur well for the Mills administration for functionaries of the previous administration to continue to man some of the most sensitive security installations. He was of the view that in every country a new government makes changes to effect maximum security to prevent information from leaking out to the public or its foes. “But in our case, it is as though the government is showing its backside to the people after helping it win power to allow weakness that could make it possible for NPP to return to power,” he emphasised. “Some of us have monitored the activities of the National Executives for a long time and can say they have not done the best for the party. He cited the example when the founder of the party receives calls such as ‘So your Excellency, won’t you thank me for what I have done for you,’ and the founder has to ask back, ‘Thank you for what?’ The people then say they had paid some amount to him for the campaign, and all he can do is to say, ‘Sorry I didn’t see that.’ “What does that mean?” Mr. Eshun asked.

He explained that he was not saying that everyone who donates to the party must report to the former President or the founder. Instead, he found it embarrassing when people complained that they had assisted the party but had not received any acknowledgement and that was how the founder would get to know. This could probably be because monies were expended without being accounted for.

He concluded that he could detect that there was so much anger within the people about things not going in the right direction. “I think the grassroots members, women and the entire population must feel the change and smile with it.

When Mr. Asiedu Nketia was asked to react to Mr. Eshun's submissions, he excused himself, explaining that he was attending to some party members who were involved in an accident on the Accra-Kumasi road.

However, party members have found reports that he later indirectly turned his venom on the founder, stating that the NDC party was not a church headed by a bishop and for that matter could not belong to anyone rather worrying. It seems the General Secretary has lost touch with reality and refuses to acknowledge that fact that the NDC is strong because its visionary founder is alive and has a large following that positively affects the fortunes of the party. It is for this reason that some political analysts and callers into phone-in programmes have averred that General Mosquito by his unguarded remarks has tripped at the edge of an endless pit. Some party members have also opined that Mr. Nketia is losing his wings and sting that conferred on him the General Mosquito accolade. They believe he is in for a shock in his political life in the upcoming Congress.