THE FORMER DEFENCE Minister in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, Mr. Tony Aidoo, has blatantly accused President John Agyekum Kufuor of personally playing a key role in sabotaging the controversial University of Development Studies (UDS) award to former president Jerry Rawlings.

The former Defence Minister, who also doubles as the main opposition party firebrand, believes that President Kufuor and the New Patriotic Party administration have made several attempts to destroy the good legacy of former president and the other previous governments.

Mr. Tony Aidoo, who launched this verbal attack on the president and the NPP administration last Saturday on the Accra-based Radio Gold station during its Saturday ?Alhaji and Alhaji? programme, said it was rather unfortunate that the NPP tends to forget that Rawlings played a crucial role in the building of the University.

Commenting on reports in some media circles recently that Rawlings and incumbent PresidentJohn Agyekum Kufuor must be reconciled for the benefit of the nation, Mr. Tony Aidoo denounced the report, saying ?Rawlings and Kufuor cannot be friends?.

According to him, the personality profile of the current and former presidents runs parallel and therefore could not be reconciled, adding that another factor which makes the two not compatible for reconciliation is the hypocritical society built, which ? when you criticise Kufuor you are seen as enemy?

Mr. Aidoo questioned whether the reconciliation process would allow Mr. Rawlings to shut his mouth as president Kufuor continues to steal our own money, using the state apparatus to torture his political opponents. This, he concluded will not be possible.

The Managing Editor of The Insight, Mr. Kwasi Pratt completely ruled out the possibility that the former and current president should be friends as long as they abide by the constitution of the land.

He added that rather the reconciliation between the two is another major diversion of economic hardship Ghanaians are going through now.

Citing the recent crisis in the Winners Chapel church and the Catholic Church, he directed the Christian Council, which brought up the issue, to rather concentrate on how to solve the problems in these churches.