“You live in our hearts and minds”, Majority Leader Alban Bagbin has told former President Jerry John Rawlings, founder of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), as the party celebrates its 24th anniversary.

“…What is in our hearts, what we think about you, even if we are not able to translate it to make you more comfortable, or I think I should say a bit comfortable, you live day in and day out in our hearts and minds.

“Without you, we don’t know where we would have been. Without you, we don’t know how Ghana would have been. We know it is through your blood, it is through your brow and it is through your brains that we’ve got this far and Your Excellency Jerry John Rawlings, you were prophetic in a number of things when you stated that the 1981 coup was the last coup of this country, no coup will survive again in this country, Your Excellency, you were prophetic when you stated that what you were establishing was provision and that you were preparing the country into a permanent system.

The permanency has come, it’s not only the democratic system but the party that you have established, the NDC, it has come to stay and stay forever.

At the anniversary ceremony at the party’s Accra headquarters attended by President John Mahama and Mr. Rawlings, among a raft of party stalwarts, Mr. Bagbin also urged that all wounds are mended and defectors brought back ahead of the November polls.

“We had challenges, no doubt about that. This is a living organism, some of us have gone astray, we are the first to admit that. Some might have done that because of lack of knowledge, some might have done that because of the weakness of humanity, but please let’s bring everybody back on board, let’s continue to bond together,” the Nadowli-Kaleo MP pleaded.

In his view, “there is no alternative to NDC. What is the alternative to peace? Violence! What is the alternative to democracy? Tyranny, dictatorship! And I can assure you that in spite of our imperfections, we are still the best in this country and on this continent. I want to once again assure you of the unalloyed commitment and support of your members of parliament”.