General News of Tuesday, 6 June 2017

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Kwakye Ofosu denies accusing Rawlings of talking like a 'grassroot' NDC member

Felix Kwakye Ofosu Felix Kwakye Ofosu

Former Communications Minister under the erstwhile Mahama administration, Kwakye Ofosu, has fumed at the media for allegedly misrepresenting comments he made during an interview.

He disabused claims that he referred to Founder of the NDC, John Rawlings as a foot soldier or a common member of the party.

His rebuttal, which was contained in a facebook post on his wall, cited 3news.com and mynewsgh.com as being the architect of this malicious story.

“Please ignore misleading headlines in stories published by 3news.com and mynewsgh.com,which is also published on ghanaweb , that I had either suggested or stated that President Rawlings's views are just like any member of the NDC or that he speaks like an NDC footsoldier” he stated

Background

Former President Rawlings suggested that the humiliating defeat suffered by the party in the 2016 general election was as a result of corruption, greed and losing touch with grassroots.

He also hinted that the best approach the NDC could adopt to have a chance of regaining power is to change the leaders at the helm of affairs.

He made these known during the 38th commemoration of the June 4 uprising. He also advised the party to go back to the ideals that brought about the June 4 coup.

“Not too long ago, I thought we heard the jockeys training the horses were responsible for this disgraceful failure while one of the horses was bold enough to lay the failure at the doorstep of the jockey. For me we lost our masses because we betrayed the values of the June 4th. However, if this horse jockey business cannot be resolved comprehensively, allowing integrity most of all to prevail, then let both of them step aside and allow for fresh leaders with solid integrity to provide the needed leadership.

“…How we can grab so much money and now use it as political weapon to perpetuate and be kingmakers. If I was doing it this way, if any of my colleagues and I were doing it this way would any of them be where they are today? No. we believe in justice and fairness, true democracy” he insisted

Felix Kwakye Ofosu interview

According to the NDC communicator, he is surprised at the twists given the story.

He denied suggesting anything close to the headlines that were carried on the stories even though portions of the stories had quotes from his interview.

He explained that he preferred party members wait calmly for the Professor Kwesi Botchwey report to making random comments which are subjective and without prove.

“I stated that in a mass party like the NDC with millions of followers,it is not surprising that there will be divergent views on the outcome of the elections. I believe however that a scientific process should be used to review our performance with the view to correcting mistakes of the past and doing better in subsequent elections. I then expressed confidence that such an outcome could be achieved through the work of the Prof Kwesi Botchwey Committee.”

The NDC since miserably losing the 2016 elections to the NPP has been characterised by lots of infighting and divisions especially regarding who leads the party in the 2020 elections.