A banquet fundraiser/Baquet (American style) was organized by the North American Coordinating Council of the National Democratic Congress in Houston Texas (USA) on Saturday, August 4 2007 at the Hilton Hotel Southwest and 59 Freeway in Houston, Texas. There was nothing magical about the attendance, but what was astonishing, which demonstrate a resolve by Ghanaians in the Diaspora, was the amount of money realized both in corporate and individual donations.

What probably drew the crowd, including nationalities from Nigeria (the most), Cameroonians, Ugandans, and our brethren, African-Americans, was the presence of His Excellency, the former First Gentleman and Lady of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.

Also in attendance to the banquet/fundraiser were the various chapters of the NDC in North America from Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Washington DC, Miami, Dallas, Toronto, Montreal (Canada) and others.

Transported in a diplomatic limousine from his residence in the Woodlands, a suburb of Houston, the former first couple arrived at the banquet/fundraiser in good spirit and whisked to a waiting VIP suite. At about 9.30 pm they were led into the banquet hall to the NDC anthem and several cheers from the crowd.

In a speech after the dinner, the former president enumerated the imbalance existing in the current International system, particularly vis-a-vis the West and Africa, where the "Western powers, in particular, the United States and Britain, keep showering cheap praises on regimes that lack the moral, administrative, political, managerial, market, legal/judicial, constituency relation, and professional corruption of our generation. Simply put, "institutional criminal acts that goes unpunished and falls on death ears. These criminal malfeasances, including Kleptocracy", that his Excellency emphasized, is rather condoned by the hierarchy of the Ghanaian government, when they, the West know very well how such psychologically demoralizes those who play by the rules of democracy.

The total disregard for the rule of law, nepotism, corruption, and abuse of power by the Kufour government is going on unabated, while the fabric of society and youth of our dear country, Ghana remain the rugs and tissues blquote upon which the elite members of the NPP and government walk on. Where is the ethics with the West, when such acts are simply brushed aside in the name of good governance .

In other word, America, with Britain destabilized the peace prior to the ongoing American-Iraq conflict. By them refusing to heed to a universal consensus not to destabilize the Era of good feelings immediately after the Cold War, others such as the Ghanaian government believes, it can get away with anything on earth, as far as it does not contradict the desires of Britain and the United States. Hence the neglect of what is going on by the United and Britain in Ghana and elsewhere in the continent.

In a similar narrative, the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings captured the attention of the audience and gave a chilling account of the manipulation of justice in quote the Kings Court. She gave an account of how the Kufour Administration uses various unconventional tactics to criminal actions that were thought out and implemented by a duly elected Board of Directors of here Non-governmental organization, the 31st super supersub December Women Movement. Today, after several years of eradicating guinea-worms, infants deaths and deaths of teenage mothers, such debilitating statistics have once again surfaced in the Kufour administration.

The dinner banquet raised an amount of about US.$700,000.00 (Seven hundred thousand dollars), which is a fraction of the total pledges and out of the projected target of US 5 million dollars the NACC-NDC of North American had projected through donations from corporate bodies and individuals. At the close of the dinner/banquet, it was suggested and agreed upon hat such dinner/banquets will be organized in various cities across the United States, to enable the NDC raise the monies it needs to throw out the NPP government from power in 2008.

As for the resolve that was taken at the just concluded NDC leadership Conference in Houston, it is important for the NPP to know that it is not going to be easy winning against the NDC especially as Prof Mills is retained. The NPP won in 2000 purely because the general Ghanaian society was calling for a change , since change is always unknown to anyone; as such it was obvious that change was the significant 'savior' that drove the floating voters to NPP aid. The victory in 2004 on the other hand was a to give the government time to continue with its projects and also to enable the electorate to do effective assessment of the NPP in a much longer time. But the dire is cast because Ghanaians have themselves come to realize that the mandate they gave the NPP in 2004 was an error in judgment. Since all loans they collected after the almost wiping out of the country's debts by the G-8 countries, has gone into their private pockets. Projects that they claim are in the works are just empty promises that have nose realistic goals to them.

In politics, and particularly in representative democracies accountability is an important factor in securing legitimacy of public power. In NPP tenure a distinction should be made between accountability and transparency. Accountability differs from transparency in that it only enables negative feedback a decision or action, while transparency also enables negative feedback before or during a decision or action. Accountability constrains the extent to which elected representatives and other office-holders can willfully deviate from their theoretical responsibilities, and the Ghanaian people will faithfully hold thus reducing corruption.

The Banquet/dinner was the first of its kind in North America and will be replicated in Ghana since contributions from supporters of the NDC toward the defeat of the NPP translates into a covenant.

Dr. Joseph Manboah-Rockson - Professor at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas. U.S.A. and Mr. Kwame Mensah-Bonsu - were the Co-Hosts