For having positive thoughts about them

Supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) are full of praise for Deputy Minister of Sports, Hon Joseph Yamin having a positive mindset towards supporters of what some of them described as a party that finds it difficult to recognize and reward its own.
According to them the deputy minister must be given a thumb-up for having boldly expressed his position publicly that NDC supporters would have the bigger bite of the cherry, if the need arose for football fans to be sent to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, to cheer up the Black Stars.
This came in the wake of what appears to be a well-orchestrated mischievous attack on Yamin by NPP and its media acolytes for stating some three months ago that should the opportunity arise for government to sponsor football fans to the 2014 Brazil World Cup, NDC supporters more than members of any other group of persons, would be considered.
Numerous calls received by The Catalyst yesterday from persons claiming to be supporters of the ruling party who have over the years worked tirelessly for the NDC without getting any form of reward, maintain that Deputy Minister for Sports, Hon. Josephn Yamin, deserves the praise and support of all true members of the party and rational-thinking people of Ghana.
The attack on the deputy minister was set in motion with a mischievous publication in circulation in the NPP media with the caption: ‘Gov’t Will Airlift Majority of NDC Supporters To Brazil…They Brought The Party Into Power,’ which publication portrayed him as having made his comment most recently in explaining an announcement by the Minister of Sports that 500 football fans would be airlifted to Brazil.
Yamin, who made his position clear on a Kumasi radio station well over three clear months now, was quoted as saying: “If we’re to take supporters to Brazil, I will say without a shred of doubt that majority of those supporters will be members of NDC…In 2006, about 250 supporters were sent to Germany I’m told, though I have no record to prove that…and my checks indicate that only seven NDC members were part of the team.
“I will not be a hypocrite and say we’ll share it equally. They [NDC supporters] have to benefit from the party they brought to power…You can take it or leave it. We’ll give them their small number and ensure majority of the people we send are NDC supporters….
“They are the people who brought the party to power…You can say whatever you want, but NDC supporters are going to Brazil.”
Mischievously enough, there was no mention of the time and place of the deputy minister’s comments in the propagandise piece of a story, but rather a spirited attempt to portray him as having spoken after the minister earlier in the week disclosed that government through corporate sponsorship would airlift 500 supporters to Brazil.
According to the story making the rounds in the NPP media, “Deputy Sports Minister, Joseph Yamin has categorically stated that among the 500 supporters government will be sponsoring to Brazil for the FIFA 2014 World Cup, grass root supporters of the National Democratic Congress [NDC] will have the majority number.”
Then in a deliberate twist in a bid to confuse the general public, the following was added:
“Sports Minister, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah earlier this week disclosed that government through sponsorship will be taking 500 supporters to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup which will kick off on Thursday June 12, 2014.”
Asked whether Yamin’s three-month old statement could not be relevant to the minister’s less-than-a-week announcement, one of our callers opined that “That is subjective. We can say that that is somebody’s inference or deduction from what the deputy minister said three months ago and what the minister has just said under one week and the writer of the story should have made that clear in his writing rather than this obvious mischief. I mean what kind of logic is this?”
Managing Editor of the Crusading Guide, Mr Abdul Malik Kweku Baako was among those who called on the President to sack Mr Yamin from his post in the wake of the attack on him; but the NDC supporters disagree.
“Was it not Kweku Baako who said under the Kufuor regime that he would go to every length to ensure the NDC remained in opposition? We had to fight off all kinds of evil schemes by NPP and its journalists like Kweku Baako to get back to power. So I wonder why NDC leaders now kowtow to people like this,” one of them stated.
They said they would be surprised if President Mahama would base on such vile propaganda to dismiss someone who is not just a hard working government official but who is totally committed to the cause of the NDC in office.
One of them had this to say: “The President must be smart enough to know that NPP and its media backers every step of the way, don’t want NDC functionaries to enjoy anything. It is annoying that in their time [in government] they enjoyed everything alone. We suffered and now that we also are in power, they don’t want us to be happy. President Mahama must know that we are not happy because of all this and if things remain this way the party will suffer severely for it at the end of the day,” he fumed.
According to them, they care less what the NPP and its media propagandists say, and that “all that we know is that presently, it is rare to have a feeling of positive thoughts about the ordinary members coming from the higher echelons of the party and government, and so if Yamin can have our plight at heart the way he displayed it, he deserves a pat in the back as well as the support of every foot soldier of the party.”
What some of us are saying is that the NDC has shown ingratitude to its core support base for far too long and sometimes, these are the excuses the powers-that-be in the party give- NPP and people like Kweku Baako’s mischievous criticisms- as a basis for not giving us our due. We can’t sit down and allow this to go on forever,” an obviously angry caller stated.