General News of Thursday, 28 October 2010

Source: peacefmonline

There's Power Struggle Within NDC - Allotey Jacobs

The Central Regional Director of Communications for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Allotey Jacobs says it is an open secret that the party is indeed going through some trying times bordering on a bitter power struggle.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo show as a panelist, Mr. Allotey Jacobs minced no words when he emphatically stated that the battle line has been drawn in the NDC.

“There is truly power struggle in the NDC, the battle line is drawn in the NDC but as to whether the battle line we’ve drawn will be positive for us at the end of the day no one knows...,” he said.

According to him, the party was somehow privileged to come back to power after being in political wilderness for eight (8) years, but bizarrely, just six months into President Mills’ administration, some leading members of the party began stabbing him in the back.

“It surprises some of us what is happening in the NDC. In this modern day politics, every political party wants to entrench itself in power for a very long time, so if NDC is favored after suffering for eight years in opposition to come back to power, then within six months in administration, people start to stab the president in the back for reasons we do not understand. We have an aim of transforming Ghana within four years to be a Better Ghana, this was decided by all of us…Ghanaians gave us the mandate to President Mills but just when he started governing, we are stabbing him in the back,” he lamented.

Mr. Allotey Jacobs, however, believes the NDC can right the wrongs when a conscious effort is made to unite all factions and the petty squabbling and internal wrangling halted.

“As a political party and a ruling government, we must sit down, take two steps backwards and find out what is going wrong, rectify the mistakes so we can move forward; after all life goes. President Mills has a contract with Ghanaians and his aim is to fulfill his vision… the policy of the NDC government that he is leading,” he added.

The former NDC Central Regional Propaganda Secretary reminded the party not to delude themselves into thinking that Prof Mills secured victory in the 2008 elections due to the votes of NDC activists alone. He reasons that the mood and inclinations of floating voters in 2008, were in support of then Candidate Mills, thus his ability to win the presidency.

“What will be the fate of the party if we start like these just two years in administration... I think some of us in NDC are forgetful of the fact that it was not only NDC members who voted for the party to win the elections; there are floating voters out there and they are the power voters. So with what we are doing, are we appealing to the floating voters? No matter how small their vote percentage might be, they also have a say in who eventually becomes president,” he emphasized.