Acting National Chairman of the new political party said to be the brain child of the Rawlingses, the National Democratic Party (NDP), Dr. Nii Armah Josiah Aryeh, says the party is here to stay for good.
According to him, though the social democratic party will operate an open door policy, it will be guided by certain principles; chiefly among them will be probity and accountability.
Even though the NDP is yet to be fully certified by the Electoral Commission as a fully-fledged political party in Ghana, some political analysts view its formation as another test for the NDC ahead of the December polls, since most of its members are disgruntled formers cadres of the ruling party.
But speaking in an interview on “Kokrokoo” on PeaceFM, Dr. Josiah Aryeh dispelled the notion that the party was birthed out of spite for the NDC.
“We have been on the political scene for awhile and we realized that the political landscape is not what it ought to be. We had to find a way of not being sidelined but to play a very important role in order to ensure that the democratic system in this country is enriched. Truth has become the first casualty of our politics, anytime truth is mentioned; things are shoved under the carpet…You realize that due process, systems and mechanisms among political parties are not being operated and everybody turns a willful blind eye to the truth; and so we thought this ought to be stopped…,” he said.
However, the NDP’s Interim National Chairman, in an implied manner, described the ruling party as a team with an ailing goalkeeper, who is dead set against being substituted, wondering if the attitude of such a goal-tender was aiding the cause of the team or otherwise.
“Where are we heading? Why should you be supporting a team when you’ve realized that the team’s goalkeeper is not well and is refusing to be substituted? You have to ask yourself, is he doing us a service or a disservice? When you see things like this you know that the time has come for some fundamental changes to be made…We are here and we are here for good. We are starting an entirely new course…we operate an open door policy and we are opened to everybody but once they come on board, we operate on certain principles and they would have to abide by those principles but we don’t think focusing on the Rawlingses to the detriment of the party is good. We are still in the process of formation…” he added.