(General News of Monday, 22 June 2009)

I DO NOT BELIEVE THE ALLEGATION MADE BY THE ENQUIRER. BUT IN CASE IT IS TRUE THAT THE NPP IS SEEKING TO USE WHAT THEY CONSIDER TO BE NDC’S BREACHES OF LAW AND DUE PROCESS IN GHANA TO INFLUENCE THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT TO RECONSIDER HIS PLANNED VISIT, THEN THEY, THE NPP, MUST BE ADVISED BY AN IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE OF EQUITY WHICH IS THAT THOSE WHO SEEK EQUITY MUST ALSO GIVE EQUITY.

IF THEY WANT NDC TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT, THEN THEY, THE NPP, MUST ALSO REFRAIN FROM DOING WHAT IS WRONG....WHICH IS SABOTAGING THE OBAMA VISIT, [AS ALLEGED BY THE ENQUIRER].

*Once more, I say that the inquirer’s allegation appears [to me] to sound false. But whatever the situation is, the NPP may read my advice below, [which I am going to repeat several times in the months ahead with a view to getting as many of them to read it]. .............................................................................................................................................................

TO THE NPP:

As mature politicians, the NPP officials should have avoided creating the situation that could have given the chance to NDC to attempt to turn back the clock of constitutionality, [if it could be put that way]. NPP know where they came from.

THEIR PAST:

*As far back as the late forties and early fifties, their ancestral party, the UGCC, had been portrayed [rightly or wrongly] as a party of arrogant and selfish lawyers and aristocrats who wanted to sell the country to colonialists, ....[because their leader, JB Danquah advocated for “A MORE GRADUAL APPROACH” towards independence, {as opposed to Kwame Nkrumah’s independence “NOW”}]. * Around the late fifties, the NLM that principally replaced the UGCC was branded [rightly or wrongly] as a separatist party, [because it advocated for federalism {as opposed to a unitary government}]. *In the early to mid-sixties, the UP that resulted from the amalgamation of NLM and a couple of other smaller opposition parties was labelled [rightly or wrongly] as subverters and “bomb-throwers”, [following alleged plots to overthrow Dr Nkrumah, the then President of Ghana, such as the “Kulungugu bomb”, {an attack that was specifically blamed on Messrs Tawiah Adamafio and Ako Adjei, both members of the President’s cabinet}]. *The PP that developed from the UP in the wake of the Second Republic and which won the 1969 elections was kicked out of power in January 1972, [barely half-way into its first term of office {and therefore failing to complete its first full term that could enable it to change the smeared image of its ancestral past}].

THEREFORE:

THE NPP WAS THE FIRST OF THE UGCC TRADITION TO BE GIVEN TWO FULL TERMS TO REVERSE THE BAD IMAGE CARRIED [RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY] BY THE PARTY FOR SOME FIFTY YEARS. DID THE PARTY UTILISE THE EIGHT YEARS WELL ENOUGH TO OVERTURN THEIR SMEARED IMAGE? [I LEAVE READERS TO DEBATE THIS.]

My own complaint about the NPP is not what they did or did not do during the eight years of their administration, but what they did at the eleventh hour of their administration and soon after, such as.....

(i) the rush to approve the ESB packages on the last day of the government;

(ii) the driving home by some members of the NPP administration of the official cars given to them for use during the period of their office at a time when they knew that the period of their office had ended;

(iii) the taking home of some other state assets including soft furnishings by some members of the NPP administration;

(iv) and lastly the failure of the NPP party to act quickly to return all such items when they realised that their opponents were trying to use against them the utilisation of ‘THE LEGALISED PRIVILEGES THAT ALL OF THEM HAVE BEEN ENJOYING FOR YEARS’....[legalised by conventions established by the politicians themselves].

*PLEASE, GIVE GHANA A BETTER PARTY THAT IS FIT TO FORM AN ALTERNATIVE GOVERNMENT BY ADDRESSING THE REAL ISSUES THAT HAVE TAINTED THE IMAGE OF YOUR PARTY. AND STOP TREADING ALONG THE PERIPHERALS.

*GET A CENTRE FIGURE, OR CENTRE FIGURES, THAT CAN PROVIDE THE CENTRIPETAL FORCE CAPABLE OF UNITING THE PARTY THAT CONSTANTLY RISKS DISINTEGRATION BECAUSE OF ITS COMMITMENT TO THE CORE TENETS OF DEMOCRACY THAT HAVE THE TENDENCY TO ACT AS CENTRIFUGAL FORCES SPLITTING PARTIES INTO FACTIONS. [THE PARTY MEMBERS SHOULD KNOW THAT EVEN THOUGH DEMCRATIC PRACTICES ARE GOOD, THEY TEND TO CREATE SPLITS IN PARTIES. THIS MAKES IT VERY ESSENTIAL FOR DEMCRATIC PARTIES TO HAVE INSPIRATIONAL, [OR SPIRITUAL], CENTRE-FIGURES WHO ACT AS A UNIFYING FORCE].

*STOP THINKING THAT, BY CHANGING FACES OR PERSONALITIES, YOU CREATE A WINNING PARTY. YOU DON’T. YOU NEED TO DO MORE THAN THAT.

*YOU NEED TO CHANGE THE ENTIRE PARTY IMAGE.

*Some of us have read a lot about JB Danquah, Paa Grant and the many other unsung and forgotten men who started the UGCC but never had the chance to prove the independent Ghana that they dreamed of, but who have always been smeared with excreta that can only be washed off, NOT BY WORDS, but by proving their critics wrong through practical demonstration of good governance within which a talk of....

*ZERO TOLERANCE OF CORRUPTION MEANS ZERO TOLERANCE OF CORRUPTION.

THE THATCHER BENCHMARK

**The British Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, said that for a woman to prove that she is better than her male counterpart, she must show that she is several times better than a man.

**In the same way, for a ‘smeared’ and downgraded party to prove that it is better than its rival party [or parties], it must show that it is several times better by all reasonable measurements.

**THIS IS THE CHALLENGE THAT FACES ANY DESCENDANT OF UGCC. ANY DESCENDANT OF UGCC MUST PROVE THAT IT IS SEVERAL TIMES BETTER THAN THE NEXT ALTERNATIVE PARTY IN GHANA WHICH, IN THE CASE OF NPP IN THE LAST ELECTIONS, WAS THE NDC.

**DID THE NPP RISE UP TO THIS CHALLENGE IN THE 8 YEARS PRIOR TO THE 2008 ELECTIONS?

**THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS THE OUTCOME OF THE 2008 ELECTIONS.

[And let no man {or woman} say that the NPP lost the last elections because they were rigged. Political history worldwide shows that elections are rigged by incumbents....not by those in opposition. Making such allegation is as laughable [and unbelievable] as when a man goes to the police station to report that his wife has beaten him.]

BY OTCHERE DARKO (Independent-minded Ghanaian unaffiliated to any political party in Ghana) (PS: The above is being posted separately as a rejoinder at the request of a reader who reader who read my earlier comments on 22/06/09.)