Buy Mills, get Rawlings free [NDC’s B.O.G.O.F idea]

The NDC have just returned from Congress and in the words of the NDC chairman they are “gradually democratising” after running Ghana for 8 years from 1992 to 2000. This Congress was going to be the birthplace of democratisation within the NDC but I am not sure they have learnt yet how to run a country like Ghana which has been made wide awake for 6 years by the NPP government with democratic principles of rule of law, freedom of expression and independence of the judiciary.

The biggest lesson the NDC learnt was passing 4 candidates through the mill and coming out with the old Mills. So indeed there was nothing new from the mill. The NDC have travelled a long journey from Swedru to Swedru. This reminds me of the old primary school nativity play where Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth to Jerusalem on the same stage back forth, back forth. Whereas in the latter analogy every primary school kid knows it is make-believe, the NDC on the other hand genuinely believe that the journey from Swedru to Swedru is real and it is a gradual journey to democratise. Let me tell you why it is not a true journey. Victor Smith’s NDC newspapers-The Lens and the New Democrat - came up with the exact figures the contestants had at Legon. How predictable could the result be if it was not cooked already? Rawlings refused to vote because he knew Prof Mills had a landslide in the bag. The monopoly over poster and bill board positions at Legon all pointed to the fact that anyone who dared Rawlings in NDC was going to incur his wrath. Rawlings preached for a national President when he had asked for Ghana to be divided into four for the aspirants. Who does he think he is, God? The NDC may see him as a father and founder and draw a constitution that says that their party’s ideals rest on his vision, we the good people of Ghana do not see him beyond the fact that he was a dictator turned President when the playing field was not even.

I was at Legon the day before the Congress and the tension that the organisers wore on their faces in their bid to stem any possibility of violence could be read from a mile. You cannot teach old dog new tricks. The fact that the organisers had only one objective- to avoid violence- means to me the violence streak has not gone away. The PNDC clearly controlled the technology of violence and passed on that mantle to its brain child the NDC. There is a saying that you can advise but you cannot change destiny. Prof. Mills’ choice was masterminded to try and kill off that violence tag because he says he is a peaceful man.

What is the advantage in returning Mills as a flag bearer apart from singing their master’s voice? This is a man who has been rejected by Ghanaians on three occasions-twice in 2000 (main election and run off) and in 2004. Are the NDC insulting Ghanaians or belittling our intelligence? This is a man who has been rejected by his own kith and kin. He was defeated in his own region, district and hometown. This is a man who has been attacked by his own Party as being indisposed. Are the NDC gambling on our intelligence?

Prof, I am not having a go at you. You were my teacher and you taught me well and I deeply respect you. However Prof, you have let yourself and your admiring students down by mixing with the wrong crowd. The reasons why I say this are clear and simple. When the law moguls in NDC head-hunted Prof. Mills for Rawlings as a running mate, they were looking for someone who could be manipulated by Rawlings. Even as law students we all wanted to take the Commercial Law option, which Prof taught very well, because he was kind and nice and offered A or B grades generously. Prof. Mills’ mantra of “mepe asomdwee” may be true for him, because he is a peaceful man.. but the trouble is he is not his own man. The person inside him so long as he leads the NDC will be Rawlings. When Arkaah tried to rid himself of the spirit of Rawlings it was not a good reading for him and for all of us as Ghanaians who respected and loved him. Even the likes of PV Obeng and Dr. Kwesi Botchwey who single-handedly masterminded some of the success stories of the PNDC era ended up in the largo. Amartey Kwei was loved and dumped and killed all for doing his master’s will. “OUR Father who art in heaven…. Thy will be done!”

The writer is more than convinced that the running mate of Prof Mills will be a certain Rawlings - a businesswoman, a leader of 31st December Movement and a former first lady. The 31st December Movement was a quasi women’s world in Ghana from 1982 and Mrs Rawlings led this group to appeal to the conscience of a certain group of women who became the fan club of NDC. She has almost certainly placed herself in a position to lead Ghana and whose comfortable back to use than that of Asomdwee man Prof. Mills. Rawlings openly crowned Prof. at Swedru, openly supported him in 2004 and tacitly bullied the leadership of NDC to return him in 2006. One good turn [well now 3 good turns] deserves another. The agenda is clear and obvious – Buy Mill, get Rawlings free. Are Ghanaians going to fall for this Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) idea?

It will be wrong for Ghanaians to accept the NDC gamble because

• We have come too far with democracy to return.

• We have come too far with macro-stability to return. We have come too far with freedom of speech to return.

• We have come too close to meeting the Millennium Development Goals of 2015 to return.

• We have come too far to achieving a perfect health insurance policy to return. We have come too far to micro financing to return.

• We have come too far to youth employment programme to return. We have come too far to infrastructural development to return.

• We have come too far to Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education to return.

• We have come too far to free feeding for school children to return

• We have come too far to achieving freedom and justice, the ideal of our forebears when they gained us our independence to return.

WE HAVE SIMPLY COME TOO FAR, WE WILL NOT CROSS THE RUBICON AND COMMIT SUICIDE

If Prof Mills ends up as the President of Ghana this will be my message-I AM LEAVING TOWN AND WILL THE LAST PERSON TO LEAVE GHANA PLEASE SWITCH OFF THE LIGHTS

I know however that, come 2008, I will not leave town [Insha Allah] because I trust the good and discerning people of Ghana to exercise their new found freedom from fear and violence and not go back to Mills or his master, Rawlings [Tofeakwa].

God bless our homeland Ghana