I was extremely surprised when I heard and read about the deep seated divisions in the NDC Party, in the sense that some of us were made to believe that conflict is alien to them. “Conflict is only synonymous with NPP”, they proclaimed.

“If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand (Mark 3:25).”

Likewise, a family splintered by prolonged enmity will fall apart.

Let us admit, much as the preceding principle has some validity, it is somewhat impossible to avoid conflicts within a team or a group.

Indeed, teams or groups are synonymous with conflicts or fragmentations that can be managed over a passage of time.

The fact however is, team conflict is an interpersonal disagreement between members of a team or group.

Needless to state that conflict more often than not, impacts negatively on team performance.

Apparently, team conflict may occur when the balance between perceptions, goals, or/and values of the team is upset and members aren’t willing to work together towards achieving the shared goals and values.

Although each team or group member has his/her own interests and values, a team member is expected to follow values of the team.

Suffice it to stress that when there is dissonance between the values, needless or irrelevant cleavage may then emerge.

It is, however, worth emphasising that team conflict could be either functional or dysfunctional.

Functional conflicts are disagreements that do not affect team performance significantly, and, the team often remains functional and able to achieve the desired results.

On the other hand, dysfunctional conflicts are those cleavages that arise between team members that often disrupt teamwork and prevent team members from achieving the shared goals.

It is also worth stressing that team conflicts or divisions are not limited to a particular team or group.

Truth be told, conflict is rather a team or group phenomenon which may be resolved through efficient management.

It is for this reason that I refuse to accept the NDC faithful ridiculous assertion that it is only the NPP Party that boasts of team conflict.

Clearly, the ongoing accusations and counter accusations amongst the NDC Party faithful tell a different story contrary to what they have told us previously.

Until their recent tug of war, we were made to believe that conflict is alien to the NDC Party.

Obviously, we were deceived by the NDC faithful. Somehow, their heated conflict is disastrously disintegrating the party.

They have been living in a denial all along. They concealed the pernicious conflict whilst in government.

Then the humiliating 2016 election defeat rekindled the conflict.

Apparently, a section of the aggrieved supporters could not hide their arousing disgust over the unpardonable events which led to the humiliating 2016 election loss.

The prominent among the disgruntled supporters is the Ex-President and founder of the party, J. J. Rawlings.

The extremely unhappy former President Rawlings has since been aiming accusing fingers at the non-performing and corrupt NDC leadership for the election defeat.

Ex-President Rawlings’s relentless accusations invariably infuriated the brassbound NDC faithful, who discourteously and uncharacteristically decided to revenge by tearing their founder former President Rawlings into shreds.

Consequently, the disgusted supporters came out and vehemently repudiated such allegations and rather accused Rawlings as the one who has been indulging in corrupt practices.

Surprisingly, however, some supporters have gone to an extent of spurning Ex-President Rawlings and challenging him to evidence his claim as a founding father.

Ironically, Dr Obed Asamoah, an NDC Party stalwart, has publicly told Ghanaians that former President Rawlings is not a founder of the party contrary to their party constitution.

He, however, maintained that Rawlings could not have been the founder of the party in the sense that he was an active army officer during the registration of the NDC Party.

In fact, the NDC apologists are committing political suicide, or worst still, they are living in a denial for refusing to accept the fact that former President Rawlings is really revered by the foot soldiers more than any other member of the party.

After all, it was the ideals of former President Rawlings that gave birth to the NDC Party.

More importantly, Rawlings managed to bring a lot of supporters to his corner.

It would thus seem bizarre for anybody to suggest that former President Rawlings is currently irrelevant in the NDC Party.

As a matter of fact, former President Rawlings still commands respect among the foot soldiers within the party.

And, most likely, some of former President Rawlings’s loyalists will be aggrieved over the NDC leadership’s shenanigans towards him.

Unfortunately, however, the NDC’s boisterous supporters who are not privy to their party’s history have been upbraiding Rawlings all the time for expressing his grievances over the rot in his party.

Let us face it, the ongoing tussle between Mahama faction and Rawlings faction will not inure to the benefit of the NDC Party.

You may believe it or not, the fact however remains that both former presidents command a sizeable number of supporters.

To this end, the continuous disagreement between the factions could only deepen the cleavage and thereby keeping NDC in opposition for a very long time.



By: K. Badu, UK.