“When a bird is alive, it eats the ants and when the bird is dead ants eat the bird. Time and circumstances can change at any time. Don’t devalue or hurt people. You may be powerful today. But remember time is more powerful than you. One tree makes a million match sticks but only one match stick is needed to burn a million trees. So be good and do good” – KARMA
Throughout my life on this wonderful world with its beautiful people, I have always been guided by the Laws Of Karma. One of the maxims which I admire most is that “As you sow, so shall you reap”. Another maxim which fits into the NDC cabinet is the one which says: “Whatever we put out in the Universe is what comes out back to us.” The NDC has come face to face with the Law of Karma and that is good.
When the NDC was in power, it tried all ways to make Ghanaians understand that the NPP cannot rule the country because there were divisions in the party. The choir leader in the singing band was Mr. John Dramani Mahama. Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, the brother of ex-President Mahama was able to lure Dr. Nyaho-Nyaho Tamakloe to start working against the NPP. This man who is a founding member of the elephant family begun acting as if he was not the same man who traversed the land with then candidate J.A Kufour way back in 1996 till the party grabbed power in 2001. At a point in time, Dr. Tamakloe made it look as if the NPP was made up of devils who had nothing good for the nation. During those wish-to-be- forgotten days of betrayal, I wondered how ex-president Kufour saw Nyaho-Nyaho Tamakloe who used to be his confidant.
When the NDC saw that despite the scheming of Dr. Tamakloe it could not sway Ghanaians to vote for the NDC, the same Ibrahim Mahama and his brother, then President Mahama planned yet another devilish scheme which backfired badly. Having amassed wealth from whatever source, the two, under the cover of darkness invited the Northern Regional chairman of the NPP in the person of Mr. Bugri Naabu to a secret location for a discussion. The plan was to sow a seed of discourse in the NPP. They told the man to turn against candidate Nana Akufo Addo and make him look so bad in the Northern Region and all Northerners for that matter. They told him to announce to the good people of Ghana that he was leaving the NPP because Nana Akufo was not a peaceful person and that if Ghanaians did the mistake and voted him into power they will regret. That was barely two weeks to the general election.
At the said meeting, Mr. Bugri Naabu was offered huge sums of money and a brand new V6 Mitsubishi Pajero. The guy cleverly received the car and the money and ran to report to Nana Akufo Addo the plans president Mahama and his brother had against him (Nana Akufo Addo). If that desperate and cruel plan had materialized, I can bet with my last Ghana Cedi that the NPP would have lost the election. When the cat came out of the bag, we never heard any word from the president and his brother. No wonder the sages say silence means consent.
When the NPP suspended Mr. Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong in the run-up to the 2016 general election, the NDC became so agitated and went about kicking as if the world was coming to an end. On every platform, they took the issue up and lambasted Nana Akufo Addo as if he single-handedly suspended the two gentlemen. That was when then President Mahama referred to the acting NPP National Chairman, Mr. Freddy Blay as “Opana”. Then president Mahama told Ghanaians during his campaign tour that a divided army cannot win a battle so Ghanaians should not vote for the NPP. When Ghanaians voted massively for the NPP it might have dawned on the ex-president how contemptuous Ghanaians treated him.
Today, the NDC is in opposition and fire is burning in Soweto. Mr. Rawlings, the founder of the NDC, like Prophet Jeremiah, his namesake, foresaw what would happen to the NDC so he told them at Cape Coast where they launched their campaign that he was not going to speak much because after the election he would go round the country and re-organize the NDC. They did not understand him so they gave him a standing ovation. A bird whispered into my angelic ear that when Charlotte Osei declared Nana Akufo Addo as the winner of the 2016 general election, J.J. Rawlings and his dear wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings danced ‘borborbor’ at their residency.
If indeed, a divided army cannot win a battle as Mr. Mahama had said, then the NDC should not think of coming to power again. The party has become so fragmented that I do not think they will ever become united again in the foreseeable future. Currently, we have three factions in the party. We have the Rawlings faction, the Mahama faction and the “Fante Confederacy”. The Rawlings and Mahama factions are working so hard to take control of the party by throwing salvos and going down the gutter at the least opportunity. As for the “Fante Confederacy” led by the Ahwoi brothers, they are standing on the touchline, waiting for the ball to pass the line so that they could easily grab it and play their own game.
What you are hearing as far as dirty comments of supporters of the factions are concerned is just a warm up. When nominations of national positions are opened you will then realize how muddy the whole situation will be. By now Rawlings is lacing his boots, preparing to hit the ground running like Usain Bolt when nominations are opened. The guy is charismatic and he is loved by the grassroots supporters of the party. He will form his team and campaign with corruption and indiscipline in the NDC as campaign messages. He will tell the grassroot supporters to look at the way they were neglected by the party when they were in power and ask them to compare their sorry state after eight years in power and compare their sorry state to the luxurious life being displayed by their leaders. He will have the cadres behind him. Even though some of them may be old by now, they will use their experience to convince the younger generation to come on board to save the party.
The Mahama faction will find it very difficult to clean their bodies of the corruption tag since almost every Ghanaian knows the truth. The Mahama faction may try to use monies and other goodies to convince delegates to vote for their candidates but like what happened during the run-up to the 2016 general election, it will never work. The babies with sharp teeth who contributed hugely to the electoral defeat of the NDC should not venture to enter the race because the grassroot supporters know very well that their unguarded utterances, downright insults and recklessness led to the party losing power.
Mr. Martin Amidu is standing alone and fighting his own battle in the party singlehandedly. He has a crocodile skin and fears nobody, not even death. Unlike Mr. Goosie Tanoh and Dr, Obed Asamoah who left the NDC to form their own parties, Mr. Amidu thinks it will be proper for him to stay in the party and fight for a reform rather than leaving the party in the hands of corrupt and crook officials. Mr. Amidu, a cadre knows how hard they fought to come out as revolutionaries to form the NDC. He knows how some of them fell along the way and the punishment meted out to corrupt officials during the revolutionary days. For a long time now, Mr. Amidu has been a thorn in the flesh of the NDC and no Jupiter can do anything to him.
VALERIE WHO?
Those who pushed Valerie Sawyerr into the gutter to fight Mr. Rawlings have done more harm than good to the woman. And if she thinks she is fighting a proxy war, she will regret ever embarking on that journey. She has woken up too early and the dew of dawn will surely soak her in due cause. Valerie Sawyerr is very lucky. If she had offloaded her rubbish into the bowl of President Akufo Addo, she will have regretted the day she was born. Because of politics, respect has been thrown to the dogs. Where was Valerie when Rawlings did put his nose on the grindstone to launch two coup d’etats? And where was this Valerie woman when Rawlings formed his NDC to contest the 1992 general election? A former Deputy Chief of Staff and so what? Habba!!
I implore Mr. Rawlings to treat the ranting of Valerie Sawyerr with ordinary contempt. Rawlings will be glorifying the woman if he decides to take her on. Until Mr. Mahama appointed her as the Deputy Chief of Staff, few people in the NDC knew her. The position Mahama gave her has made her so swollen-headed that she thinks anyone who will try to attack her boss will incur her wrath. I do not know her age but looking at her face I know she might be a tiny kid when the going went tough and the tough kept going in 1979. And did I hear Alhaji Bature well? That Rawlings has forfeited any legitimate right to remain the founder of the NDC? Times have changed and so even birds with broken wings can fly!!!
By Eric Bawah