J.J. Rawlings joins NDC race

• Posted on August 25, 2014August 25, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has joined the National Democratic Congress (NDC) race for national officers to be elected at a conference scheduled for October this year.

Mr. Rawlings is said to have started talking to party chieftains on who should be elected, and charged delegates to elect persons who have the capacity to take on the executive and compel them to take decisions that would win the confidence of Ghanaians to make it easier for the NDC to win power in 2016.

The former President told Metro Television in an exclusive interview that the Mahama-led government is “suffering seriously under a cloud and climate of corruption,” and needed an executive that can whip it to order.

“Some of the things that some of us know is unbecoming of people in high office. We are hoping that the machinery will deal with those issues as quickly as possible so as to improve on the image of the executive,” Jerry underscored.

A not-too-optimistic Jerry Rawlings indicated that should the NDC elect people who have a sound sense of purpose and integrity; who understand the political history the country and the party have endured; and have the ability to confront and assist the government to turn the wheel of depression, then there will be hope in 2016.

Even though Mr. Rawlings did indicate the people he wants to lead the NDC for the 2016 electoral duel, he singled out Kofi Adams, a Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, for the National Organiser position to replace Yaw Boateng Gyan.

Kofi Adams Blasts Yaw Boateng Gyan

Kofi Adams, an aide to Rawlings, in a follow-up interview with Joy FM, said the incumbent Organiser, Yaw Boateng Gyan, is tired and bereft of fresh ideas.

Kofi Adams said the organisational structure of the NDC was weak and might cost the NDC the 2016 elections if Mr. Boateng Gyan was not replaced.

He said the National Organiser does not even know his work, stressing, “My strong feeling, together with many other persons’, is that there is a weak link at the organisational sector of the party and if I come in there, I will be able to coordinate this machinery effectively to give us an assured victory in 2016”.

According to him, the weakness “is all over” and that “Even when you interview the National Organiser and ask him what he has done, he will tell you I have shared cars, I did this I did that. That is not the work of an organiser straight away; that is the work of the General Secretary and the National Treasurer, so it means you have an organiser who seriously doesn’t understand his work.

“You have an organiser who thinks that the work of the Director of Elections is his work, so he’s left out what critically he is supposed to do.”

He recalled that in the 2012 elections, “If the various groupings had not emerged to take centre stage of the campaigns, it would have been very difficult for us,” and stressed that none of those were engineered by Yaw Boateng Gyan.

Endorsing Kofi Adams, Rawlings said from his close association with him, he (Rawlings) had seen him (Adams) to be so good at what he does that he should have been the substantive general secretary a long time ago.

“Quite frankly, I think he probably should have held the number one position a long time ago. He is that good and if we are truly interested in seeing people of integrity to provide the necessary leadership for the NDC, it’s people like him who can do so. And I think the support base realise it, know it, people respect him for it and I believe the electorate within the NDC and the members of the congress, I believe, also recognise Kofi for that.”
The former President said his personal verdict on Kofi Adams was that he is not corrupt, else the two of them could not be working together, and expressed the hope that delegates would not reject him.

-Daily Guide