Former President Rawlings Astonished at Amidu’s Appointment Reactions

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has wondered why some people in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) were unhappy over the appointment of Martin Amidu, as the Special Prosecutor.

He said: “Immediately after the appointment of Mr Matin Amidu, some people who were not happy started castigating him, wondering what he had done wrong to warrant the insult.”

The former President who described Mr Amidu as a hard iron said, he is the best for the job and would help fight corruption.

He said the NDC however missed the chance by refusing to allow him to work when it was in power.

Former President Rawlings said this at a town hall meeting in Accra on Saturday, organised by the Cadres and NDC Activists for 2020.

He also defended the anti-corruption legacy of himself and former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, explaining that they never had any foreign account.

The former President described as painful some of the lies being peddled about him, and advised people who were doing so to desist from that and embrace the truth.

Speaking on the theme, “Grassroots mobilisation and organisation of the NDC for victory 2020″, Mr Antwi Bosiako-Sekyere, the former Deputy Minister of Employment, blamed the 2016 elections defeat of the NDC on the party’s quest to embrace slogan shouting and ignoring the objective situations on the ground.

“We were happy shouting agenda 50/50 to operation one million votes and the likes but refused to do trend analysis of why the NDC lost”, he said.

He urged the NDC to be committed to grassroots mobilisation and organisation to occupy the ground and respond to the aspirations of the teeming masses.

“We need to have full complement and functioning of branches all over the country to be the basis for mobilisation.  “Membership recruitment should be the preoccupation of the branch executives as enshrined in article 13 of the NDC constitution. Let us for once begin to re-construct the party firmly on the ground”, he said.

Mr Bosiako-Sekyere advised members to own the party and “not the other way around where few people called themselves king makers and bring tonnes of money and distribute to their favourites and call all the shots. Adding that, “It stifles initiative and innovation and leaves the party in coma when the so called financiers do not agree on a course of action.”

He said the NDC needed the youth to keep the party vibrant, as well as the experience of the elderly. “Elections are for the future and not the past. Politics is a battle of ideas and not the fits. NDC needs credible leadership at all levels behind NDC core principles and values to prepare for the battle and the challenges ahead of 2020 elections”, he added.

Source: GNA