Ghana’s former President and leader of the 31st December Revolution, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, says the NDC’s massive rejection at the polls is a clear indication that the party has lost the moral high ground.
The former President said the NDC lost the elections way before December 7 because it chose to “persistently and unrepentantly stay on the slippery slope despite the warning lights right” in its face.
Flt Lt. Rawlings who made the assertion when he addressed a ceremony to mark the 35th anniversary of the 31st December revolution at the Revolution Square in Accra on Saturday, said:
“I don’t think I was the only one who saw the writing on the wall. Many people from our very own party I believe could see the writing on the wall that we were going to lose this past election. It was obvious a long time ago that we wouldn’t make it. Our general negativity, impunity, disrespect and corruption was taking us further and further downhill. About the time when most were living in the painful reality with stress and anger, that’s when some of us chose to be more impervious to reality. We had lost so much goodwill.
“I kept providing the warning whenever and wherever I could, and in public as well. But no, once again the uncouth and uncultured in our party and government chose to insult and disrespect some of us. The genuine and true founders and elders (warriors and youthful fighters) of what has transformed into the NDC were being disregarded and disrespected way back from 2008 after victory was delivered on a silver platter.”
President Rawlings added that instead of facing up to the reality of history and performance, some handlers and manipulators who have profited from the past two governments want to promote a lie about the reasons for the party’s election failure and once again Rawlings has been made the scapegoat.
He said: “I believe that this time around our people have seen through it and we would embark on the right steps to regain our moral high ground. The moral high ground that we have abandoned and on which the new leader [Nana Akufo Addo) is now standing.
Offering solutions, the former President said: “We need not shrink from honestly facing the conditions in our party and country today. This is the time to pre-eminently speak the whole truth, frankly and courageously.”