Manasseh Azuri Awuni, one of Ghana’s Investigative Journalists is questioning why the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is fighting over the funeral of its founder when it fell out with him long before his death.
According to him, Mr Jerry John Rawlings was closer to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo than his own party which he founded.
“Why fight over the funeral of a man who fell out with your party long before his death? He was closer to Akufo-Addo than you”, he asked in a Facebook post.
He added “If you couldn’t make peace with him, you cannot make peace with his dead body. Move on. He deserves a state, not a party burial. Let’s show love to people when they are alive, not when they are dead and cannot see, feel or appreciate our love.”
The opposition NDC is angry that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appears to have hijacked the funeral of their founder without their acknowledgement.
General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia on Accra-based radio station said: “We were sorely disappointed that the President of the Republic, even in issuing a statement of condolence, refused or failed to recognize the fact that President Rawlings was the founder of the NDC”.
“It is against all the different practices we have been engaged in, in the past, as far as the death of prominent members of the two political parties is concerned,” he said.
“The President has refused to recognize that the man belongs to NDC, and he is the founder of NDC”, he argued, adding: “Everything about this funeral, so far, depicts an attempt by an opponent to hijack the funeral of the founding father of our political party, and we don’t think the funeral of our party founder ought to be organized somewhere, and we get invited.”