Rawlings: I have felt like quitting ndc but…

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has revealed that there had been times in the past when he had felt like leaving the party he founded, and moving on but the plight of some good people in the party had held him at bay.

“Such a departure will allow the agents of greed, and avarice and dishonesty to further deepen their claws on you and the party. We squandered many opportunities to clean up and to restore the June 4th principles in the party,” he said.

The leader of the June 4th 1979 uprising, has been on an acrimonious relationship with the John Atta Mills and John Mahama governments because he has constantly criticised these National Democratic Congress (NDC) administrations, claiming that some officials in those governments were corrupt.

Speaking at a well-attended June 4th anniversary durbar in the Upper West Regional capital, Wa, the leader of the June 4th 1979 uprising that laid the foundations for the NDC, decried the spate of corruption that had characterised the political climate over the past few years.

Former President Rawlings said very cruel insults and humiliations had been designed and were still being designed to shed off any influence that he still commanded in the NDC, a party that was built on the principles of June 4.

Flt Lt Rawlings, who delivered a written speech, interspersed with an extempore one, said so much fire was burning inside him but confessed that he had been compelled by some leading members of the party who feared his heavy criticism would affect the party adversely after a bad electoral defeat to hold back.

Why Victor Smith was fired
The former President also disclosed why he fired his ex-aide, Victor Smith, because the latter wanted to divert campaign funds.

Mr Smith, who until recently was Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland, was sacked as Rawlings’ secretary on April 9, 2008, via a text message and he has vowed never to forgive his former boss.

Now I subsequently heard about it because there was a to-and-fro over this money, contribution issue till somebody finally called me that this is what is going on: ‘They know me, they want to give me the money and I can pass it on, not give it to Victor Smith and Victor Smith is saying that: ‘no, he would take it to the Prof. [because] I’m not the one who is going to be the candidate,’ blah, blah that type of rubbish. So, they come out through somebody and said: ‘This is what is going on.

“Eventually, the contribution did not even come. It did not come. I did not receive any contribution from them, through Mills, through Smith, or directly through the person who came to see me also and I don’t believe that they sent it to Mills and I don’t believe that Prof. Mills received any money from that place because I think they got fed up with the way this man was behaving,” Rawlings stated.

“And yet, when the time to pour poison on me started, this secretary of mine was telling the world on radio stations that that contribution was coming for a certain nationalistic duty and he had stopped it and diverted it to the flag bearer. In other words, he had stopped it from coming to me. I was disgusted that this guy would make up such a story. And you know the one who angered me the most? Our Prof. Mills who knew the truth but kept quiet for this poison to burn me – I was fraudulent,” Mr Rawlings added.

Mr Smith is on record to have stated he fell out with Rawlings over the choice of running mate for Prof. Mills then.

Other speakers at the event included former party Vice Chairman, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, Rashid Pelpuo, MP for Wa Central and Madam Ebi Bright, NDC Parliamentary candidate for Tema Central in 2016.

Earlier in the day a parade and wreath laying ceremony was held to honour the fallen heroes.

Drops bombshell about health
The issue about the health status of Former President Jerry John Rawlings which became a topical discussion in the run- up to the 2016 general election with executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) explaining why he had been excluded from the campaigns also resurfaced.

It would be recalled that the General Secretary of the party, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said due to his old age, it was not possible for the former President to engage in the kind of rigorous campaign as he used to, adding that the party’s founder had paid his dues to the development of both the NDC and the country, hence he deserved some respite.

“We have benefited from the toil of this man so at this age he needs to rest for those he trained to do the work,” Mr Asiedu Nketia had said

Other executives claimed the former President was not too healthy for which reason he had been excluded from the campaign structure of the party as seen in the past, a defence the then opposition capitalised on to make some political gains.

But speaking during a courtesy call on Wa Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV on the eve of the June 4 celebrations, Mr Rawlings said “it has been such a long time since the last I came here. I would very much have wished I could be coming more often because I have so many family members here but health has not been the best. I am sure you all recall I had a bit of a heart problem; I am still nursing that heart and living on that is why I cannot take the kind of pressure we could all take when we were younger. Nonetheless, June 4 at the 38th Anniversary is very special to us and when the decision was taken to honour June 4 in Wa, I wholeheartedly accepted it no matter the cost I was going to pay.”