Rawlings Attacks Mills over Corruption in his Government

Former President Jerry John Rawlings last Saturday took the Mills Administration to the cleaners, warning that from the way things are going, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is heading for one-term presidency. An agitated Rawlings told NDC cadres at a funeral of a leading member of the cadres’ front, Alhaji Abu, at Nungua in Accra that he did not understand why President Atta Mills’ ministers had suddenly started grabbing tractors and money...,at the expense of ordinary members of the party and Ghanaians. Virtually inciting the cadres against the Mills Presidency, the NDC founder told them to rise up to stem the rot in government. {Follow the link to read what Rawlings was talking about}http://ndccorruption.blogspot.com/2009/06/bagbin-ayariga-scramble-for-govt-cars.html Daily Guide learnt that President Mills, unhappy with the utterances of his former boss, requested for the video tape of Mr Rawlings’ outbursts at the Nungua funeral, attended by leading members of the cadres’ front such as Huudu Yahaya, former General Secretary of the party; Ama Benyiwa-Doe, Central Regional Minister and NDC Women’s Organiser; Martin Amidu, former Deputy Attorney General and Ambassador-designate to Burkina Faso; and Sam Garbah, GETFund Executive Secretary. According to the former President, the Mills presidency was gradually turning out to be a curse on the cadres, as they continued to lose their members out of frustration. He pointed out that Alhaji Abu died out of frustration, warning that some of them might suffer similar fate.The NDC founder, Daily Guidelearnt, cited many instances where some cadres had met their untimely deaths since NDC regained power in December 2008. He pointed out that one of them dropped dead upon learning that the position he had applied for under Mills’ government was not given to him, while another had stroke and was languishing at the Tema General Hospital. Mr Rawlings noted that President Mills was obstinate because he had surrounded himself with characters called ministers. Realising that some of the ‘characters’ were at the function, the former President quickly back-tracked, saying that not all of the ministers were ‘characters’. Some of the ministers at the function were Ama Benyiwa Doe, and Cletus Avoka, Minister of the Interior as well as Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, a member of the Council of State. Explaining why the NDC might be heading for one-term presidency, Mr Rawlings said the party would not have any message to tell Ghanaians by the next election, if officials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration were not jailed for alleged corruption. He accused some NDC ministers of protecting Kufuor’s appointees from being hauled to court.Touching on the recent allegations of receiving campaign funds from a Nigerian Governor, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, the NDC founder blamed former Nigerian strongman, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo for orchestrating the plot. General Obasanjo, whom Mr Rawlings described as ‘that Kufuor’s people’ brought the story out in order to ridicule him, the NDC founder averred. He said Governor Amaechi only invited him to the presentation of the State’s budget and that he never took a pesewa from him, promising to swear by the Bible or Quran in order to prove his innocence.The former President also caused a stir when he openly snubbed the MP for Ayawaso East, Dr Mustapha Ahmed. Dr Ahmed, a retired Major in the military, in the full glare of the public, marched to Mr Rawlings and gave him a military-like salute only to be greeted with a snobbish look. Daily Guide learnt that the former President had never hidden his dislike for the Nima MP, who also received a tongue-lashing. The MP, a Busunga by tribe and MC for the occasion, had wanted to take the microphone from Mr Rawlings in order to translate his message, but received a cold treatment.Rather, the former President called Martin Amidu to do the translation, which the latter cleverly avoided. When Dr Mustapha Ahmed finally got the chance to translate the message, Rawlings quickly interjected that the MP should not whitewash his message and called on Dominic Azumah, MP for Garu Timpane in the Upper East Region, to do the translation, which he obliged. Dr Ahmed told Daily Guide yesterday that he would not begrudge the NDC founder. “He was only frank,” he said. Mr Rawlings also sent strong warning to some party people whom he accused of hijacking the party from him. According to the former President, now that the party had been brought back to power, some characters had started sending huge sums of money to the constituencies in order to get their people elected to fill positions. He said he would not sit down and allow those moneybags to hijack the party from the real owners, urging the cadres to resist any attempt to sideline them in the running of the party. Source:D-Guide