Many Ghanaians continue to express shock at the sudden show of ‘fake’ love by members of the opposition NDC to the late former President Jerry John Rawlings, having subjected him and his wife to vilification, which he could not come to terms with.
The founder of the opposition party at some point in the waning days of his life virtually cried like a baby when he could not stand the incessant attacks on him, his wife and others who were loyal to him.
At one public event, whose video has gone viral, the late former President was seen virtually crying over the constant unprovoked attacks on his wife, Martin Amidu and himself.
The late former President told a story about some of the “little ones” in the NDC who were so “vicious with their mouths” and the kind of “sins and nasty evil things they do and turn around to insult people.”
“I wonder if that is my wife they are talking about. I wonder if that is Martin Amidu; I wonder if it’s me, from our own,” he bitterly complained.
“When you say I don’t criticise Nana Addo for the things he does, to be quite honest, I am at a loss as to what to believe or disbelieve because I know the things some of our people say about my wife, Martin Amidu and myself are false,” he said.
Mr Rawlings, who said he came out of office without even a foreign account, further spoke about how some young functionaries of the NDC administration had become rich overnight and were able to buy plush mansions worth over $1.5million dollars each and pay in cash.
Planned attacks
The constant attacks on the late former President was a coordinated attempt by some people in the party to ‘shut him down’.
Prof Kwamena Ahwoi, a loyalist of NDC flagbearer, John Mahama, in his controversial book ‘Working with Rawlings’, revealed how he and others groomed some young members of the party to suppress the founder and stop him from criticising members of his party, especially the late Prof Mills.
He claimed that the planned attacks from the young men were to suppress the constant attacks on Prof Mills by Mr Rawlings.
“From our knowledge of President Rawlings, we knew that he could not stand being talked back to by people he considered his subordinates. This must have been due to his military background because in the military the subordinate never talks back to his superior officers.
“So, what we did was that any time President Rawlings attacked or insulted President Mills publicly, one of the young members of the party would take him on publicly…It worked and the strategy proved effective. Rawlings toned down on his public criticism of President Mills. Instead, he turned his anger on the young ‘boys and girls’ who were talking back at him whenever he criticized President Mills publicly. He described them at one public rally later as ‘Babies with Sharp Teeth. The name stuck. But the presidency of Professor Mills was saved,” the book says in page 211.
Funeral
Meanwhile, a former NDC Member of Parliament for Ningo/Prampram, Enoch Teye Mensah, has described the accusations by the opposition NDC that the government has sidelined the party with regard to burial plans for the late former President Rawlings as unnecessary.
The NDC has accused the government of trying to hijack the funeral preparations of its founder, without due regard to the party he founded.
But, according to Mr Mensah, Mr Rawlings was a statesman and therefore it is important that the NDC allows the government to give the late President a state burial.
“The confusion the NDC is trying to cause is unnecessary. When Nkrumah died, the Convention People’s Party didn’t bury him; he was a statesman and the state took over. I think Akufo-Addo means well; he said Rawlings is the Founder of the Fourth Republic and the First President and so the state would have to give him a befitting burial,” he stated.
“For me, I think the NDC’s argument is a non-starter. Let’s call a spade a spade and allow the government to bury the late former president,” he insisted.
Mr Mensah also believes the late President did not die a happy man because some members in the party he described as ‘babies with sharp teeth’ didn’t treat him well and took him for granted, despite his achievements.
Crocodile tears
In a related development, the Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper, Ben Ephson, has accused the NDC members of shedding ‘crocodile tears’ over the death of the founder their party.
According to him, the NDC should be the last political party to cry over the demise of its founder as the party never treated him well when he was alive.
“Of course, the death is painful, but they must not pretend they had the best of relationship with their founder; they should stop shedding crocodile tears…,” he said yesterday.
According to Mr Ephson, the NPP will be the largest beneficiary of sympathy votes because the governing party handled the late former President very well.
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