NDC bleeding slowly internally

By Kofi Akordor
Whenever there is a cut on the body, blood oozes out to signal that there is damage that needs to be repaired. It is not always that we see blood where the body suffers an injury. There is something called internal bleeding and health professionals will tell you that it is very dangerous, since you are not likely detect any danger until it is too late.
I lost a colleague who suffered that fate. He had been involved in a motor accident and since there had been no wounds on the body, it was assumed that the injuries were minor and so he did not go for a thorough medical check-up. Two weeks later, the man was dead. He had woken up in the morning and prepared to go for a review of a broken limb which had been put in plaster of Paris (POP) when he collapsed.
Apparently, he had had a cruel knock on the head in the accident and suffered internal bleeding. Who knows, my friend would be alive by now if the damage had been detected through scan or something else.
Such is internal bleeding.
I do not think only the human body suffers internal bleeding, at least from the figurative sense. And I want to think that one organisation or institution which is suffering from what can be described as internal bleeding is the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the party that forms the present government led by President John Evans Atta Mills.
The NDC has gone that lane before and so apart from the fresh disciples, those who have been with the party for a long time know what I am referring to. The NDC has two serious ailments which keep recurring, with severe consequences. These are its inability to manage internal dissent and excessive hero-worshipping.
The party suffered its first major political defeat in 2000 mainly on account of these twin ailments. That does not take away credit from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which went into the 2000 electoral battle fully prepared and well organised. But it confronted an opponent that was bleeding from self-inflicted wounds.
So at a time when the NDC needed its human and material resources most, it suffered a split and went into an election battling itself. It started in 1998 when the Founder and Leader, Jerry John Rawlings, breached party protocol and declared Professor Mills his chosen successor. That anointing episode became known as the Swedru Declaration.
As a man who brooked no challenge, Rawlings’s declaration blocked all appeals for a democratic means of choosing his successor and voices of dissent were actually silenced in a ruthless manner to compel some party members, especially a good chunk of youthful activists, led by Goosie Tandoh, to break away.
The wounds deepened and bled profusely when the leader and founder played a significant role in the choice of parliamentary candidates. The death blow came when Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, who had his eyes glued to the running mate slot, was swerved in the last minute and replaced by Mr Martin Amidu, Obed’s deputy at the Ministry of Justice. Not even the huge popularity of President Rawlings, who was exiting after two terms, could save the NDC in the 2000 elections.
No lessons were learnt, as later events proved. In 2002, at the International Trade Fair Centre at La, the party went into battle against itself again. That time, it was over the election of national officers. The founder and leader came out strongly against Dr Asamoah, one of the contestants for the chairmanship.
The contest became so acrimonious that by the end of it the NDC was so battered and bruised that unity was the last thing anyone would expect from disgruntled members.
The fragmentation continued. In 2003, the party went to congress at the University of Ghana to elect a flag bearer for the 2004 presidential election. The congress venue became a hostile turf for supporters of Dr Kwesi Botchway, the man who was contesting Prof Mills. It was more like a battle between two opposing forces than a party event to pick a presidential candidate to represent the party. There were even allegations of ball-squeezing at the congress to put more fear into those who dared to challenge the founder’s choice.
Things went so bad that by the time the party geared up for the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2004, the presidential candidate and the party chairman could not be seen on the same campaign platform.
The infamous Koforidua Congress to elect national officers for the party left deep scars which time has not been able to heal. That time the injuries went from bruises to gaping wounds. The formation of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) by Dr Asamoah, who lost his position as party chairman, was one of the fallout from that congress.
The Koforidua Congress and the experience gained from it informed the party leadership to prescribe a format for the election of a flag bearer for the 2008 presidential election which seemed to have worked and brought the NDC back to power.
In the past, all the battles were engineered and led by Rawlings in favour of Prof Mills, the man he had chosen against party wishes and who, he made sure, faced no obstacles on his path.
Today, Rawlings is preparing for another battle. Incidentally, by an irony of fate, the gun has been turned on Prof Mills, the man Rawlings claims has betrayed him and the party he founded. From day one when the man entered office as President of the Republic, he has had no peace and, for the first time since we entered the Fourth Republic, an incumbent President is to face challenge from his own party for nomination to contest a second time.
There is nothing wrong with that if some people think the ship of state is not being steered out of troubled waters and want a change of captain. After all, democracy is about choices. But the bitter and foul language being used by the game players and the ill-effects they are bound to leave behind make it necessary for some of us to appeal for moderation.
We can learn something from Mrs Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. They fought one of the fiercest battles for nomination as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. But when it ended, they are still working together.
Mrs Clinton has not given any indication that she is going to challenge President Obama, who has declared his intention for a second term. Who knows — Mrs Clinton may be waiting for the end of Obama’s era before restaging her ambition for the presidency, apparently in reverence for the man who made her Secretary of State.
The NDC leadership is not unaware of the damage internal bleeding can cause to its fortunes and must, therefore, play it cool to avoid another electoral fiasco in 2012.
It is the prayer of many Ghanaians, I hope, that after July 10, 2011, things will return to normalcy in the NDC and President Mills will have the needed concentration to complete his term on a sound note for the sake of the millions of Ghanaians who want to see positive changes in their lives.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com