"I wish I could say I'm taking over NDC" - Rawlings

Europa 12:08 - 27 January 2017

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Mr Rawlings said this on Thursday 26 January when the Volta regional caucus of the party in parliament called on him at his office.

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has indicated that he wished he could say he was taking over the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) following rumours that he has plans of doing so.

“I wish I could say yes, but I think it sounds better in my ear to say that I want God to come and lead us because of the integrity factor. God can be found in the truth,” he said.

According to him, integrity had been “held hostage” in the NDC and, therefore, urged the party to truthfully find answers to its loss in the December 2016 general elections.

“It [integrity] has been ambushed and held hostage. The time has come to free the truth,” Mr Rawlings said.

He added that “What our supporters need is candour. If you want them to stay united, if you want them to be a little strong, all you can offer them now is candour. Don’t engage in political talk of the past.”

The former president expressed worry about what he calls the detachment of the party from the people.

He believed that this has been fuelled by the misuse of executive power by some leaders of the party.

“We adopted certain habits which were going to lead to failure and we were not seeing it. The mistakes were too obvious,” he said.

The Member of Parliament for Ho West, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, who led the delegation, said the purpose of the visit was to interact with the former president so as to acquire the necessary experience from him.