[ 2011-04-11 ]

NDC Vice Chair, Dr Spio-Garbrah

Mills doesn’t necessarily need a 2nd term – Spio-Garbrah
A Vice Chairman of the governing National
Democratic Congress (NDC) says President JEA Mills
does not need to seek re-election to be deemed to
be a successful president.

Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah said while the president has
every right to contest the next elections, he must
be guided by the example of former South African
President Nelson Mandela who served only one term
and earned the respect of many the world over.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Monday,
Mr Spio-Garbrah said the view that every president
must necessarily serve their two four-year terms
to be successful is a myth.

Once a political foe of President Mills, the
former Communications Minister advised the
president to look into the mirror and decide
whether it is in his interest to seek
re-election.

He asserts some people in government and others
whose survival depends largely on the president
remaining in office may – in an effort to
protect their interest and keep the taps from
which resources and government largesse flow,
constantly open - pressurise the president to
contest the elections in 2012. That, he said,
cannot be discounted at all.

The failed flag-bearer in 2006 will not be drawn
into the raging battle for control of the ruling
party, saying he does not want to aggravate the
current flames burning in the party.

Whether president Mills or former First Lady Nana
Konadu Agyemang Rawlings emerges the party’s
flag-bearer, Dr Spio-Garbrah believes the NDC will
go into next year’s election fractured and badly
bruised and limping towards defeat if urgent
measures are not put in place to mend the gapping
cracks and deal with the increasing discontent and
disillusionment within the rank and file of the
NDC.

Many, he intimated, are those who feel betrayed,
marginalised, abused, misused, underutilised, and
bitter and everything must be done to placate them
if the party is to rise above its current
challenges.

The precariousness of the position of the NDC
going into the 2012 elections, he argued, has been
made direr by the government’s failure to
successfully prosecute any of the people the party
so eloquently accused of corruption while in
opposition. This situation, for him, creates
doubts in the minds of Ghanaians regarding the
party’s sincerity when it charged its opponents
of wrongdoing.

He said the petty squabbles in the party must stop
and a family meeting must be called to settle
differences between party members. Leaders of the
NDC, he counselled, have a duty to be honest,
frank, courteous, deferential and friendly in
their dealings with each other.

Source - JoyOnline

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