Voting the NDC back to power was a gamble that Ghanaians took. Call it a huge leap of faith in the hope that President Mills will use productively the political power that had eluded him for long. That gamble was to give President Mills the chance to present a different face of the NDC from what the long-serving former President and founder of the NDC, Flt.-Lt. Rawlings, had represented throughout the 1980s and 1990s, which was the butt of the NPP’s eight years of demonization. But Rawlings has failed to see the paradigm shift and continues to do what I consider to be politically unwise and will discuss in this article. I will be brazen upfront to say that Rawlings appears to be lagging behind the times. We are in a different political dispensation in this century, which doesn’t have room for “buga-buga” politics. It is time to descend on Rawlings to drum this message into his head so that something drastic could be done to rein him in for President Mills and his government to handle the affairs of state without any unnecessary expenditure of energy and time to control any damage that might issue forth from him. The NDC cannot last with such a heavy baggage of credibility problems that it inherited from the militarism of the 1980s and 1990s. Let’s say it as it is!! It is no exaggeration to say that the NDC lost the 2000 elections largely because of the Rawlings-fatigue. Those of us who followed political developments at the time did not deceive ourselves that the NDC could weather the storm that the NPP’s call for change had unleashed. The loud cry of “moko aya ni moko aba” (as captured in the Ga language, which literally means “Let’s try another government too”) was obviously heard far and near. The desire to give Kufuor a second bite of the political pie kept the NDC out of the corridors of power at the 2004 elections as well. After weighing the pros and cons for the 2008 polls, the electorate decided to return the NDC to power, which in itself is an important landmark in the party’s and Ghana’s history worth celebrating after a sober reflection. All too soon, however, developments associated with the former President and founder of the NDC, Flt.-Lt. Rawlings, appear to be creating anxious moments for some of us. I will not mince words in saying aboveboard here that the former President needs to restrain himself or be restrained from doing wanton acts or making politically unwise utterances to create credibility problems for the NDC (both as a political party and the current government). I expect him to know better than what he has so far done, which will not help the party rebuild its image and structures to retain the goodwill of the people. Here are some of the worrisome issues emanating from Rawlings. Speaking to a group of NDC activists at his Ridge Residence, the former President recently declared that the party would not accept any “poverty of inaction” from President Mills in an apparent reaction to the retention of CEOs of District, Metropolitan, and Municipal Assemblies pending the appointment of pro-NDC ones. Then, he vehemently called on President Mills to fire the IGP and CDS (army hierarchy appointed by Kufuor) last Monday, only for the government to send them off less than 24 hours thereafter. This “coincidence” has already set tongues wagging. Again, Rawlings has been reported as visiting parts of the Kotoka International Airport and taking snap shots of facilities. He is now being accused of breaching security. All these issues have happened within the three weeks or so that President Mills’ government has been in power. Such acts and unguarded utterances create fault lines that will definitely threaten party cohesion and deflect government’s attention from the issues that sent it into the corridors of power. Who knows what he will say or do next? He appears to be glued to the “boom” image and finds it difficult to extricate himself from controversy. We don’t need that posture this time. If he persists in making those impulsive and explosive utterances, it is certain that he will not only confirm the suspicion of the NDC’s political opponents that he is the one calling the shots and that President Mills is only fronting for him. I know that the new face of the NDC in terms of its Social Democratic agenda does not have room for the kind of “revolutionary fervor” that the former President exudes and wishes would be injected into the strategies for governing the country. I beg to differ with the former President on this score. Times have changed and if the NDC wants to remain a dominant and credible political force in modern-day politics, then, it should work hard to shed off the negative aspects of its military origin, which Rawlings still spits. Despite his shortcomings, he cannot be wished away from the scene, anyway. Those of us who continue to respect Rawlings over the years will always have good cause to do so in spite of the profound negative campaign of vilification that his political opponents have mounted against him over the years. And there is good cause for his admirers to resist the temptation to join the bandwagon of those calumniating him. Here are a few reasons: His selfless leadership and down-to-earth manner of tackling issues affecting the ordinary Ghanaian have endeared him to the hearts of those “common people” at the grassroots. They can remember very well some of his activities---joining university students to carry bags of cocoa during the cocoa evacuation exercise in the 1980s; taking an active part in the rehabilitation of the central and eastern corridors of the railway system; joining the people of Nungua in Accra to clean their places of convenience; desilting gutters in Cape Coast; joining workers to lay electricity cables in the Afram Lake for the extension of electricity from the national grid to the deprived areas; and visiting every corner of Ghana during his rule to interact with the people. He did many more, which no Head of State has ever done to demystify government. These acts---even if derided by his political opponents as “populist”---have gone a long way to establish him as a leader who would always want to be in touch with the “people.” The NDC emerged from such a condition and still remains a grassroots-oriented political party unlike the others that perch on sand-supported ivory towers of elitism from where they look down on the people all through the period. Their elitist and arrogant leaders descend from such ivory towers only at election time in vain attempts to placate the electorate for their votes. Thereafter, they return to their cocoons of comfort zones until shown the exit, as has happened to the NPP. The return of the NDC suggests that Ghanaians are politically mature enough to know that they could entrust their destinies in the hands of the new crop of NDC leaders (President Mills and his Vice, John Mahama), not those of the Rawlingses. Familiarity has already bred contempt. This disposition against the Rawlingses is real and will contribute largely toward public perception of and attitude to the Mills administration. Why can’t Rawlings and the National Executive Council of the NDC see this threat? Why can’t they understand that anything that challenges the authority of President Mills and his government will have a hugely negative effect on the NDC itself and erode public confidence in the government? Can’t any of them realize that it will mean that President Mills lacks the ability to function without recourse to Rawlings’ influence or coercion? The crux of the matter is that the image carved by President Mills’ opponents for him (as a “poodle” on Rawlings’ leash) is difficult to erase. It will not vanish just because President Mills has declared (and I agree with him too) that “I am my own man!” Being his “own man” should be demonstrated in practice both in the letter of the expression and in its spirit without the looming presence (and interference or promptings) of Rawlings. As of now, it appears Rawlings is constraining President Mills and his government from projecting their true selves to the public. I have already said in an earlier article that the NDC founder and those of them already associated with “buga-buga” politics must give President Mills the chance to stand out to be seen as the leader of the NDC and not a ventriloquist who will convey Rawlings’ voice and actions of governance to Ghanaians. Let me repeat it here, particularly for the attention of Rawlings that he will be helping the cause of the NDC if doesn’t create any room for public perceptions of ventriloquism in this Atta Mills-led NDC government. But Rawlings has a big problem and is finding it difficult to recede to the background. I know that he likes publicity and wants to remain in the limelight. And if that is his motivation for all that he’s been doing for some time now, no one prevents him from attracting public attention to himself. But he shouldn’t do so at the expense of the good name of the NDC administration. The line must be drawn and he shouldn’t cross it unless he has a hidden agenda known only to himself. Whatever the case may be, he will not be given the chance to do as he wishes. Again, the NDC as a party now in government must not present itself as a tool to be used by Rawlings to achieve any hidden personal agenda of retribution. Whether any retribution itself is profitable or not, I urge that the NDC under President Mills should not rely on any personality cult to validate itself. It should prove to be more systematic, refined, and methodical in its politicking than its critics give it credit for. But if the current developments persist, the party could spin its wheels forever trying to convince the electorate that a Mills-led NDC is different from a Rawlings-led one. Such a posture will find the NDC more often on the defensive than on target about what it can do better than the NPP (or any of the other political parties) for national development and improvement of living conditions for Ghanaians. Therein lies the problem. It is at this point that I want to level with the party’s bigwigs (the Rawlingses, especially, even though Nana Konadu’s silence is noteworthy). I want to urge them to remain outside the limelight. They shouldn’t attempt to rock the boat of government until they are in it. For now, they are not in it nor is there any hope that they will ever be in it. Having played their part in ruling Ghana and left the scene, they should be content that they already enjoy the goodwill of those who support their contributions to Ghana’s development. That must be enough to sustain their egos. The NDC has reached a stage where attempting to twist arms in the choice of strategies for governance will not serve anybody’s interest. At best, it will create conditions for the party to lose public confidence and its government become unfocused. Rawlings and his wife’s posture as formidable political forces will be greatly extended and served if they remain where the 1992 Constitution has consigned them. There will be no comeback for them. They shouldn’t take people’s continued support for them (in the form of empathy or sympathy) as a warrant to overstep bounds in matters concerning the fate of the NDC. Such empathy or sympathy can wane. It is not a given or constant in every situation. Here is yet, another eye-opener. Both Rawlings and Nana Konadu must know that but for people’s empathy or sympathy for them, their political opponents would have long eliminated them. Several instances of the NPP government’s treachery should have alerted them to that ominous possibility. But they survived and must not shoot themselves in the foot now under a government of their own political family. My closing remarks to the Rawlingses are simple: viable political parties outlive (and ought to outlive) their founders. The CPP is still alive today because of its viability as a political party long after the death of the Great Osagyefo and those who founded it, even though it hasn’t been able to sell itself to the electorate to be returned to power after 1979. No amount of treachery, trickery, or chicanery by its enemies (and I mean the United Party political tradition) could snuff it out. I am talking about the CPP under Dr. Nkrumah, not what Paa Kwesi Nduom and the other political jokers (Prof. Hagan and George Aggudey) claim to be spearheading in our generation. They lack the true CPP spirit and don’t turn my crank in any way at all. But the political shell called the CPP is still alive. So do we expect the NDC to be up and kicking long after its current bigwigs have fallen into their dotage or gone the way of all mortal beings. Political viability goes beyond what any bigwig in the NDC may be claiming today as his/her contribution to the party’s political development. The time has come for everybody who loves the NDC to allow President Mills the free hand to move the party forward. The future viability of the NDC depends on how the party conducts its affairs now that it has sprung back into power to serve its first term of four years. Efforts to implement the party’s manifesto and to secure a second four-year term will not succeed if political muscles begin being flexed by all manner of people who constitute this “Congress” in the NDC. Rawlings must stop in his own stride to consider how he foresees the NDC when he is in his dotage. What does he foresee as the fate of the party he struggled to form, to lead into government, in opposition, and now back in government? Does he want to do what will destroy his own party? He will be worth remembering if he restrains himself today to allow the NDC to chart a better path than he carved for it in 1992. As a Zimbabwe proverb has it: “If your mouth turns into a knife, it will cut off your lips.” Sanity must prevail now. Written by Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor, E-mail: mjbokor@ilstu.edu