The NDC with its checked history moved rapidly to become the foremost political party in Ghana. In the strict sense of a political party, the NDC is peculiar. It is generally perceived as a congress that came into being on the spur of the June 4th uprising. Although its members came from the mainstream political parties, the NDC has survived mainly due to the Rawlings Factor. The mainstay of the NDC is the Rawlings Factor whether we accept that fact or not. The premeditated attempt at whittling down the Rawlings Factor by both named and unnamed power blocks within the NDC is the key destabilizing factor in the NDC. The several and varied attempts at sidelining the Rawlingses have created more problems for the NDC than it can handle. This has forced the NDC to its knees, reeling badly and risking inevitable implosion. It is evidently clear that those feverishly leaving no stone unturned in sideling the Rawlingses are not and will not be capable of rebuilding the party when it is finally relegated and confined to the political wilderness in its fractured state. Certainly, this task cannot be accomplished by those who are destroying the NDC or attempting to weaken it for the benefit of the CPP or first weakening it for it to lose elections and give them the safe passage into the political wilderness to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth in peace . These faceless individuals know how precious Rawlings is to the NDC but they fail to take the appropriate steps to resolve the issues at stake .They are rather interested in occupying their offices and being awarded protocol allowances. The strategies and objectives of these faceless individuals who are bent on destroying the Rawlings legacy and for that matter the NDC are encapsulated in a three-prong strategy as follows: • Ignore and sideline the Rawlingses from their own legacy through the ostracization of Rawlings and anything Rawlings. • Annexation and weakening of the NDC for the benefit of the CPP. • Once the NDC is weakened and eventually loses the election, the CPP can be stronger and most of them will return to their CPP roots to enjoy their loot without the constant “bickering” from the NDC founder, Jerry John Rawlings. Raison d’être The above-mentioned three-dimensional destructive strategies of the current NDC leadership and their underlings in self-serving positions have weakened the party beyond reason and would certainly drive the party out of power, irrespective of who leads the NDC. The nation has already suffered in many ways due to the constant wrangling within the party. The goodwill the NDC came into office with is finally dissipated. Ghanaians have now found themselves between a rock and a hard place in the next election. It is surprising to hear the NDC presidential candidate John Dramani Mahama and his spin-doctors now talking about “sympathy” Votes, not what they have done with the four years entrusted in their care. Should Ghanaians buy into this reversed psychology of sympathy votes, then Ghana is doomed. It is disappointing to hear the NDC spin-doctors turn themselves into pastors seeking sympathy votes. Ghana, in fact, cannot afford to add more pastors to the long list we already have. Let them tell Ghanaians what they have done with their four years. There is no doubt that the Atta Mills administration had been one of the most fortunate ones in the history of our country. With oil resources, gold prices, cocoa prices, and huge loans accumulating into unimaginable financial resources, all Atta Mills could do was to look the other way while the national kitty was being fleeced by individuals who in the first place have no business being in government. This is no time to insinuate. Kofi Totobi Quakyi, the NDC sponsored con artist; The Ahwois, who have become demi-gods overnight; and P.V. Obeng, the man whose encounter with the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) are still on the minds of Ghanaians have completely ruined the chance of the NDC. Efforts at sideling the Rawlingses both physically and psychologically became manifest soon after the takeover 2009 inauguration of the late President John Evans Atta Mills. These plans were crafted by Totobi Quakyi, Kojo Tsikata, the Ahwois. Totobi in particular felt he unduly became a laughing stock for many people when he started experiencing problems with his kidney and had to go on a begging campaign to raise money for his dialysis. It was no surprise that Totobi Quakyi, the Ahwois and their hirelings went straight into operation as soon the NDC returned to office in 2009. To silence the party founder, who persistently criticized them for their alleged involvements in many high profile corrupt deals, these individuals decided to let loose the likes of Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto, Felix Quakyi and others to insult and berate the party founder. As if to add insult to injury, attempts to create platforms for the resolution of some of these differences became another opportunity for these greedy men to dribble and mock their founder. Scheduled meetings were altered without due notice to the founder and so on. Manifestly, the weakening of the NDC came in the following forms, but not limited to them: • Appointment of CPP turncoats into positions of trust in the NDC government. • Resourcing the CPP financially. • Procurement of vehicles and other logistics for the CPP. • Four months to a general election, about 80% of the NDC branches and polling have been dormant since 2008. • Absolute disregard for the grassroots and the constitution of the NDC party. • Plundering of the national coffers, making the NDC to look even worse than the NPP in the eyes of the ordinary Ghanaian including NDC sympathizers. • The Woyome case and many others have led the NDC into a dead end and will play out full circle in the 2012 election circle. The list can go on and on. The foregoing facts summons patriotic citizen of Ghana to stand up to save the nation. The existing major political parties, especially the NDC and NPP are in a cahoots and bitter conspiracy against Ghana and her people. There is the need for a new political thinking to save the nation. In terms of policies, programs, corruption and thievery the NDC is no different from the NPP; while the other smaller parties do not have the clout to lead the nation. Another four years for the NDC will, therefore, be an endorsement of criminality against the state and the people of Ghana. The National Democratic Party is ready to provide the needed alternative to the incompetence, the thievery, and the impudence that has characterized our political discourse in recent years. Arise, the youth of Ghana and salvage the country Ghana by joining hands with the NDP to redeem the country from criminals who are parading as politicians. Ethnicity, age, gender, class and all the discriminatory practices that have characterized the new NDC have no place in the NDP. Come and let’s unite and redeem our country. Hamidu Sidiq hamidu.sidiq@yahoo.com Convener, National Democratic Party (NDP), Akwatia Former member and financier, NDC Akwatia Constituency