Hannah Tetteh Replies Rawlings

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Created on Wednesday, 06 June 2012 00:00

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05 June 2012

Hannah Tetteh Replies Rawlings

Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry has stated candidly that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is facing some hard times in its evolution as a political party. She however believes the storm will be over soon.

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Speaking on Breakfast XYZ on Radio XYZ 93.1 FM on Tuesday, Madam Tetteh said “I think that the NDC is going through quite a trying period. I think this is going to be a test of our resilience. But I am confident we are going to come out stronger.”

She said despite all the wrangling that inundated the party after it lost the elections in 2000, members were able to rally behind Prof. Mills to win the 2008 polls.

Last Sunday, former President Rawlings, founder of the party told a gathering at Aflao at a ceremony to mark the June 4 uprising in 1979 that the party is already in a ditch. He said the party cannot win the 2012 General Elections if it does not return to the values of the June 4 - Probity, Transparency and Accountability.

But Madam Hannah says such a comment is disrespectful to the hardworking members of the party who braved the odds to make the party strong.

She said “I don’t think we are in a ditch because I know that there are people within the party who go out and work for this party and put their hearts into it,” adding “when we make comments like that, we don’t respect the rank and file of the NDC.”

Touching on the June 4 values, Madam Tetteh indicated that “I think that June 4 is important, but so is 7th January…I wish that we will also begin to celebrate 7th January.”

Her reason? “The structure of the organisations that were created and the institutions that were created after 7th January by the P/NDC government are the structures that have given us the democratic dispensation that we are enjoying today.”

She said President Mills has shown maturity and tolerance in not responding to the mud thrown at him by people within and outside the party. According to her, the president is focused on the collective interest of the Ghanaian population and not on his parochial one.

“In this government, I think that President Mills led my example. He has been extremely tolerant. He has not responded to everything that has been thrown at him because he is of the view that it is not about him; it is about the country.”

Madam Tetteh said President Mills recognizes that it is irrelevant for him to make “grandiose pronouncement” when there is a need to strengthen systems that fuel the democratic system.

She further denied accusations from the former president that the party has veered off the agreed course prior to victory in the 2008 elections, explaining that the party has been working to ensure that it achieves what is contained in the manifesto.

Asked whether the aggrieved former president will join the campaign trail of the party, Madam Hannah Tetteh stated that:

“The election campaign will involve every member of the party. This is a grassroots party and elections are won polling station to polling station, vote to vote. I have no doubt that the NDC will rally to make sure that we win this elections.”

Responding to a question by a caller as to whether she ever told the US Embassy that she will sell the NDC to the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Madam Tetteh said “Wikileaks is reported speech. At no point in time did anything in Wikileaks say that this is a transcript… If you look at the original Wikileaks transcript, I never said anything like that. Not the summarized version that appeared on Ghanaweb, but the original version. I never said anything of the kind.”

Madam Tetteh explained that she was asked about how to help the smaller parties to which she responded that the parties with similar ideologies must come together to fight a common course instead of living in splitter groups.

Source: radioxyzonline.com