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Former President Jerry John Rawlings today marked the 35th anniversary of the 31st December Revolution blaming government officials for causing the defeat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the just-ended general elections.
President John Mahama, representing the NDC lost heavily to the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Nana Akufo-Addo with the party also losing its parliamentary majority.
This unprecedented defeat of a ruling government has shaken the NDC and many reasons have been ascribed to it and the party in a bid to investigate the cause of the defeat has formed a 13-member committee chaired by a Former Minister of Finance and Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Kwesi Botchwey.
But according to Mr Rawlings, there were clear signs ahead of the general polls that the NDC would lose the elections, but it ignored the signs on the wall and failed to act.
“I don’t think I was the only one who saw the writing on the wall. Many people from our very own party I believe could see the writing on the wall that we were going to lose this past election.
“It was obvious a long time ago that we wouldn’t make it. Our general negativity, impunity, disrespect and corruption was taking us further and further downhill. About the time when most were living in the painful reality with stress and anger, that’s when some of us chose to be more impervious to reality. We had lost so much goodwill”, he added.
Speaking at the ceremony at the Revolution Square in Accra on Saturday, former President Rawlings said, the NDC lost the elections way before December 7 because it chose to “persistently and unrepentantly stay on the slippery slope despite the warning lights right” in its face.
President Rawlings added that some handlers and manipulators who have benefited from the past two governments have failed to admit the reasons for the party’s election failure instead of facing up to the reality of history and performance.
He, however, expressed the hope that the party would devise new strategies to address these challenges.
“I believe that this time around our people have seen through it and we would embark on the right steps to regain our moral high ground. The moral high ground that we have abandoned and on which the new leader [Nana Akufo Addo) is now standing.”
The 31st December Revolution was a coup d’etat by the J.J. Rawlings-led Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) which overthrew the Third Republican government of Dr Hilla Limann in 1981.
The NDC as a party was formed largely on the principles of probity and accountability which were being espoused by the PNDC.
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