General News of Saturday, 28 April 2012Source: peacefmonline General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Aseidu Nketia, has admitted that the party is having difficulties resolving the strained relationship between the founder, Jerry John Rawlings and President Mills.

He attributes the difficulties to the structure of the NDC’s constitution.

According to him, unlike other political parties, especially the New Patriotic Party (NPP) where their Council of Elders do not necessarily participate in frontline politics, the NDC is the exact opposite.

“We are doing whatever is within our power to do, but what makes our effort difficult is the structure of the party’s constitution. For instance, each of the parties in Ghana – including the NDC has a council of elders who help in resolving issues in the party. But in the NPP, for instance, their council of elders is not necessarily participating in frontline politics so when there is a contest, they have the moral courage to call everybody around and say this is what we have decided and that is the best way to go and they whip everybody into line,” he said.

Speaking in an interview with the Africawatch Magazine, General Mosquito, as the NDC General Secretary is affectionately called, pointed out that that cannot be said of the NDC.

To him, what has compounded the situation is the fact that Mr Rawlings, who is the Chairman of the party’s Council of Elders is involved in the dispute.

“It is the function of the council of the elders to settle disputes among the various factions within the party, so if you have a situation where the chairman of the council of elders is involved in the dispute, then it becomes very difficult to deal with it in the ordinary way that other council of elders in other parties would have dealt with it…it becomes much more difficult for the national executive committee to also approach, because there is a Council of Elders to which we all defer in matters like this. But now that the issue is about the chairman of the council of elders, who else has the power to deal with (it)?” he rhetorically asked.

The NDC Chief Scribe added that considering the unusual scenario, the party’s structures cannot be used to resolve the seemingly bad blood between the former First Family and President Mills, but gave the assurance that they are doing all they can in the circumstances to get things normalized.