Former Information Minister of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Kofi Totobi Quakyi has cautioned his party against reducing Jerry John Rawlings’ legacy to “nostalgia” and “praise-singing.”
He insisted that the revolution must be lived, not worn on cloth and slogans.
Addressing party faithfuls during the commisioning of the ‘Jerry John Rawlings National Headquarters’ themed ‘From Revolution to Fourth Republic: The Rawlings Legacy’, the veteran stalwart said the NDC “cannot invoke Rawlings in song, in cloth, in portrait, and in slogan, while quietly departing from the values that made his name endure.”
Quakyi said the revolution was clear on one point: “Ghana must belong to the many, not the few; public service must be anchored in discipline, leadership must be accountable.”
He warned that the NDC was not founded for “opportunists, political mercenaries, contractors of convenience, or persons whose only ideology is personal profit,” but as “a movement of purpose.”
He said the deeper danger facing Ghana is not electoral loss, but citizens concluding that the two dominant parties are the same.
“When citizens conclude that all parties are alike, they do not merely reject politicians. They begin to reject the democratic system itself,” he said.
“The demagogue does not need to invent a crisis. He only needs one that we have already made,” he added.
While praising the John Mahama administration for “keeping the faith,” Quakyi stressed that the NDC “must never lose its soul.”
He said the party’s strength was built on “discipline, loyalty, conviction, and service,” and urged the Rawlings Foundation to focus on leadership development that attracts “those committed to a cause, not merely people interested in the allure of political power.”
“The story of Rawlings, Prof. Atta Mills, and President Mahama is one continuous story. The story of the National Democratic Congress,” he said.
Quakyi added: “What comes next must not be a departure from that story. Ultimately, it is the NDC that must stand taller than any individual.”
