Abodakpi Lectures Cadres

An aspiring candidate for the national chairmanship position of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dan Abodakpi has described as demeaning and belittling the practice where political party chairmen lobby for favour or appointments. �There must be what I call a certain mutual respect between the chairman of the party in government and the president, so if you as a chairman, you go asking for favours for yourself, you are demeaning yourself, you are belittling the status of that position.� He made this known to the DAILY HERITAGE after he finished addressing the United Cadres Front of the NDC during their national strategic planning conference in Accra. �When you want to engage the president for example it should be on serious matters concerning the party, if you don�t do that it will come to a time that respect will not be there, so for that reason, I think that I need to operate at a certain level in order to ensure that the relationship between me and the chief executive who is the president will be on mutual trust and respect. That is the only way he can take my advice seriously.� According to the former Member of Parliament for Keta Constituency, �It is the party that brings government into being, so at any given point in time the party must be at a certain level that commands the respect of the president, and his appointees, so you don�t compromise yourself.� Explaining how he was going to do that, he said at the national level he will develop a symbiotic relationship with the chief executive, �that is the president and that I will respect the president as the leader of the party and as a leader of Ghana. �The president must reciprocate to the leader of the party that created the platform for him, and that can only be done when you develop a relationship which is mutual, so as your chairman I will not take any appointment from the president as the chairman of a board, member of a board or anything; all I will do is to concentrate as the leader of the party,� he told the Cadres. According to him, �as chairman if I go to the president to give me appointment, the respect will not be there, and it will erode and if that respect is eroded and something is going wrong in government, I cannot say it.� Touching on his plans for the party should he get the mandate of the people, he said the party has made so many mistakes in the past, especially, in 1992 when the Cadres were ignored. He said he will bring them into the main stream decision making of the party through the national to the regional and district levels, saying �this is the despondency we are in. We are suffering from various factors, this seems to be a party that does not recognize sacrifice, and this seems to be the party that does not appreciate the hard work of our people. �We have founding fathers of this party, we have people who have played critical roles in the formation of this party we have former ministers, we have former DCEs who when they were in office played critical roles in supporting the work of the party, but once they leave office is like they are forgotten. �Just like we have national council, we will do same at the regional level that is the only way we can effectively restructure this party and have effective mobilization towards the challenges that lie ahead of us.� He said when given the nod the mission will be to provide transformational leadership and reconnect the party to the grassroots. �It is a mission that I have, it is a mission that I have found too very carefully, it is a mission that I believe and I realize can produce true and transformational leadership.� The aspiring chairman also said the attitude that has to do with MPs rolling their vehicle glasses when they visit their constituency will be a thing of the past when given the mandate, saying, �What the electorate want is recognition, they want respect, why should a party coming from a revolution have its appointees finding things difficult.�