NDC Different From NPP - Kwesi Pratt

A position put forward by Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Mr. Kwesi Pratt insisting there is some difference between the governing National Democratic Congress(NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has received a sharp rebuttal. NPP's liberal ideology is in opposition to the independence-winning party, the Convention Peoples' Party. While the NDC creamed off CPP loyalists and weaken the party after NDC's founder Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings came to power in 1992 in a democratic election. The two parties who have been ruling Ghana since 1992. The CPP has since been battling the two parties to assert its independence as a third force in Ghana's politics. At a Founder's day programme organised to celebrate Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the founder of the CPP and founding President of Ghana, Kwesi Pratt told the packed audience that �we wouldn�t have been celebrating founder�s day if the NPP were in power�. But this was not well received by some in the audience at Commonwealth Hall, University of Ghana. The packed audience kept insisting that they are all the same. In a sharp rebuttal, Deputy National Youth Organiser of the CPP, Ernesto Yeboah who was representing the Chairman of the Convention People�s Party, Samia Nkrumah, told the gathering that he associated fully, �Body, blood and spirit with all those opposed to Mr. Pratt�s assertion that the NDC was different from the NPP�. He said the NPP made no pretensions of their hatred for the CPP and Nkrumah unlike the NDC that mouths Nkrumah and does the opposite. �This NDC government was the first on the continent of Africa to issue their unconditional support to the invading imperialist forces of Libya�. He said permitting the celebration of Founder�s Day only amounted to tokenism and pointed out what he calls a contradiction of celebrating a man who is a wanted criminal under the 1992 constitution. He quoted the State Security Decree NLCD 119 which prohibits Ghanaians from communicating with Kwame Nkrumah and instructs them to report any communication from Nkrumah to the nearest police station or military barracks. Ending his submissions, the Deputy National Youth Organiser said �co-operation was crucial to restoring the true Nkrumahist enterprise of economic self-reliance, social justice and pan Africanism but it was equally important to note that this cannot be done with fake Nkrumahists�. In an emotional response to Ernesto Yeboah, Mr. Kwesi Pratt said he had worked harder for the CPP than anybody and called on anyone to challenge him on that. On the issue of Nkrumah being a wanted criminal under the 1992 constitution Mr. Pratt said it was time to get real and to realise that �Nkrumah was dead and gone�.