Propaganda Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Richard Quashigah, has acclaimed President John Evans Atta Mills for his statement on the celebration of 31st December revolution by NDC apologists, saying the President could not have given a better answer to the question fired at him, since the NDC was founded on the principles of the coup that toppled the Limann administration.
President Mills stated emphatically during his interaction with journalists at the Castle, Osu, during the “Action Year” Editors Forum, that he cannot prevent former President Rawlings and the ministers of his government from celebrating the 31st December 1981 coup because it is the Founder’s Day of the ruling NDC.
The President noted that all the political parties have a Founder’s Day, and that there was nothing wrong if the NDC, which he belonged to, also decides to celebrate theirs.
Speaking on e-TV’s Breakfast TV Newspaper Review, the National Propaganda Secretary of the NDC pointed out that one cannot be a member of the party and deny the revolution, because 31st December made the NDC.
According to him, the revolution embodies the principles that govern the formation of the NDC party, and the NDC lives by those principles.
“There is nothing wrong with what President Mills said concerning the celebration of 31st December because it made the NDC; clearly that is the principle that has governed the formation of the NDC because those principles make the NDC. You can’t be an NDC and deny 31st December because it was a revolution that actually tells us the state of uselessness that our fathers were in,” he said.
To him, 31st December marked the day the country was transformed from a low society to a better place; adding that, it was the time Ghana moved from darkness into light, the beginning of the country’s forward march.
Mr. Quashigah stressed that before the Rawlings-led coup that overthrew the Limann administration; Ghanaians were kept in the dungeon, and were queuing for virtually everything, including basic necessities.
“31st December was the day that Ghana moved forward from darkness to light and it was the day that Mr. Rawlings said there is a new beginning…It was the time when Ghanaians were virtually in shackles, living in darkness and somebody actually had some superior understanding of life in order to turn around the situation, and give insight and enlightenment to the Ghanaian people,” he added.