NDC Must Disband All Splinter Groups Within The Party � Former Minister

A former Deputy Minister for Environment in the Rawlings led administration, Sam Pee Yalley, is urging the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be bold enough and disband all pressure groups that sprung up within the party in the heat of the historic Sunyani Delegates� Congress. According to him, maintaining such groups will further strengthen the growing animosity within the party. Many pressure groups emerged within the NDC during the party�s presidential primaries which saw incumbent President, John Evans Atta Mills being challenged by former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings for the flagbearership position of the party for the 2012 general election. These groups which supported the various factions were at each other�s throat before the congress, bombarding each other with insults and raising all forms of allegations. For over two months, there was a battle of acronyms as the NDC geared up for its national delegates� congress. Some of the groups that sprouted all of a sudden to offer support to the two NDC heavyweights vying for the sole ticket had acronyms like Sons and Daughters of Atta Mills (SADAM) and Get Agyeman Rawlings In (GARI). Apart from GARI, Nana Konadu had other ultra-groups with acronyms like Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), the main group that spearheaded her campaign; Organized Ladies of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (OLONKAR) and Nana Konadu Network (NAKONET), while President Mills boasted of other groups with acronyms like Get Atta Mille Endorsed/Elected (GAME), Friends and Family of Atta Mills (FAFAM) and Friends of Atta Mills (FOAM). Others were Supporters of Egya Atta (SEA), Enemies of Massa Atta (ENEMA), Atta Mills Association of Slow Starters (AMASS) and Atta Mills Society of Sycophants and Cowards (AMSSAC). But contributing to a panel discussion on Radio Gold�s �Alhaji and Alhaji� political programme, the Public Interest lawyer was of the view that these splinter groups will add nothing positive to the fortunes of the NDC but will rather deepen the cracks within the party and thus needed to be dissolved. �I call on the NDC leadership to be strong enough or bold enough to stand on their grounds and dissolve all this groups because in the end, they will not add anything positive to fortunes of the party,� he noted.