PRESIDENT URGES NDC ACTIVISTS TO WORK WITH EXECUTIVES (PAGE 14, MAY 31, 2010)

The President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, has called on activists and cadres of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to work closely with party executives and shun persons who incite them to rebel against government appointees.
According to him, the Government is working very hard to ensure that it fulfils its mandate to the people and stressed that no amount of cajoling would distract him from the NDC’s “Better Ghana” agenda.
President Mills said this when he addressed party activists in Bolgatanga on his arrival in the Upper East Region last Saturday.
He was in the region to attend the final funeral rites of the late Paramount Chief of Chiana, Pe Rowland Adiali Ayagitam II.
“We are working very hard and very soon you will begin to see something very different. You will begin to see the Better Ghana emerging. All that I ask of you is patience,” he stated.
He advised activists or ‘foot soldiers’ as they are known, to be wary of those who incite them against government appointees.
“There are people who want to urge you to say we don’t like this one, sack this one, sack that one. If I do that and sack somebody and put others there, they will also suffer the same fate in the future”, he said.
“I, more than anybody else, know how hard you have worked. For eight years, I led you and I know the sacrifices you have all made. It will be criminal on my part to turn my back on you. If I do Allah will never bless me”.
“Let nobody tell you we are sleeping in the Castle; your sorrow is my sorrow and your joy is my joy. Work with your regional minister, the party executives, and the various leaders and I can assure you your time will come one day”, the President said.
The President’s advice comes after recent calls by some pressure groups within the party in the region for the dismissal of government appointees.
Recently, one of such groups, the Coalition for the Welfare of the Masses, took on the regional minister and the regional executives on the award of contracts.
In neighbouring Upper West Region, some persons believed to be supporters of the NDC stormed the Regional Coordinating Council and bolted with a tender box containing bid documents and later set it ablaze.
The riotous action by supporters of the party and the subsequent burning of the tender documents led to the dismissal of the then Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Mahmoud Khalid.