A political analyst is unequivocal in his belief the ruling National Democratic Congress will be better served without the imposing presence of its founder Mr Jerry John Rawlings. Citing the Convention People’s Party and Dr Hilla Limann’s People’s National Party, Mr Kpesah Whyte said all parties built and developed around personalities have hardly survived and urged the NDC to wean itself of Mr. Rawlings. He wondered what the Rawlingses will be saying on an NDC campaign platform given what they have said about the NDC in recent times. “The NDC needs to kind of do a fast hard look at itself. The point is at this point in time given all the criticisms, the accusations and the comments that the former president has leveled against the current government, what will he say on the campaign trail should he come back on the campaign trail?” “… What will be his message if he mounts the political platform now on behalf of the NDC?” He quizzed. “For me if you ask me as somebody observing from afar, I will say that it is probably in the best interest of the NDC that the former president really distance himself from the campaign for the party to be able to transcend him and his family so as to be able to develop much more formidable issue based campaign that addresses the things that matter to the ordinary Ghanaian,” he said. Asked if the party will be able to survive without Rawlings, Mr Whyte said: “It is absolutely in his own interest and that of the party that the party survives without him.” “The history of this country seems to point to the fact that party that develop strongly around individuals and personalities turn not to survive when those individual exit or those individuals no longer exist.” Mr Rawlings in a statement issued Monday accused the Mills-led administration of speeding the country into an abyss, adding that truth has been shoved aside by the administration and urged all Christians to seek God's grace in prayers during Easter. The statement was issued in apparent reaction to the suspension of a deputy General Secretary of the NDC by the party executives, Kofi Adams over a controversial tape recording in which Adams was accused of plotting the defeat of President John Mills with the NPP’s Gabby Asare Otchere Darko. Kofi Adams doubles as the spokesperson for Mr. Rawlings. But speaking to Joy News’ Evans Mensah, on Top Story, Mr. Kpesah Whyte doubted if Rawlings’ statement was necessary. He said the 126-worded statement served only to deepen the division in the ruling NDC in many ways. According to him, the action taken against Kofi Adams shows the party is only being consistent having suspended one of its executives in the past over a similar controversial tape recording. He said Mr. Rawlings must rather be applauding the party for upholding integrity, adding that if he is criticizing the party on this occasion, it may well be because of the fear of losing the only voice of the Rawlingses in the party. He said it will be in Rawlings’ best interest as well as that of the party for Rawlings to take a back seat. But an admirer of the Rawlingses, Michael Teye Nyaunu said it will be an exercise in self destruction if the NDC weans itself of its founder. He accused the party of deliberately taking decisions to deepen the cracks within the party and described Mr. Rawlings' statement as serious and disturbing and a clear manifestation of a party in deep crisis. Play the attached audio for Mr Whyte's comments.