The Ashanti regional secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress has taken a swipe at the Enquirer newspaper over reports that former President Jerry Rawlings had received cold reception in the region when he met regional executives and other party sympathizers. The paper had reported that former President Rawlings had been given the cold treatment in the region where he had visited ostensibly to articulate an anti-Mills agenda. However, the regional secretary of the party, Joseph Yamin, discounted these claims wondering what the paper’s motivation was. “I do not know what his motivation was because apart from the regional chairman who was not part of the meeting because he was on admission at the hospital, all regional executives, 15 of them, were present. I did a personal introduction of all to the crowd that met the Ex-President. So where is the enquirer coming from?” Joseph Yamin was speaking on the Big Bite on Xfm 95.1. Mr. Yamin also took a swipe at party executives who he said were part of the closed door meeting but managed to sneak snippets of what had transpired to the media, describing it as unhealthy for the party. “Where are we heading as a political party? Have we soon forgotten about what we went through eight years of being in opposition? What is happening within the NDC today; that if party executives would meet, then we put the information out?” A distraught Yamin called for a patch up within the ruling government, if the NDC would want to win election in 2012, saying the slur some party leaders would want to cast on the former president is very serious as it has the tendency of causing the party election 2012. He said, “if you should ask anybody, including the president, that, is the Ex-President still relevant in our quest to win 2012 elections, the answer would definitely be a ‘yes’; and we want to tarnish the image of the Ex-President? We are destroying our own force, if we do not come together as early as possible and try to reason out among ourselves, then I think that we are heading towards destruction”. Mr. Yamin believes internal wrangling should be a feature of a party in opposition and not one in government. He said the differences, if left unresolved, would not only be costly for the party, but that the “party sympathizers would not forgive us”. “Let us try and sit down and analyze the question; is the NDC heading towards destruction? But this has a clear answer; the NDC is heading towards destruction. Destruction should be happening when we are in opposition and not now that we are in power. We cannot use our incumbency to our own advantage if the party is where it is today. We should reason out as early as possible, people would not forgive us if what is going on should destroy the party”. Story by Abena Asiedua Tenkorang/ Xfm 95.1/ Accra/ Ghana