Vice President John Mahama has called on the members of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to join hands with the executives of the party to work assiduously to reintroduce the discipline that has eluded the party since the inception of President Mills’ administration. Mr. Mahama was addressing members of the TEIN at the national conference of the group at the University of Cape Coast in the Central region on Friday. The Vice president bemoaned the recent turbulence in the NDC and called on the youth in the party to forge a united front so as to overcome the challenges bedeviling the ruling party. “Recently the party has been going through some turbulence and nobody can deny that. My regret and sadness is that it looks like that turbulence and the divisions in the party are showing within TEIN and I feel very sad that that is happening.” “I want to urge you as our younger brothers and sisters to maintain the solidity, truthfulness, your advocacy for justice and the discipline that has brought you this far,” he said. He asserted it was an indisputable fact that all human institutions have such acrimony at one point or the other but maintained that the manner in which divergent views are articulated and how they are managed within the party will determine whether it will lead to success or not. The Vice President accepted blame on behalf of the party for some of the actions of party activists. He explained that the problem is aggravated by the lack of understanding of the party’s philosophy and stressed that “until we [the NDC] train and orient them [party activists] to understand what the party stands for, in respect of discipline, in respect of working selflessly for the party, often it will be difficult for us to blame them entirely for some of the things we do.” Mr. Mahama sang the praises of president Rawlings for the successes chalked during his nineteen years rule, especially in bringing unity and stability into the party. He said, “The history of this country cannot be written without his [former president Rawlings’] name being there in bold letters. He achieved many successes but in all the achievements that we made in the PNDC and NDC era, we did it because we had discipline in the party. We learnt how to handle our disagreements and above all we were united as one party.” He therefore warned that the government and the party cannot be successful if the party does not get back its hallmark of unity and discipline. The National Youth Organizer of the NDC, Ludwig Hlodze who also addressed the gathering stressed the need for the party to overcome its internal challenges so as to be successful at steering this country into a state of unprecedented economic growth and development. Mr Hlodge told the members of TEIN that the conference will help mend the broken frontiers of the student body so us to re-engineer the growth of the party. He further assured the students that their contribution in ensuring victory for the party will be appropriately rewarded in the future. Story by Derick Romeo Adogla/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana