Ghana's Ambassador to the Czech Republic Victor Emmanuel Smith has blamed the National Executives of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for not putting down measures to prevent the current wrangling in the party. According to him, the crisis in the party was preventable but the leadership did not put in much effort to reconcile the party’s founder and leader. Perceived antagonism between President J.E.A. Mills and former President Jerry Rawlings is worsening due to incessant criticms of the Mills administration by Mr. Rawlings. Rawlings has himself given various reasons why he criticises the Mills government, including its failure to prosecute corrupt government officials in the erstwhile Kufour administration as well as for corruption within the government. The former president has threatened not to campaign for the NDC in the 2012 elections should President Mills win the party’s flagbearership race of which his wife, Nana Konadu is also contesting. President Mills, on the other hand after picking his nomination forms to seek re-election as the party’s flag-bearer went straight to his campaign office to launch his campaign. Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Thursday, Ambassador Victor Smith said he is saddened by the turn of events in the party adding that “I don’t think they’ve done enough; that is why I said it was preventable; this current situation if the party had (played it part) properly (we could have) prevented the crisis”. He explained that even though the former President did not use the internal party mechanisms to make his concerns known, the party should have addressed his (Rawlings) concerns instead of ignoring them. He called on the Council of Elders of the NDC to find ways to resolve the rift between President Mills and former President Rawlings for a lasting solution to the looming crisis in the in the party. Victor Smith observed that unless there is an ulterior motive by some persons to destroy the party; the timing to contest a sitting president for the flagbearership position is wrong. “Unless there is a personal ambition to become president or there is a mission to crash the party, I don’t see why we are going the way we are going”. The former aide to the Rawlingses also noted that some people have capitalized on the rivalry between President Mills and Mr. Rawlings to deliberately create problems in the party just for their parochial interests. He stressed that if the rift between President Mills and former President Rawlings is not resolved, the NDC will bear the brunt of voters at the polls in 2012. Ambassador Victor Smith appealed to the former President to call on his wife to rescind her decision to challenge President Mills in the party’s delegate congress in Sunyani on July 8-10. Commenting on Dr. Spio Garbrah joining the fray to contest the flagbearership of the party, Victor Smith said “he is just trying to muddy the waters”. Story by: Adwoa Gyasiwaa/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana