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To mark the 46th anniversary of the June 4 Uprising, a founder member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Goosie Tanoh has called for a “radical reset” of the NDC party to restore the core values of probity, justice, accountability and participatory democracy.
He stressed the need for a radical transformation of the party and a structural overhaul of the country’s political and economic governance.
In a solidarity message read on his behalf at a symposium to commemorate the 46th anniversary of the June 4 Uprising, Mr Tanoh expressed his solidarity and unwavering commitment to the cause he joined 46 years ago.
“We are at a critical juncture in our nation’s journey—a moment that calls for sober reflection, honest appraisal and decisive action,” Mr Tanoh said.
“Our party, too, needs a radical reset if we are to provide Ghanaians with the leadership they deserve and desire, and not degenerate into what our friends the NPP have become,” he added.
This year’s commemoration of the 46th anniversary of the June 4 Uprising was held in Agormenya.
It drew a crowd of cadres, party faithful and sympathisers who had gathered to reflect on the significance of the historic uprising that reshaped the country’s political trajectory.
Mr Tanoh warned that the overwhelming rejection of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December 2024 elections was not just a rebuke to the then ruling party but a cautionary signal to the NDC and all who aspire to govern.
He said the landslide defeat of the NPP must be understood not merely as a political shift, but as a profound rejection of arrogance, elitism and governance that prioritises private gain over public good.
“The decisive rejection of the erstwhile regime of the NPP is pregnant with lessons about how not to govern,” Tanoh said.
Mr Tanoh, who is also the presidential advisor on the 24-hour economy and Accelerated Export Development, called for the NDC party to reclaim its revolutionary roots and avoid the mistakes of its political opponents.
He called for a structural overhaul of the NDC, describing the party as having become “an electoral machine with power concentrated at the top.”
Mr Tanoh proposed the launch of an 18-month national conversation within the party, leading to a “national ideological and constitutional reset convention.”
He praised President John Mahama for his reset agenda and challenged the NDC to match that vision at the party level with structural reforms that restore trust, dignity and grass-roots power.
Recalling the historical roots of the June 4 Uprising, Mr Tanoh paid homage to the courage of young soldiers and “other ranks” who risked their lives in 1979 to challenge the entrenched rot in the country’s governance.
“June 4 was more than a mutiny. It was the re-entry of ordinary citizens into national politics by other means.
It was a revolutionary rejection of the Ghanaian elite and a demand for radical—and even sometimes deadly—accountability by the young and the marginalised,” he said.
Mr Tanoh warned against complacency, reminding leaders that power ultimately belongs to the people and that citizens would not hesitate to withdraw that power if betrayed.
Mr Tanoh also paid glowing tribute to Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, whose leadership during the June 4 Uprising prevented the country from tipping into civil war.
He called on the NDC to honour the legacy of Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings and other fallen revolutionaries, not through nostalgia or entitlement, but by embodying the values they stood for.
