The honeymoon seems to have ended too soon, not from the electorate, which was divided right in the middle as a result of Election '08, but from internal party bickering which is turning nasty.

The ball was set rolling very early in the life of the administration by party founder J.J. Rawlings when he rounded up on President Mills describing his leadership style as slow and some of his appointees as mediocre. This refrain has since been taking up by others culminating recently in Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah's very public stinging criticism of the system. He has since apologized but served notice that he is on standby to face the party on the issues he raised: Meaning he is not done yet and the case is far from dead.

And now in comes firebrand Mohammed Mubarak aka Ras Mubarak, the young man planning to take over the youth leadership of the party next month. Under the guise of expressing his views on the government's statement on the Vodafone deal he issued a statement which was also a testament of sorts to lash out rather viciously at the sitting president.

In uncompromising terms he said "When economic value erodes, you would expect the ruling establishment to restore balance. What we heard from government regarding the sale shares of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone was not a restoration of balance, but a carte blanche to foreign companies and their local accomplices to misbehave."

It was not a slap on the wrist but a punch in the face. In well chosen words, which came across more like a committee effort than an individual's point of view, he dug also into former President Kufour, saying "the state [under the Kufuor administration] entered into a contract that can make anyone who cares about the country feel completely betrayed.

" He provided some insights into international contract law and then threw another punch at the Mills Administration: "And all the current government could do after several weeks of dithering over the review report is to re-engage because of a fear of contravening international law.

What kind of a house slave mentality is this?" Harsh words, those, but those are the kinds of "small print" that are giving the game away, that he is not alone in this attack and certainly has the support of some other "powerful" interests within the ruling party. He quotes the Ghanaian constitution and Vienna Convention to back his stance against the NDC government and concludes that "The rank and file of the NDC has every reason to be livid with President Mills for what they may consider as floundering by the government."

In dire words - even threatening - he said, "Government is floundering and the consequences of its inaction have catastrophic results for the NDC in future elections. The government has to move from reaction to action and do more than it is currently doing."

In conclusion, he said he feels "desperately betrayed by government's seemingly weak posture" hopping "to God this is not what we are going to live with for the rest of the president's term in office.

The ruling government [party] has spat on the country's sovereignty and our seventeen year old democracy; it has adopted a posture that makes our constitution wilt and it is unclear whether President Mills is ready to take on the corruption and unregulated greed of the Kufuor regime."

It is a direct confrontation to President Mills, more or less accusing him of bringing the constitution into disrepute by making it "wilt" - an accusation which of course is an impeachable offence. This kind of language is emanating from a side of the party that would like to see some kind of "revolutionary justice" which by now should have had Ghana's prisons brimming over with NPP "criminals" as inmates. The Mabey & Johnson issue has been irksome because it fingered NDC operatives mainly, while the government is still "dithering" in its duty of exposing the "the corruption and unregulated greed of the Kufuor regime."

On the other hand, the President, who clearly does not want to divide the country any further, following his slim election victory, is treading carefully, now that the rhetoric of political campaigning has given way to the realities of running a country. And the President is right, because the public mood is totally on the side of national unity and moving on, instead of spending valuable time chasing after "wrong-doers", who may or may not have had criminal intent in their actions.

Said a political analyst to The Mail, "Settling scores has never been a useful political agenda." He said the NDC would have to chart a new course taking into account its own history from the June 4 days, to the PNDC days to the NDC 1 days [1992-2000] during which periods many Ghanaians were equally aggrieved and some brutal injustices and corruption took place."

Therein lie the woes of the NDC - how to look at the past dispassionately, accept some responsibilities, take onboard the new realities and meld friend and foe alike to develop a new political culture for the country. This will surely come up at next month's party congress to elect officers.

As a ruling party, there is no danger of disintegration, but it could also intensify the division within the party between the hardliners like Mubarak and pragmatist like the President and those who support him, as the party prosecutes its mandate with a Jerkyl and Hyde personality towards 2012...