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Former President Jerry John Rawlings welcomed Dr. Ekwow Spio-Gabrah, the third force in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential jigsaw, to his office in Accra yesterday, and sent a special message to the sitting President. �Blind loyalty,� he said, �will bring Prof. John Evans Atta Mills down.� Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah had called on the ex-President, who is also the Founder of the ruling NDC, for his blessings and support, as he seeks to contest President Mills and Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings in the party�s presidential primary, scheduled to take place at Sunyani from July 8-10, this year. According to Flt. Lt. Rawlings, the NDC of today was creating the impression that it had no candidate worthy to be a president, hence the use of intimidation by the government, using state apparatus to cow potential presidential candidates from standing up to lead the party. �I thought this is just most unfair. I had an occasion to tell the Professor that blind loyalty to him does not help.� He said if the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) could produce over twenty or fifty presidential candidates, why couldn�t the NDC, with people of self conviction and intellectual prowess among many others, who stand on the foundation of strong conviction and truth, produce three times the number of presidential candidates than the NPP. �We�ve created the impression as if we don�t have them. Whatever happened, we ended up looking incorrect. That is not good enough, and now we are paying the price for it,� he added, drawing applause from the teeming crowd of party faithful, who had trooped to his office to lend their support. Wearing white apparel, with his right arm in a brown bandage, Flt. Lt. Rawlings threw a barrage of criticisms at Prof. Mills for doing too little to improve on the lot of Ghanaians, especially, party faithful at the grassroots. According to him, if the performance of the President Mills-led administration had been good, nobody would have ever dared to contest him for the flagbearership slot of the party. He accused Presidential Mills� camp of intimidation and concocting all manner of stories against his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, in the NDC flagbearership race. �The presidency is using money and state apparatus to threaten party delegates,� he alleged. He again, accused the President Mills� camp of paying delegates for them to wear the President�s T-shirts. �Those wearing Konadu�s T-shirts paid for them,� he explained. Mr. Rawlings said due to intimidation from the camp of the President, some delegates had compromised their positions, but stressed that the use of intimidation and money to influence delegates would cost the party in the 2012 elections. He said defeat was staring the party in the face, and the sooner they changed gear, the better the chances of retaining power in election 2012. He said the NDC was built out of a value system � truth � hence its ability to survive June 4 and December 31, till date. He, therefore, cautioned party faithful to be wary of the grand manipulations of the government, which is seeking to subvert the popular will of the people, by corrupting the electoral process in the lead up to the delegates� congress, and urged them to keep the fighting spirit of the NDC intact, to ensure victory for the party in election 2012. Dr. Spio-Garbrah, in asking for Mr. Rawlings� blessings, described himself to the gathering as the �Sei Dena Ali� in the Holy Quran. Reading from 1st Samuel 17:34 in the Holy Bible, Dr. Spio-Garbrah described himself again as David who sought the blessings of God to lead the Israelites in conquering the Palestinians. �All that I am seeking from the Founder of the party is that Ekwow go and the Lord be with you,� he said. He asserted that there was nobody in the NDC who had won the presidential primaries without the support of the Founder.