FRESH INFORMATION reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that former President Jerry John Rawlings was present when his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings told the Council of Elders of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) last week Tuesday that she wants to become the party’s flag bearer for the 2012 elections.
The meeting was held at the Ridge Office of former President Rawlings and it was chaired by a former Education Minister, Harry Sawyer.
Ex-President Rawlings is said to have arrived at the meeting with his wife but traveled out of the country moments after it ended.
When the story broke yesterday, NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia said because it was coming from DAILY GUIDE it could not be true, especially when he had not been informed Nana Konadu had made such a declaration.
He however confirmed that though Nana Konadu is not a member of the NDC Council of Elders, she was invited to the said meeting last week Tuesday for discussions on a subject he was not ready to make public.
Meanwhile, Joy FM last night reported that NDC big-wigs had told the station, under conditions of strict anonymity that Nana Konadu was indeed at the meeting and declared her interest in becoming the flag-bearer of the party.
Greater Accra Regional NDC Chairman, Kwabena Ade Coker, also jumped into the fray and ignorantly confused a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting that was held on Wednesday with last week’s gathering of Council of Elders, of which he is not a member.
According to Ade Coker, the fact that he was at a NEC meeting at which Nana Konadu did not make any declaration meant that she had not made any declaration to the party’s Council of Elders at a separate meeting last week.
“People want to worry her, she was at the NEC meeting, the founder and Vice President were also there and we had a long chat but there was nothing that showed that the former first lady had brought a letter concerning her intention to contest.
The meeting went on for over 5 hours but there was not even a whisper or whimper that she will contest. DAILY GUIDE will only cause financial loss to the country because people will rush to buy the paper because of the story which is false, by using their hard-earned cash,” he told Peace Fm yesterday at a time he conceded he had not read the story.
Interestingly, Ade Coker is not a member of the NDC Council of Elders.
Ade Coker has gained notoriety for goofing big time, the latest being his comment on Ghana’s intention to host the FIFA Under 17 World Football Tournament in 2013, which he claimed was not a priority, only for the Sports Ministry to set up a committee to explore the possibility of hosting it.
Sources close to Nana Konadu say she is likely to launch a full blown campaign in the third week of this month, February, and that her team is seriously planning the event and contacting some broadcast journalists to play major roles at the launch.
Meanwhile, the NDC leadership, apart from making feeble denials, has not been able to boldly confront the issue and come to terms with the reality that the former First Lady may soon become the party’s flag-bearer.
Checks showed that the party is in a state of indecision on how to handle the development.
A few have hidden behind closed doors to whisper words of disaffection about Nana Konadu, but they are yet to gather the guts to tell her in the face not to run.
DAILY GUIDE sources at last week Tuesday’s meeting said when the former First Lady announced her interest and explained the reasons why she wants to lead the NDC, no one uttered a word.
She is said to have explained herself with sheer eloquence, passionate will-power and logical analyses, holding the party gurus spellbound.
While leaders of the party are marking time and scratching their heads over Nana Konadu’s presidential ambition, Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR) are continuing their campaign unabated.
They constantly update her campaign website, www.fonkar.org, and continue to raise funds to print more copies of her campaign T-Shirts.
DAILY GUIDE has also gathered that FONKAR is getting some support from individual members in the current government.
Mrs. Rawlings’ declaration means the issue of her interest in the presidency has gone beyond one that is being called for by party foot-soldiers to a genuinely confessed ambition.
By Halifax Ansah-Addo