According to the NDC’s Deputy General Secretary, Kofi Adams, who doubles as the spokesman for the Rawlingses Mrs Rawlings “will go all the way to file her nomination, contest for the position and national election and hopefully win to become the first woman president of Ghana.”
Reports making the rounds in sections of the media indicated that some NDC party big wigs were preparing cash inducements to the tune of GH¢1 million, sizeable stakes in Ghana’s burgeoning oil industry and monetary infusions into companies run by Nana Konadu as means of dissuading her from contesting President Mills
Failure to persuade Nana Konadu to stand down will, in the words of Member of Parliament for Shai-Osu David Assuming Doku, result in “dire consequences for the party if the former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings goes through her plans to contest President Mills for the flagbearership slot at congress.”
Such is the fear among NDC supporters who are cognisant of the bruising and battering the NDC is about to go through in 3-months of heated campaigning, which will certainly bring its wake the “washing of the dirty linen” of the NDC in public.
But Kofi Adams remains adamant Nana Konadu is the NDC’s best bet for success in the 2012 elections and will be preposterous for anyone to suggest that she could be enticed with monetary or personal gains.
“It is not contracts, it is not money that is motivating her, it is to save the party from defeat and possibly total annihilation after this defeat that has energised her to be able to come out and to reduce the level of apathy so nobody should dream of that because that is not what she is into situation for”, he stressed.
Kofi Adams reiterated the point made by Nana konadu in her resignation letter, which points to the fact that her desicion to contest President Mills was borne out “meticulous and detailed consultation with serious persons after series of calls on her to come out to save the party from defeat in the 2012 elections and also to move on, win the election and deliver what is expected of the NDC from 2013”.
The perceived “sidelining” and “stabbing in the back” of the Rawlingses by the Mills administration, for which the Rawlingses are aggrieved, is not a factor motivating Nana Konadu to contest.
Touching on the performance of President Mills’ two years in office, Kofi Adams stated that President Mills’ performance “will be a plus and minus in our campaign that is why we need a candidate also that brings something on board other than just looking at the performance of the government”.
“If it is just the performance of governments alone, I don’t think any election would be lost because everyy government tries to do one thing or the other. So Nana Konadu brings something more than the track record of the government… don’t forget this is a person who has also built her own track record – things that have never been done by first ladies in terms of development and alleviating the (plight of) the disadvantaged in the society – she did it. She brought the woman to the level that the woman is today, she saved the children in many ways, through various intervention projects like income generating activities, marketing centres, day-care centres, water projects and what have you, even clinics. So this is somebody who has done it all and who has the track record as people can see. They look at her and know that when given such a bigger national platform, she will be able to do so much for this country. She comes with this track record”, he stressed.
He said news reports of mass regional endorsements of President Mills could be misleading because the same executives on the ground are the ones reaching out to Nana Konadu and asking her to contest to save the party from the hands of its opponents, adding that Nana Konadu comes with her own requisite attractions to the presidential ticket beyond the government’s performance.
All but the Eastern regional executives have endorsed President Mills’ candidature for the NDC congress. Constituency executive members from Akwatia, Kade, Lower West Akim, Upper West Akim, Ofoase/Ayirebi, Mpraeso, Nkawkaw, Afram Plain North and Afram Plain South openly vented their spleen on the regional executive members for ‘mortgaging’ the party for money at the meeting held in the regional Minster’s residence.
According to them, it was time they told the President that he was no more popular with the rank and file of the party and that if there should be presidential primaries today, he would lose to whoever would contest him.
The constituency executives also forced the regional chairman of the party, Julius Debrah, to render an unqualified apology to former President Jerry Rawlings, the founder of the party and his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings for going on radio to insult them since, according to them, if the Rawlingses were ‘touched’, then the ‘eye’ of the party had also been touched.
The regional chairman therefore ate the humble pie and apologised to the Rawlingses for the comments he made against them on radio when Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings resigned her position as party vice chairperson to enable her to contest the party’s presidential primaries with President Mills.
Because of the acrimony that characterised the meeting yesterday, the party in the region could not come out boldly to support President Mills as was done by other regions.
The party said as far as the Eastern region was concerned, executives would remain neutral and not declare for any of the contestants.
The stage has therefore been set for the most mouth-watering congress of the NDC ever since it was formed with the ultimate prize being the control of the reins and soul of the party.
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