President Mills said he was ready for the NDC founder, Jerry John Rawlings’s wife, Nana Konadu, in what is expected to be a grueling battle for the control of the party at the Sunyani congress between July 8 and 10.
Mills so far has succeeded in cornering all close associates of Mr Rawlings to his side, boosting his morale and duly acknowledging their presence when he picked his forms yesterday.
Some of the people included E.T. Mensah, Minister of Employment, Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Science and Technology, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Minister of Education, Nii Laryea Afoteey Agbo, a Minister at the Presidency, and Eddie Annan among others.
The President told a packed crowd, after picking the nomination forms to file and contest the upcoming flagbearer-ship race, that he was ready for the contest.
It came a day after former First Lady Nana Konadu launched her campaign for the flagbearership position of the NDC at the Accra International Conference Centre, after picking her nomination forms the previous day.
The entire government machinery appeared to have been brought to a standstill yesterday when virtually all Mills appointees joined in a jamboree-like fanfare to pick the nomination forms, deserting their duty posts.
After picking the forms, President Mills and his numerous supporters including Ministers and party foot-soldiers, embarked on a procession through some principal streets of Accra led by motor riders.
They went through the Ring Road, Ridge and finally arrived at Mills’s Kuku Hill campaign office at Osu where several government officials and party functionaries made speeches in a rally-like function.
Vice President John Mahama fired the first shot when he openly admitted the fact that there were serious cracks in the NDC with the possibility of affecting the future prospects of the party if care was not taken in view of stiff opposition from no less a person than the founder of the party and his wife, Nana Konadu.
“Our party is at a crossroads,” he said and urged the rank and file of the party to protect the legacy left since, according to him, “all of us have invested our energy, our efforts, our time and our resources in this party”.
Blistering Attacks
The Vice President threw punches at Mr and Mrs Rawlings for daring to take back the party, insisting that “this party belongs to every single one of us” amidst cheers and shouts of ‘bo ho biem’ in Twi, literally meaning ‘say it again’ from a section of the crowd.
That, he said, was because “every member, every supporter, every activist has a stake in this party. None of us owns this party more than the other and all of us have a stake to make sure that this party does not only grow greater but remains in power to prosecute the ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ that we set for ourselves”.
He was however optimistic that delegates would make the right decision by renewing the mandate of President Mills, thereby welcoming the challenge that has been thrown to them since “this challenge will deepen the democratic credentials of our party.”
The analogy of the supposed driver (with virtual reference to Mills) who the party’s founder said must be changed was re-enacted by the Vice President, who insisted that the driver must be maintained, telling party faithful that “we must allow the driver to drive and take us safely to the destination we want to go.
“We are ready for the contest that is coming and I want to say, bring it on.”
With the exception of former Majority Leader J. H Owusu Acheampong, who has been made the Campaign Manager of Mills’s campaign team and President Mills himself, virtually every individual who got the opportunity to address the crowd, indirectly attacked the Rawlingses for ostensibly daring to challenge the candidature of the sitting President.
The Master of Ceremony for the occasion and a Deputy Local Government Minister, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and Education Minister Betty Mould Iddrisu equally attacked the Rawlingses.
Mills’s overbearing confidence
But the ‘bad bus driver,’ President Mills, promises to put up a sterling performance in the upcoming primaries, with the conviction of winning a landslide.
“I will win by a landslide. It will be mine in the primaries and ours in 2012,” he said.
Moved by the numbers that had gathered to support his candidature, an elated Mills said, “I am particularly gratified and honoured that all our colleagues have come to lend me support and thank you for the overwhelming support that you have given me this day.”
He paid glowing tribute to officials and foot soldiers of the NDC through whose resilience he said the party survived when it was in opposition.
Mills said he foresaw a victory devoid of acts of disrespect, fabrication, mudslinging to his opponents, noting, “The contest is not about who can hurl insults the fastest.
“The contest is about who has the ability to help raise the standards of living of our people; to be able to lift our people from the quagmire of poverty.”
He asked the rank and file of the party to follow the legacy built through the blood and toil of many people, some of whom have passed on to glory.
“We all need to protect this legacy and let it last for many years.”
President Mills believes that this supposed legacy is not the exclusive preserve of any individual in the NDC.
President Mills and his cohort managed to put up an expensive show of force and power by bussing several thousands of people from various parts of the country to the capital city, in spite of government’s promise to drastically cut down on what President Mills himself described as ‘profligate expenditure.’
Apart from that, some of these party members who arrived a day before the event, as acknowledged by the president, were also said to have been accommodated in the dormitories of some senior high schools in Accra.
It was an assemble of the old guards since it featured some members of the party who have been missing in the political light for a number of years including those who even left the NDC to join other political parties or formed new ones.
Some of these individuals included P.V Obeng, J.H Owusu Acheampong, Kofi Totobi Quakyi, Kwame Peprah, Bede Ziedeng, Goosie Tanoh of Reform Party fame, Faustina Nelson, Eddie Annan of Masai Motors fame, Emelia Arthur, Cecilia Johnson and a host of others.
Campaign team
A 26-member campaign team has since been inaugurated, with Mr. Owusu-Acheampong, a member of the Council of State, as Campaign Manager.
The rest are P.V. Obeng, Fred Ohene Kena, Isaac Vanderpuiye, Kwame Peprah, Kofi Totobi Quakyi, Cecilia Johnson, Ato Ahwoi, Sherry Ayittey, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, Ama Benyiwa Doe, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, Cletus Avoka, Yaw Antwi Gyamfi, Mahama Ayariga, Rashid Pelpuo, Emmanuel Bedzra (MP, Ho West), Kwamena Ahwoi, Mahama Fuseini, Okudzeto Ablakwa, Bertha Ansah Gyan, Omane Boamah, Haruna Iddrisu, Dr. Asima, Sylvia Osei and Dr. Stephen Opuni, Director of the Food and Drugs Board.
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