In what was considered as a wishful thinking, grew to be an idea and subsequently a fact that indeed, the former First Lady is taking on the president on a challenge.
Even as at this stage that she has picked a form, some people like Hon Rashid Pelpuo are still appealing to her husband to impress his wife to resign her decision stating that he ( Rawlings) ‘stands to gain greater respectability now and in history’ should the wife quit( Citi FM 06/05/2011).
Obviously, Pelpuo just like other NDC gurus are concerned about this challenge derailing the party’s prospects in the 2012 elections as this will amount to ‘vote of no confidence in the administration” said Bature ( Joy News, 14/04/2011). In a rather different and in an independent psychologist view, Ben Ephson has maintained that this unprecedented development will test the potency and the relevance of the Rawlingses in Ghanaian body politics today. Some political commentators have even gone further to predict that a win for the sitting president will reduce the obsession with the Rawlingses.
With the two contestants having picked up their forms, the battle line has been drawn with accusations and counter accusations from both camps. Surely, one could not have expected anything less than what is happening since political power is partially won chronicling not just the achievements of one self, but also the non achievements and failures of your opponents. The contest in itself has another advantage apart from the immediate goal of winning and that is where I see Nana Konadu’s capital.
Even though I believe that she is there to win, I am even more convinced that by this act of boldness, she would be the most popular candidate for the presidential election for the NDC in 2016 provided the bruises and wounds of this primary are healed and that the NDC is intact. By that time, she would have been the only candidate who is not a ‘first timer’ and the argument that no one has ever won national election the first attempt will be good campaign tool for her to trumpet. John Mahama and Ekow Spio Garbrah will have a tough time to beat her ( if they decide to contest) even though they would have had their faces on the ballots papers before.
It is easy for one to sustain and enlarge his/ her political fortune upwards out of sympathy in some cases, by been loyal and committed to the ideals of the party irrespective of the outcome of a previous election. This consistency is what made former President Kufuor to be the presidential candidate for the NPP in 2000 and Atta Mills in 2008 and surely will be the one to make Nana Konadu the presidential candidate for NDC in 2016. This is where I see the indirect and perhaps the greatest light in the former First Lady’s decision to contest against all odds. If people, particularly section of NDC supporters, are mad at her now, then they should be prepared to rock their nerves even more because Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings is here to stay and stay active in politics henceforth.
There have also been some arguments within the circles of NDC that the founder needs to take a back seat and allow the party to function. This argument has even degenerated into a sort of verbal attack on the former first family with critics reminding them that the party has grown beyond any individual or family implying that NDC stands tall with or without the Rawlingses.
What is clear however at this stage is that the former president will never be on the podium with President Mills to garner votes for NDC as he did in 2008 no matter the level of post reconciliatory action to resolve the bruises and wounds after the July battle. The impact of this eternal separation on the party will be fully estimated in years to come. Whichever way the pendulum swing, Ghana will always win.
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Nana Konadu Is NDC Presidential Candidate In 2016