Konadu’s Shameful Defeat

Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings

Can Rawlings campaign for Mills?

Nkrumaist Mills expected to do more for Nkrumah

Two weeks after the most degrading, discreditable and disgraceful defeat of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings in the NDC flagbearership elections conducted at Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo region, discussions on this undignifying and most ungainly challenge to the victorious incumbent President Fiifi Atta Mills continue to dominate the airwaves.  And her pre- elections slogan- ‘Be Bold’- has been given a funny post-elections graffiti, ‘be base’ to cast slur on her reckless attempt to boot out President Mills whose gentle governance system is loved by the NDC rank and file as opposed to the ‘buga-buga’ military and brutal administration of her husband J.J. Rawlings .

The NDC electorate has voted to undercut her bloated charisma as a one-time ‘first lady’, giving her only a 3.1 percent shameful reward for her controversial attempt, whilst overwhelmingly and rather melodramatically endorsing the flagbearership overture of incumbent President Atta Mills, with 96.9 percent votes.

The massive rejection of Nana Konadu as a flagbearer tells a big story: It, first of all, underestimates and condemns her bid to unfairly kick out the current NDC leader Atta Mills, thus prematurely terminating his stance to freely continue to vie to become the next President in the 2012 elections so to continue his development programmes.  Her very attempt to challenge incumbent President Atta Mills was itself most unfair, since her husband J.J Rawlings was not challenged by any NDC member, even though he was continuing his military-style imperiousness and dictatorship which destroyed the educational system and the economic infrastructure of the nation.  Was Rawlings not encouraging the notorious shift system which cut down learning hours in the basic school?   Had he not introduced nonsensical JSS and SSS systems with ineffective syllabuses that made student become half-bred graduates.  Why was it that the 3-year university education for the SSS graduates was extended to a 4-year system?  Most people knew that under Rawlings’s administration, educational levels had become low.

In the economic realm, why was it that the successor, President J. A Kufuor, found it wise to introduce HIPIC nostrum by which the nation’s many debts incurred by Rawlings were forgiven by Western donors, a devise that made available several millions of cedis for our infrastructural development.  The NDC members were equally hit by, to say the least, the educational and economic malaise engendered by the Rawlings administration, yet they considered it prudent to give him another term so to use his incumbency advantages to successfully fight for the Presidency.  In other words, just as Rawlings remained unchallenged in his first term, and Kufuor similarly was not challenged, thus establishing a tradition of ‘administrative faith’ in the incumbent President, was it fair for Nana Konadu, a former first lady in the same NDC, to destroy the ‘faith tradition’ and engage in political fisticuffs with an incumbent President, who everybody knows is doing far better than her husband Rawlings?  Certainly, her proffer to challenge Atta Mills was uncalled-for and a condemnable assertion of her so-called democratic rights?  Did that mean party members of Rawlings’s and Kufuor’s times had no democratic rights to assert?  That is why Nana Konadu’s bid can be counted as blatantly awkward and humorously quixotic!  The NDC electorate voted to underrate and disapprove of such quixotry!

DYNASTY

Secondly, the massive rejection of Nana Konadu was meant to tell her that the dynastic system as obtained in Ghana kingship cannot be translated into modern democratic politics where a former President’s wife should vie to become a President of the nation to be ruled by the behind-the-scenes dictates of the same retired President.  Such a consideration might be different if the former President was dead.  Even then, what might count for consideration would be that former President’s kindly and non-brutalising attitude; but where that President could best be described as a military dictator, just as Rawlings was, one cannot expect Ghanaians to accept his wife or even a child as a successor.  Never! Watch out that if again Nana Konadu attempts to be a flagbearer in future she will still not win, because the NDC will not elect a dictator’s wife who only will be rejected by the Ghanaian electorate; for such a wife is definitely a potential flop in national elections.

If Nana Konadu knows a trifling of political psychology, she won’t waste her time, energy and money to campaign to be a flagbearer.  If she is ‘bold’ to challenge this psychological principle, let her offer herself again next time, and Spio Garbrah or any other person will beat her to it, and she will then know that people have ‘chopped’ her money freely again!  Ghanaians in our modern democracy are so shrewd as to reject any dynastic overtures of a milito-political dictator!

ALLEGATIONS

Thirdly, Nana Konadu’s  3.1 percent melancholic votes should tell her and her husband Rawlings that the NDC members consider all the incompetency and mismanagement allegations leveled against President Atta Mills as unwholesome , fiendish, false and dissatisfying.  The NDC electorate and members and several sections of the Ghanaian community see and know that President Atta Mills is doing a good job-seriously engaged in infrastructural development of the nation, and TV screens showcase all these, as well as radio talks and press news; whilst revamping our educational system, as school feeding continues to be practised, and additional school uniforms are provided in poor areas.  But those of us who are educationists still vouch for a 4-year SHS and not a 3-year system.

Our economy is not doing badly, even though more needs to be done to control the rising of food and fish prices and to raise general standard of living.  But the overall picture of our economy is one that shows resilience and prosperity, and these are bound to improve within the one-and-a-half years of President Atta Mills’s first 4-year term.

Fact is that the Rawlingses’ allegations that Atta Mills is slow and not managing things well, and that he has surrounded himself with fawning, incompetent, and money-grabbing ‘bastards’ who are destroying the economy, and that he is a Yutong bus driver who is steering the vehicle into a ditch, and so on, are not accepted by the NDC electorate as true.

If these were true, they could have instigated the voters to thumb against Atta Mills.  But the 96.9 percent grabbed by Atta Mills should tell the Rawlingses that all their manouevres to oust Atta Mills for Nana Konadu to replace him were known by the NDC electorate who consider the incumbent President as a good, gentle, knowledgeable and competent ruler.

The electorate is not made up of small boys and girls to be deceived by some selfish interests who appear to be deprived of honesty, truth and good sense!  The Rawlingses must sit down and brood over their shameful deeds actuated by selfishness and greed, and then repent; otherwise they will continue to indulge in more politically evil acts which will land them in inexpungible disgrace!  Of course, the Rawlingses’ main aim was for them to take absolute control over NDC affairs which could be directed authoritatively by them, preventing Mill’s leadership from praising Dr Kwame Nkrumah or doing things to keep Nkrumah’s memory alive.

NKRUMAH CIRCLE

It’s rather strange that Nana Konadu no longer counts herself as an Nkrumaist, since their whole family, led by Mr Agyemang (her father) was a die-hard Nkrumaist.  Mr Agyeman was the Managing Director of the nation’s very big store, GNTC; and on 17^th January 1966, I was there at the Flagstaff House, when Dr Nkrumah praised the competency of Mr Agyeman and pencilled his name to be a Minister of Trade in an upcoming Ministerial reshuffle to be done on March 9th, 1966.  One wonders why Nana Konadu can’t lecture Rawlings into accepting what Atta Mils is doing for Nkrumah, but rather helps him to envy all that to the extent of planning to oust Atta Mills in order to bury Nkrumah’s name!  Well, if Rawlings announces that he is not an Nkrumaist, and Nana Konadu makes a face-saving remark that Rawlings is more Nkrumaist than can be seen, then what do you say to this contradiction?

The conflict between Atta Mills and Rawlings has only two basic ingredients.  One, Rawlings sees Atta Mills as not willing to be dictated to in matters affecting his current governance style which is essentially shaped by the Nkrumaism he studied at Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute, Winneba, and by his strong Christian principle of gentleness, probity and accountability, love of mankind and wishing to do good always.

Two, that Atta Mills is adoring Nkrumah too much, at his Rawlings’s expense, since he believes that as the one who supposedly brought him (Mills) into the political limelight, he deserves to have been the person after whom the Oil Ship at Takoradi should have been named; or at least, to have had his effigy on the GH¢2 notes- all as a sign of showing gratitude.  It takes political psychology to know these.

The question now is whether Rawlings can campaign for Atta Mills.  The answer is basically no.  Why?  What can Rawlings, after all, say in praise of Atta Mills whom he has publicly condemned to be an incompetent President?  If he retracts his statement, everybody will see him an ex-President with a double-edged tongue.  It really will be strange or preposterous for Rawlings to accompany Atta Mills in his Presidential campaigns.  But there are some double-crossers who are ‘bold’ not to feel ashamed of their double-tongue!  Let’s wait and see!  Lastly, Atta Mills is expected to do more for Nkrumah- develop Kwame Nkrumah Circle into a nice tourist sight and decorate it with Nkrumah’s statue.  Why are Danquah and Obetsebi Lamptey Circles decorated with their statues, but ironically, there is no Nkrumah statue at his circle?  What justice is that?  And what about developing Nkroful in Nzema, Nkrumah’s birthplace?  These should be Nkrumaist food for thought for Atta Mills.  Congrats, Fiifi, for winning the flagbearership elections.

By Apostle Ahinful