A leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ashanti region, Ishmael Butler, has stated that people who hold the view that Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings is not a force to reckon with are deceiving themselves.
The chairman of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Finance and Administration committee contended that “Nana Konadu is not only a big player in the NDC but also has a huge constituency in the party.”
Speaking on Angel Fm’s morning show programme hosted by Kwame Adinkra on Thursday, Nana Butler, as he is affectionately called, said those disregarding Nana Konadu’s sway in the ruling party would laugh at the wrong side of their mouths.
Nana Butler made these striking remarks when he commented on a publication in the Thursday edition of the DAILY GUIDE which suggested that the former first lady had finally told the elders of the party in a meeting that she wanted to contest President Mills in the party’s forthcoming presidential primaries.
He explained that 44 percent of the total votes in the country recorded by the ruling party in elections since 2000 is ample evidence that the longest serving first lady in the country’s political history is a top guru of the party.
According to him, most of the electorate, who have been voting for the NDC in elections since the inception of multi-party democracy in the country in 1992 do so primarily because of the love they have for the President of the 31st December Women’s Movement (DCM).
The two-time NDC parliamentary candidate for the Asokwa constituency in Kumasi disclosed that the ruling party was able to unseat the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2008 elections because of the immense contribution of the former first lady.
“Sometimes I get irritated when people, without critical analysis, say that Nana Konadu is a not factor in the NDC, have those people forgotten the fact the NDC survived because of the former first lady and her husband,” the NDC guru rhetorically asked.
The close pal of ex-President Rawlings stated that he will not comment on the merit and demerit of Nana Konadu’s candidature until the former first lady picks a form when nomination opens.
After several months of speculations to the effect that the wife of ex-President Rawlings was nurturing an ambition to contest in the party’s upcoming presidential primaries, information available indicates that the ex-first lady finally declared her intention to elders of the party during a meeting.
It all started when a group calling itself ‘Movement for Nana Konadu’ stormed Tamale during the party’s national delegates’ congress with banners and ‘T’ shirts and called on the former first lady to contest in the party’s upcoming presidential primaries.
Afterwards, the group clandestinely pasted the posters of the former first lady in some regional capitals including Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi, urging her to avail herself for the contest, which according to many political pundits, will be a make or break for the ruling party.
In the midst of the hullaballoo that was generated after the outdooring of the posters, the group disclosed that even if the former first lady ignores their call, they will force her to heed their call.