Credible information reaching Daily Guide has it that Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings will officially declare her intention to contest the forthcoming presidential primary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kumasi on June 4, 2011.
She will be competing against President Mills who declared his intention 18 months ago.
The President of the 31st December Women’s Movement (DWM), according to information gathered by Daily Guide, would use the occasion of this year’s June 4 celebration, which would be held in the Garden City, to formally announce her intention to contest President Mills in the party’s upcoming presidential congress.
A leading member of the Movement for Konadu 2012, who disclosed this to Daily Guide in an interview in Kumasi, said the former first lady would first of all launch an NDC Zongo Women’s group who had declared their support for her candidature on June 3, before the grand occasion the next day. Henry Oware, who was present at St Patrick Hotel at Aboabo, a suburb of Kumasi, last Saturday during a press conference held by the NDC Zongo Women for Konadu 2012, noted that former President Jerry John Rawlings would attend the two occasions.
The press conference had a flying banner, ‘Zongo Women for Nana Konadu 2012’, with the motto, ‘Woman Can Do’.
Oware told Daily Guide that after the heated debate surrounding the candidature of Nana Konadu, the time was ripe for her to officially come public with her intention, to settle the dust. For Nana Konadu, after informing the Council of Elders of the NDC, all is clear for her to publicly announce her candidature.
To Oware, the best time for the former first lady to spill the bean would be the commemoration of the 32nd anniversary of the June 4 uprising which propelled her husband to the country’s political limelight in 1979.
The Movement for Konadu 2012 leading member indicated that the grounds had been prepared for an eventful ceremony and that supporters of the former first lady would swing into action to canvass for votes after the declaration.
He noted that leading members of the ruling party as well as notable functionaries of the government would be in attendance to witness what promises to be a grand occasion in the Ashanti region, home region of the former first lady.
Former president Rawlings and his wife were noticeably absent from President Mills’s State of the Nation address in Parliament last Thursday.
It would be recalled that the intention of Nana Konadu to contest the NDC presidential primary was first made known when a group calling itself Movement for Konadu 2012 stormed the Northern regional capital of Tamale during the celebration of the 31st anniversary of the June 4 upheaval with banners and ‘T’ shirts, calling on the ex-first lady to avail herself of the position.
This action continued with the outdooring of posters bearing the photographs of the former first lady as an aspiring NDC presidential candidate which was splashed in major towns across the country, particularly in Kumasi, Accra and Takoradi.
Since then, leading members of the group have been vociferous on radio and in newspapers, championing the cause of the wife of former President Rawlings, whilst splinter groups with the same mission have also sprung up.
A controversy was sparked a couple of weeks ago when news broke that the former first lady, in a meeting with the Council of Elders of the party, shockingly announced that she was prepared to contest President Mills in the upcoming presidential primary.
Leading members of the ruling party, in their bid to embark on a journey of damage control, tried their best to undermine the publication which appeared in the DAILY GUIDE, but the myth surrounding the matter would be put to rest when the former first lady officially announces her intention on June 4.
Meanwhile, some NDC foot-soldiers have launched a campaign to support the candidature of President Mills and his Vice, John Mahama to lead the party in election 2012.
NDC activists were spotted in T-Shirts with the inscription “John and John for 2012”, with the portraits of President Mills and his Vice embossed on them, in readiness to challenge Nana Konadu for the 2012 flagbearship of the NDC.
The activists, according to reports monitored on Citi FM, appeared to have been well-organized.
Responding to the development, aide to President Mills, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, said 2011 has been declared an action year and the posture of the activists portrays their readiness to support President Mills for a second term.
“We are in an action year so they are telling the President that they are ready for him…the (all die be die) statements they (NPP) made has turned round to encourage our supporters to come out and that is what we are seeing”.