Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 15 June 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
There seems to be a massive endorsement for the candidature of former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings for the flag-bearership of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Latest to join the series of endorsements is a senior political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kwasi Amakye.
Mr. Amakye joins people like the Danquah Institute’s Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, who disagrees with those who argue that Konadu would be a disaster, since according to him, “she is arguably the most politically exposed and politically experienced Ghanaian female around.”
In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, Mr. Amakye said “generally speaking, there is nothing wrong with any Ghanaian who thinks that he or she is a Presidential material and for that matter has the capacity to help turn Ghana’s fortunes around.”
Although Mrs. Rawlings has so far not openly stated her intentions to run for the position, except for the speculations and people rooting for her, he said “it is commendable, there is nothing wrong with it at all.”
Mr. Amakye said he has every reason to believe that she has the capacity to play that role.
For him, the issue as to whether she would be an effective political leader is a different matter altogether, considering the fact that it’s a different ball game running an institution or organization, and administering a country of well over 23 million people with various political beliefs and ideologies.
According to the KNUST don, he has a problem with how the whole episode is being played out in public “because she is in a political organization which interestingly is in government.”
This, he said was because the NDC has a sitting President who has barely served half of his term of office.
Aside that, he said the party’s constitution does not allow individuals and group of persons to throw in their bid when it has not opened the process for people to file their nominations for vacant positions.
According to him, such an open declaration of intention would not be proper, stressing that it would undermine the sitting President and violate the party’s own constitution.
Mr. Amakye thus appreciates the fact that the former First Lady has not personally committed herself to any such thing, apart from the speculations about her intentions.
Other than that, the political science lecturer said it would not only have been undemocratic, but also inappropriate on her part, since that would be tantamount to undermining the very foundations of the institution she may be seeking to lead.
For this reason, he said such things should not be encouraged in any political party, emphasizing “it in a way represents lawlessness, and that is definitely not to be tolerated.”
He therefore noted that it is good that the NDC as a party has had cause to state its position on the subject, asking every member of the party who nurses the ambition to contest for any position to respect its constitution.
Having been an active First Lady for 19 years and running a women's movement (31st December Women's Movement), which at one time boasted of a two-million membership nationwide, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko described Mrs. Rawlings’ mobilisation prowess as legendary.
With these and other credentials, he is convinced that Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings is more than qualified to lead the NDC, and the country.