Posted: Daily Guide |Monday, 31 January 201
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Former First Lady and Vice Chairperson of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings leads the sitting President John Evans Atta Mills in the NDC 2012 flagbearership race by 10 percentage points, according to an online poll conducted by Peace FM, as the National Executive Committee of the party is set to hold a crucial meeting in what insiders say would define the direction of the party.
The online survey has currently registered 6,573 respondents. It began on the 2nd of January 2011 and is still on going.
But with 39.66%, Nana Konadu may still fall short of the desirable 'one touch', which will require 50%+ of the NDC party delegates' votes at this year’s national congress.
The online poll also appears to confirm the widely-held view of pundits that the contest is at most a three-man race, with Ekwow Spio-Garbrah scoring a decent 12.11%.
According to the poll, 2,607 respondents, representing 39.66 percent, would cast their ballot for the former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, while 1,941, representing 29.53%, would vote for her rival, President John Evans Atta Mills.
Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah, a National NDC Vice Chairman who in recent times has been very critical of the performance of the Mills-led NDC administration, obtained 791 votes, with the sitting Vice President, John Dramani Mahama, obtaining 583 votes, representing 8.87% of votes cast so far.
The Peace FM website posed the question: “Which Of These Personalities Would You Prefer Leads the NDC In 2012?”
It is however unclear whether any or some of the respondents are the delegates who have the franchise to vote in such an internal party election.
Sources close to the national headquarters of the party told DAILY GUIDE the meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday February 2, 2011, would set a date for the NDC’s flagbearership contest.
The NEC meeting will expectedly be attended by all key and influential members of the party including its founder, Former President Rawlings, and leader, President Mills. It is also expected to decide on how much candidates will pay as filing fee for the flagbearership and its parliamentary primaries.
Even as the party goes into this meeting, NDC activists including the likes of Mohammed Abdulai Mubarak and SaCut Amenga Etego, with known links to the Rawlingses, have expressed doubts about incumbent President Mills’ ability to deliver victory for the party in 2012 if he were to run again.
Ras Mubarak, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, argued that by 2012, Mills would have been 12 years as leader of the NDC and “it is time (for him) to leave the stage.
“Are we willing to take that road where in the future someone could also want to be leader of the party for 16years?” he asked rhetorically.
“I feel President Mills no longer has a strong enough political base in the NDC to justify his leading us into another contest. There is a disappearance of support for him and I trust he would do the right thing by not contesting.
The interest of the nation, then of the party, must always come before any other considerations. Therefore if he contests, it will be a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the future,” he noted.
For some time now, there have been calls within the ruling party for the former First Lady, Nana Konadu, to challenge President Mills, who has been described as failing to rise to the occasion.
“Mills can only take us back to opposition but he can’t kill the ideals of NDC,” were the comments of Ras, an avowed apostle of Mr. Rawlings.
To those who argue that Rawlings has led the country before and that his wife should not contest to become the party’s flagbearer, Ras said, "Rawlings is not on the ballot and it would be unfair and self-defeating for her opponents to blame her for someone else’s mistakes even if that person were her husband.”
He stressed that the argument which was invoked by Ben Ephson of the ‘Dispatch’ newspaper about Mrs. Rawlings was wrong, saying, “Yes Rawlings had ruled the nation before and it doesn’t disqualify his wife from running.”
Aside that, Ras Mubarak said, Mr. Ephson has not done any polling on Mrs. Rawlings and that if he has, “he should please let the public know the polls, timing and sample size and precise questions asked, then we can do a proper analysis.”
Furthermore, he said, “If a pollster doing a private poll is not willing to release information to allow people to make up their minds about the validity of the research, people should treat it or any commentary by Mr. Ben Ephson with caution.”
Ras Mubarak thus urged Mrs. Rawlings to heed the calls for her to run for the flagbearership position.
Nana Konadu’s T-shirts are already in circulation.
Though the former First Lady has not officially stated her intentions to contest the flagbearership position of the NDC, it is increasingly becoming clear that she is hell-bent on contesting incumbent President Mills who maybe seeking a second term for the position, barring any hitches.
The front of the t-shirt shows an all-smiling Nana Konadu in a sparkling gold ear-ring and necklace, spotting a neatly-woven Kente cloth in dark shades, with the bold inscription “I BELIEVE IN NANA KONADU.”
Behind it, is the famous insignia of the ruling party, the umbrella, with the inscription, “CHANGE REAL CHANGE!” in virtual ridicule of the type of change that President Mills has been administering.
Like Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, Konadu’s boys, led by SaCut, have resorted to the use of the social networking platform, ‘Facebook’ to champion the cause of the former First Lady with samples of these t-shirts posted on their walls.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu