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At the time leading members
of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) were jubilating over a
supposed endorsement of President John Mahama by former President Jerry
John Rawlings, the wife of the NDC founder,...
...Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, was busy meeting members of the newly
formed National Democratic Party (NDP) in Kumasi.
Mrs. Rawlings arrived in the Ashanti regional capital on Sunday, hours
after leaving the Legends and Legacy Ball held at the International
Conference Centre on Saturday evening where she dropped hints of her
intentions to run for the flagbearership position of the NDP.
Her husband, reports said, was also on his way to the Ashanti Region to
throw his weight behind his wife who has been tipped by the leadership
of the new party to lead them for the December 2012 polls.
Mr Rawlings is worried about the growing corruption in the ruling
government.
According to him, the practice was so deep that it had literally held
the resources of the country to ransom by a handful of people while the
majority of the people suffered.
“The corruption that is going on is so deep. Some aspects of these
corruptions are literally holding your national resources to ransom by
just a handful of people. I’m not here to poison your minds at all,” he
told Volta chiefs at a meeting in Ho on Wednesday.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE and corroborated by the NDP youth
leader in the Ashanti Region, Thomas Andy Owusu, indicated that upon
arrival in Kumasi, Mrs. Rawlings first met interim executives of the
NDP in the region at an undisclosed location.
That, according to the source, was to enable her to know at firsthand
the level of progress that had been made on the grounds and to
strategise for the way forward.
Among the several places she visited were Mampong, Ejisu Juaben,
Effiduase and Kumawu where she met members of the party.
The NDC breakaway party is said to have opened offices across the
region considered the heartbeat of the opposition New Patriotic Party
(NPP).
Everywhere she went, she was said to have gone to greet the chiefs and
people of the area and was given a rousing welcome.
According to Andy Owusu, initial attempts to get the Prempeh Assembly
Hall proved futile since they were frustrated by the authorities in
charge.
They were compelled by circumstance to rent the SSNIT Hall where Mrs.
Rawlings addressed party faithful in the region.
Owusu indicated that what was scheduled to be a meeting between Mrs.
Rawlings, who is also the president of the 31st December Women’s
Movement (DWM), and party executives virtually turned into a rally of a
sort since supporters of the NDP besieged the SSNIT Hall where the
event was taking place.
The hall, which is estimated to have a seating capacity of about 300,
was said to have been filled to capacity to the extent that Mrs.
Rawlings had to struggle for passage to the rostrum in order to address
the gathering.
Coming Events
Nana Konadu was said to have told the gathering that at the time she
was talking, her husband, the founder of the ruling NDC, was also in
the Volta Region organising people to join the NDP and that when she
left Kumasi, Mr. Rawlings would also visit the region in the coming
days to assess things for himself.
An obviously elated Nana Konadu was said to have promised them that the
NDP would be launched in Kumasi since she was stunned by the structures
the party executives had put in place.
Meanwhile, Operations Director of the Friends of Nana Konadu
Agyeman-Rawlings (FONKAR) Ernest Owusu Bempah has dismissed claims that
Mr. Rawlings had endorsed President John Mahama.
The loud-mouth FONKAR chief, who spoke to myjoyonline, said the ‘old
man’ had not changed his perception about the ruling administration
hence he could not have endorsed the NDC flagbearer.
The spokesman for Mr Rawlings, Kofi Adams, who also spoke on the
subject, indicated that though President Mahama had brought a new lease
of life into the ruling NDC, Mr. Rawlings was yet to decide whether or
not to join its campaign.
Mr Adams told Joy FM that it was only the campaign team of the
president that could persuade his boss to join the campaign trail.
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