Yesterday some newspapers reported that plans were far advanced to ensure that the wife of former President Jerry John Rawlings, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, runs as the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress in 2012.
According to the newspapers, which reported on the story, at the recent organised June 4 uprising celebration in Tamale, banners with embossed pictures of Mrs Rawlings with the inscription: Nana Konadu 2012, were shown to party members who are sympathetic to Mr Rawlings, who is the sole founder and patron of the NDC party.
It must be made clear that Today is not against Mrs Rawlings running as the presidential candidate of the NDC. As a loyal member of the NDC whose intellect cannot be questioned Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has the right to contest the flagbearership position of her party. For after all Ghana has had no female president and it will be quiet a historic moment if one day we will have a woman as the president of this country.
However, the paper is worried at current developments in the ruling NDC party. Our worry is premised on the grounds that ‘owners’ of the NDC are this time around out to take over the dominion of what has and is their bonafide property – the NDC. It is an established fact that the founder of the NDC has been looking for an opportunity to teach party members within the Mills camp who have pitched camps against him a lesson.
Ever since President Mills assumed the mantle of government business, former President Rawlings has not stopped short of making some very harsh criticisms of the Mills administration. And the recent June 4 celebration in Tamale was one of such platforms where the former president lashed out once again at President Mills.
It is against this backdrop that we foresee the Swedru declaration of Professor John Evans Atta Mills replicating itself. Today recalls that in the year 2000, Mr Rawlings unilaterally endorsed the candidature of Professor Mills as the presidential candidate of the NDC. In fact, that single action by the former president did not go down well with many NDC members.
Political parties in this country must do things that will further enhance and strengthen our nascent democracy; but not things that are and will be inimical to good governance. In our view we think the Swedru declaration was not the best and must not be repeated. It is undemocratic for one person regardless of his/her influence in a political tradition to try and impose candidate or candidates on members.
Currently, what is happening within the NDC is nothing short of an attempt by the party’s founder to take over his party. We think that if that is the intention of Mr Rawlings then it will not augur well for the NDC as a political party, and for that matter has the tendency to affect our democratic dispensation.
It is for this reason that the paper is seizing this opportunity to urge former President Rawlings to ensure that his wife goes through the electoral process of the party. It is only through the NDC presidential primary will the delegates be well informed to choose the right candidate to become the party’s flag bearer. And that if it is the wish of NDC delegates to have Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings lead the party in 2012, clearly it shall be known.
From the way things appear it will not be in interest of the NDC should the party become a one-man show where what he wills and decides cannot be questioned. Such a situation would not be healthy for the NDC as a political party and neither would it help grow our fledgling democracy.
