Even before Ghana’s main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) moves to form a committee to work out the modalities for nominations and elections for its upcoming November Congress to elect a flagbearer, it has to content with what one of the party’s executive call “possible bad news.”
News emerging from within the family of former vice-president, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, the NDC’s main hope for the next presidential race suggest that the law professor may not run after all.
A report carried by “The Independent” a private newspaper indicates that, “family members are said to be putting pressure on the former vice-president not to run.”
“Underground investigations at Professor Mills’ Manet Estate Residence in Accra have revealed that family members of the former NDC flagbearer are upbeat in their determination to stop him from contesting the forthcoming NDC primaries.”
Ironically, at the party headquarters, Professor Mills still remains an icon and is being touted as the most treasured NDC card for the 2004 elections.
The paper says when its reporter told one NDC party executive that the wider Mills family was not in favour of a Mills candidacy, he went dumbfounded, momentarily, then in a gust of hysteria wondered if those Mills family members knew the kind of situation they are trying to push the NDC into.
“I think I have to make this piece of news known to the party hierarchy so that we include it in the agenda for our next meeting where modalities for those who wish to vie for the party’s presidential candidacy will all be sorted out,” the executive said.
A source close to the Mills family cited the dirty politicking that preceded the recently held National Delegates’ Congress of the NDC as one of the reasons why the family is apprehensive about their son coming down to contest the primaries.”
The upcoming primaries, the family believes, cannot be any different from what was witnessed in April, when the party elected its current national executives, the family source reportedly told the newspaper.
A Mills’ aide also disclosed that family members were also not happy about the way their son’s (Professor Mills’) domestic life became so topical, that his poor teenage boy became the subject of public scrutiny.
“Even before the 2000 elections, Mills’ family men, according to the aide, swore never to allow their son to be in politics for a long time, and although they assured him (Professor Mills) of their support if he had won the presidential election, the family said they would have advised him to step down after his first tenure,” the aide said.
Family members are equally not happy about the manner the current government treated Professor Mills in the saga of the End-of-Service-Benefits. It would be recalled that security agencies invaded the former vice-president’s home at Sakumono sometime this year to retrieve cars that were said to be allocated wrongly to the Millses.
Professor Mills, in a strongly worded protest to president Kufuor, expressed disgust at the manner in which his wife and his entire household were manhandled in the operation.
Accordingly, the government apologized to the former vice-president and his wife.
Another concern expressed by the Mills family as reported by the paper, is the reported moves being made by the former first lady with the perceived support of his husband to vie for the presidential slot of the NDC. “With rumours rife that Nana Konadu is likely to stand at the primaries, we are humbly urging Professor Mills to reconsider any plans he has for contesting the upcoming NDC primaries.”
However, pro-Mills elements in the NDC are said to be fuming with rage over the stance adopted by the Mills family.
Like most NDC faithfuls who still believe Professor Mills is the best card for the NDC in the 2004 elections these supporters, who were also the main architects of the Mills campaign in the 2000 elections, have sworn to bring down the former law lecturer who is currently in a Canadian University as a visiting scholar to contest the primaries.
Delegates amongst the group have threatened to boycott the November primaries should Professor Mills heed the advice of his family members and stay out of the contest.
About four years ago, a de facto executive fiat by former president Rawlings endorsing Professor Mills, then his vice-president as his successor, formed the basis for subsequent endorsement by consensus of the law professor as the presidential candidate of the NDC for the December 2000 elections.
“Today The Independent can confirm that the terrain is not as smooth sailing for the former vice-president as it was four years ago. The equation has changed drastically.”
On June 4, 1998, the former president in his infamous “Swedru declaration” chose his then deputy as his heir-apparent, without recourse to NDC’s laid down regulations on choosing a presidential candidate, starring him off on a roller-coaster ride to the NDC’s flagbearership.
