I am not against Mills - Obed Asamoah

Former Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who was compelled by bitter circumstances to leave the party, Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, says he has no hard feelings toward President John Evans Atta Mills.

According to him, he has nothing personal against the President for him to ridicule his credentials.

“I am not against Professor. I’m only saying that Konadu is also entitled to be a flagbearer if she wants to,” he told DAILY GUIDE on Thursday.

Dr Asamoah, who is also part of the founders of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), a breakaway party from the NDC said, “I am not ridiculing the credentials of President Atta Mills with regard to him leading the NDC for a second term. That’s not the intent.”

The veteran politician, who is on record to have been the country’s longest-serving Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs, under the Jerry Rawlings regimes, said what he meant to say was that Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings had contributed more to the development of the NDC as a party than President Mills and therefore could easily run for the position of a flagbearer.

He thus indicated that “I can’t be rooting for Konadu…in the normal cause of things, I couldn’t be rooting for her. All I was saying is that she is entitled in terms of her contributions to the party. She is even more entitled to be a flagbearer than Mills.”

In an interview he granted Adom FM’s ‘Adwaso Nsem’ morning show, Dr. Asamoah indicated that Mrs. Rawlings’s role in the country’s politics and the development of the NDC remained unquestionable since she had been crucial to the sustenance of the party up till date.

The veteran politician however declined to make any categorical statement on whether or not the former first lady would defeat the sitting president when the party goes to congress to elect a flagbearer next year.

This, he said, was because Nana Konadu had not formally made clear her intentions to run for the position, except for the speculations in the media.

He recalled how Prof. Mills tried strenuously to convince him that he was not chosen as his running mate for the year 2000 general elections because he (Obed) is his former lecturer.

As a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Obed said he worked under Prof. Mills, then the Vice President, and had very good relations with him, and that he would have seen nothing wrong working under him as Vice President.

According to him, after Martin Amidu was chosen to partner Prof. Mills, there were a number of agitations within the party as to why either he or Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu was not chosen.

This, he said, compelled Mr. Rawlings to invite him to his office and told him (Obed) that he actually asked Prof. Mills to settle on him but Mills refused.