Rawlings is no longer a force in the NDC - Obimpeh

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Yaw Owusu Obimpeh, has dropped a bombshell, saying that former President Jerry John Rawlings is no more a force to reckon with in Ghanaian politics.

According to the NDC chairman, the days that the party founder and his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings were the toast of the Ghanaian electorate were gone forever, insisting President Mills was now more popular than Mr. Rawlings.

Mr Obimpeh therefore warned the party’s constituency executives against voting for Nana Konadu in the upcoming congress since she would send the NDC to opposition.

The NDC chairman was addressing party executives from all the 39 constituencies in the Ashanti region at a meeting held at the Salisburg Hotel in Kumasi last Thursday.

He had earlier attended the Peduase Lodge meeting with President Mills where pro-Nana Konadu members of the NDC executives were excluded.

Some NDC executives that graced the Kumasi meeting, who perhaps did not agree with Mr. Obimpeh, questioned the basis of his submission.

When Daily Guide contacted Mr. Obimpeh, he said, “The meeting took place and it was a family affair.

“This meeting has nothing to do with Daily Guide, my brother, you can go ahead and write whatever those that attended the meeting have told you,” he retorted and banged the phone.

Mr. Obimpeh earlier said the meeting was to enable the party to introduce the newly-appointed Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu, to the party functionaries.

But Daily Guide has been informed that the hurriedly-convened meeting was in response to the Nana Konadu's boys’ visit to the Ashanti region where they had a series of meetings with party faithfuls.

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Deputy Local Government Minister and some selected regional executives of the ruling party were said to be at the highly-attended meeting.

On his part, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu, reportedly told the NDC executives that whether they liked it or not, President Mills would be Ghana’s president for eight years and he would be succeeded by Vice President John Dramani Mahama who would also be president for eight years.

This particular comment from the minister did not go down well with the majority of the participants who are Nana Konadu’s loyalists so they greeted his comments with shouts and jeers.

It took the timely intervention of Alhaji Sanni Jnr., Ashanti Regional Organizer of NDC, before order could be restored.

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah was said to have accused Mr. Rawlings of not helping the NDC members who toiled for the party in terms of appointments when he was the president of the country.

Unlike Mr. Rawlings, he noted, President Mills had appointed NDC members and was more committed to the welfare of the party’s functionaries so the NDC executives should not listen to lies being peddled against the president.