Rawlingses hit road for 2012

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 flag-bearership position of the NDP.


Her husband, report 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 ground and to strategies 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 chiefs and people of the area and was given a rousing welcome.

According to Andy Owusu, initial attempt to get the Prempeh Assembly Hall proved futile since they were frustrated by the authorities in charge.


They were compelled by circumstances 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 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, the 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 flag bearer.


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.