Today In History: Abrekyire Ba Kofi Sammy recounts how Nana Konadu stopped him from smoking with Rawlings

On March 8, 2020, GHanaWeb reported that Abrekyire Ba Kofi Sammy, a Ghanaian highlife legend, in an interview with Kofi TV revealed how Nana Konadu disapproved of his friendship with Rawlings.

According to the artiste, he was fond of smoking weed with the late president whenever he visited the first family's home.

Read the full story originally published on March 8, 2020, by ghanaweb.com.

Ghanaian highlife legend Abrekyire Ba Kofi Sammy has disclosed how his close relationship with former President Jerry John Rawlings stalled.

He told Kofi TV in a report monitored by GhanaWeb that Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, the wife of the late former President, had reservations about the two smoking weed together anytime he visited the first family at home.

“Rawlings knows this house, we sat here and smoked before. But his wife made me stay away from him. Anytime I go to the house she will say ‘the weed smokers are here, don’t come and smoke weed here.’ I didn’t want to be disrespected by a small girl so I stopped going to the house,” he stated.

The musician detailed further that his relationship with President Rawlings further deteriorated after he decided during his stay in Nigeria to support the campaign of Albert Adu Boahen, the first NPP Presidential candidate, who contested Rawlings in the 1991 Presidential election.

He added that together with the Legendary Fela Kuti, they staged a huge concert to raise funds for Adu Boahen’s campaign and due to the free range smoking that was taking place during the show, Adu Boahen decided to leave the venue on the night.

“I told him we want to organize a show, invite all the Ghanaians here and raise funds for you. We organized the dance and sold tickets for 10 naira, a lot of people attended but he couldn’t stay for long because of the heavy smoking taking place at the venue. He said he had hypertension and couldn’t stay in the smoke,” Abrekyire Ba further disclosed. “I was even yet to mount the stage when he left, but we gave him all the proceeds the next day.”

Owing to his support for Adu Boahen, Kofi Sammy revealed that he was told to stay away from Rawlings, and it was not until he met Mrs Rawlings at a funeral that he got to realise that the former President was not holding any grudges against him.

“I met Mrs Rawlings at a funeral who questioned me why I had not been visiting and I told her I received a message that I am not welcome in your house. But she said my brother had been asking of me. What that meant was that Ampadu was jealous of my relationship with Rawlings so when I stopped going there, he went there together with CK Mann to backbite me,” Abrekyire Ba said.

ADA/BB