I had no hand in the appointment of women during the PNDC administration – Nana Konadu

Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings says she had no hand in the appointment of women under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), contrary to what Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi wrote in his book, ‘Working with Rawlings'.

According to her, nobody asked for her opinion nor had conversations with the appointing authority before women got appointed.

“The women who were appointed by the PNDC, I had no hand in it at all. Nobody asked for my opinion, nobody talked to me about it, so I had nothing to do with it,” she told Nana Yaa Mensah on Sunday Night on Asaase Radio broadcast on Sunday, September 27.

Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi had said in his book “Working with Rawlings” that Nana Konadu had a hand in some of the women who were appointed as ministers under her husband’s PNDC regime.

The former first lady, however, explained that she knew a couple of the women before they were appointed as PNDC "secretaries", a term previously used in Ghana for ministers.

She indicated that the women who were interested in the 31st December Women’s Movement wanted the movement as a “women’s wing to something”.

Nana Konadu recalled that she arose to the leadership of the 31st December Women’s Movement after she was persuaded by one Mrs Obinim to take the leadership role else none of them would join.

She added that even before the leadership front of the 31st December Women’s Movement could be formidable, there were coup attempts which made the country unstable and even within the PNDC, some of the members were not happy about how things were going.

“With the first crop of women I was dealing with, most of them had their husbands or boyfriends with the group that had their problems with the PNDC. So, as they [the men] exited [the PNDC], they exited with the ladies as well. Only Mrs Obinim, Cynthia Nuamah, myself and Mrs Zacharia Ali remained in the 31st December Women’s Movement,” she added.

The 31st December Women's Movement was at one stage during the Rawlings administration described by the group's leadership as a political NGO.