Rawlings will oppose NDC ticket if Prof. Botchwey is running mate – Adom-Otchere

Paul Adom-Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana says Prof. Kwesi Botchwey’s likely nomination as John Dramani Mahama's running mate will not please the founder of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) because of some fractious relationship between Rawlings and Botchwey.

According to Adom-Otchere, if John Mahama selects someone that will get the blessing of Rawlings, then the former Finance Minister should not be his option else Rawlings - as Chairman for the party’s Council of Elders - will oppose it.

“Those who think that you need to have a candidate Mr Rawlings likes, they think that Kwesi Botchwey is not the one...if you go and have Kwesi Botchwey as the running mate, you will have a situation where JJ is going to speak against the ticket and when he speaks against the ticket, something happens,” Adom-Otchere said in his editorial on Metro TV.

Adom-Otchere believes that Rawlings’s dislike of Prof. Botchwey is in the history of the NDC, when the so-called 'Fante Confederacy', a clique within the party, is alleged to have united against the founder without giving him [Rawlings] the needed respect.

He said, if the leadership of the NDC still wants to be in the good books of the former President, then Prof. Botchwey is not the obvious choice.

Adom-Otchere averred that the Fante Confederacy feels that the NDC does not really need Rawlings.

He said: "And they demonstrated it when they took power under Professor Mills, they put Mr. Rawlings as far back as they could and he [Rawlings] was upset so during the period Prof. Mills was the president, periodically he [Rawlings] will say something against Prof Mills’ administration.’

He continued: “The so-called Fante confederacy who took real power under the Mills administration and were running the show, their school of thought is that forget about Rawlings; he has nothing to offer the NDC, his popularity is gone and they suppose the so-called mythical popularity of JJ Rawlings was created by them [Fante confederacy], their teams and theories that they used in the media in the olden days...they actually believe that JJ owes his popularity to their intelligence".