Mr and Mrs Rawlings “disagree” over NDC flagbearer

There is trouble on the Ridge. The former President and his wife, the former First Lady are being torn apart but by politics. It is all about who leads their party, the National Democratic Congress for the 2008 general elections. And, the otherwise very tight couple are miles apart on this crucial issue. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings is putting her support behind Eddie Annan, the business tycoon. But her husband does not share this flirtation. Jerry John Rawlings wants Ekow Spio-Garbrah, the Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation and a former Minister of Education, as presidential candidate.

His wife is not for Mr Spio-Garbrah. But, she is astute enough to know that Mr Annan is several furlongs behind the clear favourite, John Evans Atta-Mills. The catch is, the businessman is the only one of the prospective candidates who would not mind picking her as running mate.

Mr Rawlings has lost confidence in his former Vice President, but he knows it would be most unwise to come out boldly against the NDC favourite. This is because, even though Prof Mills rode on the core support base of the former President in the NDC to win the party’s nomination in 2000 and also in 2004, the former law lecturer has now established his own sizeable support base and so is likely to win even with the expressed opposition from Mr Rawlings. Indeed, a well-publicised discord between Messrs Rawlings and Mills would do no harm to the reputation and image of the latter, who struggled in the past to assert himself as being his own man.

But the opposition Prof Mills is expected to face from his former boss will be mild compared to that from Mrs Rawlings. The lady intensely loathes the man, at least as NDC leader. Like her husband, she feels Prof Mills is weak and lacks the political savvy, charisma and punching power to send the New Patriotic Party back to the canvass of opposition. And, she is doing everything she can, using her financial and political influence, to deny Prof Mills a fourth go at the Presidency. He lost in December 7 and December 28 2000, and again in December 7, 2004 to the same NPP candidate, John Agyekum Kufuor.

But, Rawlings is not that gun-ho about his opposition to a Prof Mills candidacy. He calculates that to go boldly against the party favourite and lose would only undermine his already troubled influence as founder of the party. Already, Asiedu Nketia and his chairman are discreetly but relentlessly scheming to see that influence cut down to size. The argument goes: to cut Mr Rawlings down to size would mean cutting renegade former Chairman Obed Yao Asamoah and his Democratic Freedom Party down to size, too. This is because the DFP was created as a political expression of freedom from the ‘chains’ of the NDC founder, Mr Rawlings.

There is little chance of a compromise at the Ridge residence of the former first couple over who leads the NDC. Mr Rawlings does not appear ready to throw his weight behind Mr Annan. His wife is never going to change her negative impression of Prof Mills, it seems.

The only palpable compromise is for the couple to settle on Mr Spio-Garbrah. But would the Rawlingses factor be able to swing votes from Mills to Spio? Nominations for the flagbearership of the NDC opens next month, with the congress to nominate the next leader expected late November or early December. Prof Mills, who is said to be recovering from a very mild stroke, is still the man to beat. A fact very much observable to Ridge.

Curtailing future electoral violence