Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings
If there is any former First Lady of Ghana who has passed through fire and brimstone, she is Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.
During the bloody revolutionary days when the going was tough and the tough kept going, she was among the tough.
When men run to hide under their beds at the sound of the gunfire, she kept her head high and supported her husband in times of difficulties.
She was unwavering, strong and hardworking. Call her modern day Yaa Asantewaa and you will not be far from right.
Those who are making noises in the NDC, including their tin god, John Dramani Mahama were nowhere near the trenches when the battle for survival was raging.
In fact, when the PNDC was metamorphosing into the NDC, this group of opportunists was cooling off elsewhere. They didn’t even know that it was Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings who designed the NDC umbrella logo.
Today, they have come out as men, enjoying the good things in life. They even don’t know that cadres of the revolution did put their lives on the line for the revolution. Sadly these cadres have been jettisoned upstream.
In their places are boys like Sammy Gyamfi, Sam George, Ablakwa, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, Joseph Yamin and many more who were born too late to smell the scent of gun power in those days of fireworks.
Monkey dey work, baboon dey chop, Nana Konadu was the 1st Vice Chairperson of the NDC when she decided to contest the late President Atta Mills during the NDC Presidential Primaries held at Sunyani.
Prior to the Sunyani Congress, the NDC had a divided front. Asiedu Nketia and John Mahama had released their hounds to attack the Founder of the party, the late Mr. Rawlings.
The daily insults were so embarrassing and Ghanaians were asking: What did Rawlings do for these opportunistic upstarts to take him to the cleaners?
Out of frustration and anger, Mr. Rawlings referred to these small boys as ’babies with sharp teeth’ and their sponsors as “greedy bastards’. The campaign for the flagbearership position itself was nasty and rough.
Many sprinter groups popped up, some supported the former First Lady while others supported Professor Mills. It was the first time a sitting President of Ghana competed through the ballot box for the party’s nomination for a second term. Mr. Rawlings and Mr. Kufuor had gone unopposed when they were going for their second term.
On the day of the Primaries, yours sincerely was at the Coronation Park at Sunyani, the venue of the Congress. It became abundantly clear from the start that, the leadership of the NDC, led by Asiedu Nketia the then General Secretary had teamed up against the Former First Lady.
One embarrassing thing that Asiedu Nketia did to disgrace Mr. Rawlings and his wife was that, just when the couple were entering the stadium after a rousing welcome outside the stadium, Asiedu Nketia asked the MC to call for an opening prayer.
So when the couple entered the venue, delegates had closed their eyes in prayer so Rawlings and his wife were not recognized. They walked quietly to sit down, unnoticed by the delegates. One could see anger bodily written on the face of the Founder of the party.
When Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings was invited to deliver her speech as a candidate, the leadership of the party sitting behind the dais started heckling her. She stopped her delivery and said she was surprised that even ministers who were supposed to know better were rudely behaving that way.
The sign was already very clear on the wall and so the lady lost her bid to be the flagbearer of the party. When she was leaving the venue, some delegates who had been paid huge sums of money to vote against her hooted at her. That behavior was the last straw which broke the camel’s back.
Back in Accra after the Delegates Congress, Madam Konadu said in an interview with some media houses that she will never return to the NDC in any circumstances.
She went on to form her own party, the National Democratic Party (NDP). Much as elders of the NDC, including her husband tried to convince the Iron Lady to reverse her decision, she stayed put. I am recounting this story because the eighteen-year old boy or girl who will be voting come 2024 General Election was barely twelve years old when this happened.
Such persons were born too late to understand the situation of the NDC today and may blame Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings for abandoning a party she toiled with her husband to form. That is why they say historians look back.
The deafening silence of Madam Konadu these days is very worrisome. This is a lady who was able to organize Ghanaian women across the length and breadth of Ghana to engage in cottage industries like, Gari Processing, Palm Oil Processing, Beekeeping and other ventures which assuaged the suffering of poor women in our small towns and villages. Her 31st December Women Movement worked so hard to create employment for our women folks and she will be remembered for her resilience as far as the issue of women is concerned. Ghana needs her at times like this when all hands are needed on board to move the nation forward. That is why her silence and indifference in the affairs of the country is worrisome.
If she allows herself to be convinced to go back to the NDC, she will be doing herself great harm. The reason is that John Mahama and Asiedu Nketia have hijacked the party and all those who toiled to establish the party have been sidelined. As for the late Rawlings who founded the party, he was literally kicked out of the party before his death.
It was Asiedu Nketia who told the world that Mr. Rawlings was a chained dog and that he could only bark but unable to bite so those who left the NDC because of Rawlings should return to the fold. Mr. Mahama’s plan to hijack the party has worked to perfection.
Today, he has the money, the power and borrowed glory. Where are Kwamena Ahwoi, Ato Ahwoi, Kwasi Ahwoi, Huudu Yahaya, Tony Aidoo, Kobby Acheampong, Koku Anyidoho, Allortey Jacobs, Wofa Yaw Boateng, Cecelia Johnson, Ato Dadzi, Dan Abodapki, Victor Smith, Spio Garbra, Obed Asamoah, Martin Amidu, Alhaji Ibrahim Adam, Kwame Pepra and a host of those who put their noses on the grindstone to bring the NDC this far?
The truth is that they are alive and kicking but Asiedu Nketia and John Mahama have thrown them into the dustbin of history. Asiedu Nketia and John Mahama’s treacherous and wicked mission has been accomplished!
For now, Mr. Mahama and his co conspirators and usurpers of power can afford to bask in euphoria in their borrowed clothes after their stage-managed “moneycratic” Delegates Congress but they must remember that their days are numbered. A time will come when their names will be written in bronze.
That is when a new Pharaoh will come in Egypt who may not know Joseph. And Barbarossa shall rise again!!! Can anyone lend me a bottle of ink for my Fountain pen?
By Eric Bawah