December Polls: Nana Konadu Bows Out

Former first Lady and Founder of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings barring any last-minute hitches is highly expected to announce her withdrawal from the December elections today.

Party sources say the decision yet to be made public at a news conference at 2pm today is mainly as a result of the death of her husband, former President Jerry John Rawlings on November 12 this year.

It is unclear what that decision means to her future political career but insiders say that she reached the decision after wider consultation with the rank and file of the party as well as the family.

FONKAR-GAMES

Mrs. Rawlings formed the NDP in October 2012 as a split from the then ruling NDC the party her husband founded.

At that time, it cited the NDC’s deviation from key policies of the party, such as probity and accountability.

However, before the split, Mrs. Rawlings contested and lost the NDC flagbearership to the late President John Evans Atta Mills in 2012.

Their much-publicised tussle led to the formation of groups such as Get Atta Mills Endorsed (GAME) and Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings (FONKAR).

For the 2020 elections, NDP on September, 5, named Mrs. Rawlings as its flagbearer for the 2020 elections.

But for the death of Mr. Rawlings, this would be the second time Mrs. Rawlings would lead the party as flag bearer to seek the mandate of Ghanaians to become President.

Step Down

Former Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (Rtd) last week advised Mrs. Rawlings to step down from the 2020 general election as a sign of respect to late Rawlings.

“If I were her, I would not stand. If she was to ask me, I’d say ‘Madam, it is okay, call it off as a respect to your husband,’” he said.

Mr. Nunoo-Mensah told JoyNews in an interview that Mrs. Rawlings, the flagbearer of the NDP should forfeit her interest in contesting for the highest position of the land after her husband’s passing.

He stated that “the wife [Nana Konadu] should save him [J.J. Rawlings] from that embarrassment by pulling out” of the general election.

Mr. Nunoo-Mensah disclosed that the late former President J.J. Rawlings was in a dilemma as to which presidential candidate to vote for in the December polls.

“I asked President Rawlings, ‘your daughter is standing for the NDC at Osu Klottey for NDC…your wife is also standing. Which of the two are you going to vote for?’ He couldn’t answer me,” he stated.

Wishful Thinking

Meanwhile, General Secretary of NDP, Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong described calls for the party’s flagbearer to step down from the 2020 elections over the demise of her husband as “wishful thinking of a detractor”.

According to him, the demand by Nunoo-Mensah for Mrs. Rawlings to step down as a respect to her late husband is unfounded.

“General Nunoo-Mensah’s suggestion is tongue in cheek. Maybe he would have wished to say this long ago, even before the demise of the former President.

“He only took the occasion of President Rawlings’ passing to make his case,” he added.