[ 2011-04-18 ]

Konadu Rawlings to be ‘bought’ out of race; GH¢1m & juicy contracts as bait?
Some National Executive members of the ruling
National Democratic Congress (NDC), some
government officials, in concert with some former
Ministers of State who served under the Presidency
of Jerry John Rawlings who are yet to come to
terms with the now ‘germinated presidential
inclinations’ of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings
are scheming to persuade her from contesting the
flagbearership slot slated for July 8, 2011.

According to a highly-placed source within the
national leadership of the NDC, “both the
leadership of the party and the government are so
unsettled by her (Nana Konadu) intentions and
subsequent resignation from her party executive
position and are therefore bent on taking her out
of the contest”.

Among the offers being proposed, according to the
source, would be to give a company (name withheld
for now) jointly set up by the Former First Lady
and three of his children, some lucrative
commercial and consultancy opportunities in the
aviation, ports, oil and gas sectors.

There is also a proposal to increase the Ghanaian
government’s commitment to facilitating and
enhancing the development of the CALF Cocoa
Factory jointly owned by the 31st December
Women’s Movement commercial wing, CARIDEM and a
private Chinese company, by requesting more
Chinese government funding in addition to some
appreciable level of State support for the
project.

Another bait being considered, according to the
source, is the possibility of deploying some
National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP)
Personnel to work at the Nsawam Cannery; a company
Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and her 31st
DWM/CARIDEM have an interest in.

The thrust of that offer, according to the source,
“is that the personnel from the NYEP would work
in the company but their allowances and salaries
would be absorbed by the state”.

It is also envisaged that Government would
endeavor to provide some financial and logistical
support to the Cannery via some financial
instruments which the State makes available to the
private sector through some local banking and
financial institutions.

Nsawam Cannery through CARIDEM was estbalished in
1997 during the administration of NDC (2) under
President Rawlings and Vice President John Evans
Atta Mills, a beneficiary of a huge loan facility
under the Trade and Investment Programme (TIP) of
the Ministry of Finance which was being managed by
ECOBANK on behalf of the Government of Ghana.

Our sources at ECOBANK have intimated that CARIDEM
still has a huge outstanding obligations on both
the principal and interest on that loan granted to
the company in 1997.

The third offer, according to the source, is the
proposal of refund all costs incurred by the
Former First Lady in her preparatory work. “In
fact, GH¢1m proposal would be put on the table in
order to entice her and the FONKAR Group to
abandon their suicidal mission”, the source
added.

Leading the “Get Nana Out Of The Race” team,
according to the source, would be “some former
prominent Ministers who worked under Rawlings and
are in his good books and some party executives
including some members of the Party’s Council of
Elders”.

The source was however evasive when pressed to
mention some of the people involved but only
managed to say that “Harry Sawyer would have
been approached to lead the team but he is a bit
incapacitated”.

He hinted that a retired General of the Ghana
Armed Forces who has been closely associated with
the Rawlingses since the days of the PNDC, might
be contacted to facilitate the process of getting
Mr. Rawlings to help persuade his spouse from
pursing her much publicized presidential
ambition.

Attempts to get reactions from Kofi Adams on
behalf of the Rawlingses and Samuel Ablakwa for
government, both proved futile as they did not
answer their telephone calls.

Mrs. Rawlings, on Wednesday April 13, 2011, in a
two-paragraph letter to the NDC’s General
Secretary, resigned her position as a Vice
Chairperson of the party; stating that her action
had become necessary in order to “enable me
respond to numerous calls on me to contest the
flagbearership of the NDC when nominations are
opened”

Chief among groups and people calling on her to
contest President Mills has been “Friends of
Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings” (FONKAR), which
has been at the throat of President Mills
virtually calling him an “ingrate and
incompetent”.

In the wake of her virtual declaration, a wind of
endorsements for President Mills has swept across
the nation, with Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Volta,
Central, the Greater Accra, Northern regions of
the NDC among others, declaring their preference
for Prof. Mills to lead the party again in the
2012 elections.

But unfazed by all the overwhelming endorsements
of the President, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, a
few days after declaring her intention to fun for
the NDC’s Presidential slot, publicly disclosed
that; her husband fully endorsed her bid to
challenge President Mills.

According to her, she would not have taken the
gigantic step to vie for the presidential
candidacy of the NDC without former President
Jerry Rawlings’ blessing.

Commenting last week on the flurry of endorsements
received by President Mills from some party
regional executives, Nana Konadu stressed that it
was part of a grand scheme by the national
executives of the party to give the President an
advantage ahead of the party’s presidential
primaries; but she was undaunted.

Source - The New Crusading Guide

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