[ 2011-04-22 ]

I’m not being wooed for Konadu - Bagbin
The Minister for Water Resources, Works and
Housing, Alban Sumana Kinsford Bagbin has denied
rumours making the rounds that he is being courted
to be the running mate of Nana Konadu Agyemang
Rawlings if she wins the NDC flagbearer contest.

Speaking to Citi Breakfast Show co-host Moro Awudu
on Friday April 22, 2011 Mr Bagbin, who is also MP
for Nadowli North denied any such moves had been
made, describing the reports as “false”.

In denying the allegation, the former Majority
Leader of Parliament indicated, “I know what is
good and I try as much as possible to be impartial
so neither Professor Mills or Jerry John Rawlings
can confidently say that this man belongs here or
there.

"People are always thinking that one must belong,
what about me also having my own camp? Don’t I
deserve that? I do. I think that it is advisable
for us to allow that people can have independent
minds”.

He went on further to say that “I admire a lot
of people and when people are right, I support
them, in fact if not because of Professor Mills, I
would have been out of politics because my
decision when I joined politics was to serve the
nation for eight years and go back to my legal
practise.

"I’m a student of Professor Mills but it’s a
fact that the former President Jerry John Rawlings
sacrificed his whole life in turning things around
in this country and in doing that he must have
hurt a lot of people but leadership is about
having a vision, and being firm and committed to
that vision and turning people around.

"It is not everybody who would want to be turned
round and sometimes you have to use some tactics
to turn them around because you don’t want them
to continue to drag you back and so people would
be hurt and we will apologise for all those things
but it is important for us to leave those things
behind, that is part of the history of this
country”.

The NDC is set to elect a flagbearer for the 2012
presidential and parliamentary elections at a
congress to be held in Sunyani from July 8-10,
2011. The former first lady resigned her position
as a Vice chairperson of the NDC on April 13, 2011
to prepare for the contest.

The current wrangling in the NDC has led to some
party officials and groups declaring their support
for the two likeliest contestants, incumbent
President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills and Nana
Konadu Agyeman Rawlings. Days before the official
announcement of the Sunyani congress, executives
representing six regions - Greater Accra, Ashanti,
Northern, Central, Upper West, Volta - declared
their support for President Mills, although Kofi
Adams, Spokesperson for the Rawlingses, described
them as coerced.

Deputy Finance Minister and former Propaganda
Secretary Fiifi Kwetey has also called for
"positive defiance" against the Rawlingses,
insisting that a vote for Prof Mills would not be
a betrayal of NDC founder Mr Rawlings.

Although he has not publicly declared his stance,
Mr. Bagbin is alleged to be secretly supporting
Mrs. Rawlings although he is serving in the Mills
administration. But the long-serving MP has
categorically denied it.

Source - Citifmonline

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