Close pal to the Rawlingses, Herbert Mensah does not understand why any individual or group of persons in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) would take issue with Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings’ decision to run for the party’s flagbearership position, if she indeed wants to do so.
Though he claimed to be unaware of any such intention by the former First Lady, Mr. Mensah said there was nothing wrong if she indeed had the desire to be Ghana’s president.
In an exclusive interview with DAILY GUIDE, the sports enthusiast and businessman said, “I am not aware that Mrs. Rawlings wants to run against Professor Mills; but there is a supposition that she wants to”.
However, according to him, neither she nor her husband, Mr. Rawlings, had disclosed such intentions to him.
Herbert Mensah stressed the belief that the issue of whether or not the former First Lady would run for the position of NDC flagbearer would largely depend on how well the sitting President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, performs between now and when the party goes to congress, based on the promises made to the electorate.
“So she hasn’t stated that she would run. If there is pressure on her, if Prof is not stepping up to the plate as being said, then a vacuum is created.
Mrs. Rawlings and others may also decide that this is the time to stand. Obviously because of her name, she will make more prominence than others,” he noted.
Mr. Mensah said he was at the recently-held June 4 celebration in Tamale and never heard either Mr. Rawlings or his wife, Nana Konadu, say anything that sought to create the impression that she was going to contest the NDC flagbearership for 2012.
According to him, even the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) appreciates the fact that there was a vacuum, which was why the opposition party believed it could win the 2012 general elections.
For this reason, he said, “I also believe that there is a vacuum and if indeed she is called, I don’t know but she is entitled to and she may well decide that under that pressure, she will contest.”
That notwithstanding, he said, it would be the prerogative of Mrs. Rawlings to take any such decision, stressing, “If Mrs. Rawlings really wanted to run, that is her prerogative to run.
I think the structure of democracy we are in, people are struggling between people having private opinions and people having intents. There are a lot of considerations here and if she wants to, she is entitled to it.
“The youth are agitating. The youth have a problem and her view was that too little, if nothing or not enough, was being done by government and that was her position.
But at no point did she say ‘I’m now running for government’, except for two or more of those posters advertising Konadu for 2012 which were being held by some students in the crowd,” he added.
Meanwhile, aide to former President Jerry Rawlings, Kofi Adams, has fended off criticisms that the former First Couple is power drunk, arguing that Nana Konadu is more than qualified to be Ghana's president.
According to him, for 28 years, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings had worked to better the lot of the underprivileged in the country and that made the former First Lady stand tall amongst all the people whose names had so far come up as possible successors to President J.E.A. Mills.
“We have presidents across the world, some of whom have not even half of the percentage of experience Nana Konadu has [accumulated] in the last 28 years that she has been actively involved in the political activities of this country,” he told Joy Fm.
Clearly, Nana Konadu seemed to have turned her eyes on the teeming youth in the country.
Speaking in Tamale on June 4 she said, “If you say you have a youth employment programme, what are they employing? Who are they employing? What employable skills do you want them to have?”
Touting her credentials, she added, “When some of us started as revolutionaries, we were just like you. We were idealistic, with passion; we wanted change by all means necessary.
And today we have a good crop of youthful people, youthful exuberant Ghanaians who are wondering, which way forward”.
Mrs Rawlings said the NDC won elections because the people believed in change.
“We believed in real change; not changing to go on with the old order. We believe there should be real change for the sake of change.
But you cannot change and remain in the same place and continue marking time. So for those of us who believe in the issue of change-¬ the real change-¬ know that we should move from where we are to another destination.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu