Herbert Mensah leads Nana Konadu 2012 campaign team

It’s no more speculation. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, the wife of former President Jerry John Rawlings is a sure bet for the 2012 presidential nomination of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

And as part of the fervent preparations towards the outdoor of the Konadu candidature, Mr Herbert Mensah, a known adherent of the Rawlingses and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club, is the de-facto head of the Konadu 2012 campaign team.

Party insiders hinted Today that forces within the Mills camp have in a contrived move to outmuscle Rawlings and other huge stakeholders of the NDC from major decision making that the only way to restore back hope for the many disillusioned NDC supporters is to get a candidate who will identify with the broad masses of NDC faithful.

And that candidate, they believe aside from former President Rawlings, is Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.
Rawlings backers have accused President Mills of subtly destroying the Rawlings NDC heritage by replacing it with CPP and Nkrumah; marginalizing and denying the former president the right to make inputs in decisions affecting governance; sits unconcerned for some ministers to insult the former president and the outright disrespect that Mills has shown in his unwillingness to find a decent home for the Rawlingses after fire destroyed their official residence sometime this year.

But the Mills team is quick to remind the former president of how he also hijacked Nkrumah’s heritage- proxy CPP splinter groups like the EGLE party and the National Convention Party (NCP) to form the Progressive Alliance with the NDC to be able to win the 1992 and 96 elections.

It was through that electoral pact that the late Kow Nkensen Arkaah became the running mate and subsequently the Vice President of Rawlings from 1992 to 1996. They further argued that it was through the desperate desire to maintain the Nkrumah axis within the NDC that the former President accepted Prof. Mills as his running mate in the 1996 election and again endorsed his candidature as the presidential candidate of the NDC in 2000 in the infamous unilateral Swedru declaration.

The Konadu team used the June 4 celebration last Friday to test the popularity and possible reaction of the party’s supporters to the proposition. And the enthusiastic response that the Konadu candidature generated indeed is likely to goad on the Rawlings faction within the NDC to push beyond every possible limit to realize the Konadu dream.

Today was privy to a hurriedly arranged meeting that Herbert had with the Ashanti Regional cadres of the June 4 uprising held at the official residence of the Northern Regional Minister where Herbert removed ten banners with the inscription: NANA KONADU 2012. It was accompanied by the picture of the former First Lady.

Herbert who stood at the corridor of the Northern Regional residency to address the cadres had to struggle to free himself from the ecstatic cadres whose joy and excitement hit a crescendo when they saw the Nana Konadu banners.
The cadres had completed a routine June 4 route march in the morning of the anniversary and had been instructed to go to the Northern Regional residency to take some refreshment and prepare for the rally that was to climax 31st anniversary celebration of June 4 at the Tamale Jubilee Park.

Some of the cadres quickly surged forward and took away the banners from Herbert and paraded them in the principal streets of Tamale and even displayed some at the Tamale Jubilee Park where the former president addressed hundreds of June 4 cadres, adherents and some other youth groups of the NDC.

Herbert in a brief address told the gathering why it has become necessary for Nana Konadu and other possible candidates to challenge President Mills for the 2012 presidential primary of the ruling party.

According to him, the president has shown gross disrespect to former President Rawlings by delineating him as the founder of the NDC and virtually replacing Kwame Nkrumah as the founder of the NDC.

Herbert’s concern was in apparent reaction to the manner President Mills and his government under the pretext of celebrating the 100 years anniversary of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, is virtually hijacking the CPP to replace the NDC.

But Herbert and other hard-core June 4 supporters, say they are out to resist that and prove to the president that the third force in Ghanaian politics—the NDC had its founder who ought to be accorded that dignity and reverence.
The former Asante Kotoko chief executive wondered what would have been the political clout of President Mills, if he had not been initiated into politics and indeed supported by the former president to run as the sole candidate of the NDC during the party’s presidential primary in the run up to the 2000 election.

He accused the president of deliberately refusing to offer the former president a decent place to live after the official residence of the Rawlingses gutted fire sometime this year and wondered how particularly, Haruna Iddrisu and Hannah Tetteh, two of President Mills’ cabinet ministers have been pouring all manner of invectives on former President Rawlings without any action by the sitting president.

As anticipated, no minister of state attended the June 4 rally in Tamale. The only notable face recognized by the paper was that of the former Minister of Agriculture in the Rawlings NDC 1 administration, Ibrahim Adam.
Officials like the Northern Regional Minister, the Tamale municipal chief executive and other high ranking members of the NDC, including the party’s secretary in the region, Alhaji Imoro Issifu Alhassan all refused to attend the June 4 rally.