Founder of the opposition National Democratic Congress, former President Jerry John Rawlings has released a lengthy write-up via his facebook page to respond to the barrage of allegations levelled against him by Professor Kwamena Ahwoi in his book ‘working with Rawlings’.
Among the allegations the former President responds to is the allegations about how his wife Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings supposedly fell out with Professor Mills and his wife.
Below is the NDC founder’s narration of events………………
NANA KONADU AND THE NDC – SACRIFICE AND BETRAYAL
The role, hard work, strategy and organisational talent that Nana Konadu applied to build and propel the NDC to countless victories can never be eroded. The various attempts to not just discount the central role she played, but to also deride her, is symptomatic of the myopic selfishness of characters within the NDC who cannot appreciate the fact that in so doing to pioneers of the Party like herself and others, you have no history to speak of.
Nana Konadu played an integral role in the development of both the PNDC and the NDC, and the attempts by the author to denigrate her and nullify the key strategic and organisational role she played is yet another disappointment of the book.
April 2000 Congress
In writing on the Extraordinary Congress of April 2000, the author again alleges that Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was unhappy with the proliferation of “Mills for President” T-shirts and confronted several people who wore the T-shirts including he (Kwamena) and Kofi Totobi-Quakyi. It defies logic for an academician turned author to include this falsehood in his work when President and Mrs. Rawlings had publicly thrown their weight behind Vice-President Mills for the Presidency and indeed after the Congress, they campaigned extensively and comprehensively for the candidate.
Afiadenyigba, Ada Incident
In 2000, Vice President Mills had been confirmed as the candidate for the NDC. Nana Konadu, as part of her political campaign for the Party, created a programme for the Greater Accra Region. One of the events was the opening of a school in Afiadenyigba, Ada which she invited Mrs Mills to commission, to officially outdoor her to the Dangbe community. Although protocol arranged for the First Lady and Vice-President’s wife to travel together, Mrs Mills decided to take the lead on the journey.
One of the etiquettes that J.J. Rawlings insisted upon at public events, which then became custom, was not to drive into durbar grounds, thereby whipping up dust onto the chiefs, royalty and the community. It therefore became an unspoken rule since the 1980s that government officials arriving at any function were to alight from their vehicles at the periphery of the durbar grounds and walk onto the grounds
When Mrs. Mills arrived at the durbar grounds at Afiadenyegba, her convoy in an attempt to drive onto the sandy durbar grounds was frantically flagged down and stopped by a police officer assigned to the function. Mrs. Mills in a fury demanded the reason for this. The police officer proceeded to explain the rationale for stopping her car which unfortunately did little to diffuse the situation and she said she was leaving. The 31st DWM ladies that organised the event frantically went on their knees to apologise to the Vice-President’s wife and begged her to stay. This was in full view of the chiefs and people gathered.
