NDC Is Panicking

The declared intention of Dr Kwesi Botchwey, onetime Finance Minister to contest the Presidential slot of the opposition National Democratic Congress is losing sleep for a number of leading personnel of the party who have openly expressed the fear that the baby of ex-President Jerry John Rawlings is gradually being dragged from its natural habitat into a foster home.

Feelers Weekend Agenda put into the camp of the NDC have picked up radar readings indicating that the Kwesi Botchwey bandwagon is gathering steam eclipsing ?Asomdweehene? Prof John Evans Atta-Mills, former Vice-President of Ghana and endorsed heir to take over from where his mentor left off. Both Botchwey and Mills have collected nomination forms to lead the party into the 2004 Presidential elections. They have up to November 23, 2002 to return their completed forms.

A third force in the person of Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama is likely to enter the fray. The former Defence Minister and Special Adviser on governmental affairs, a post akin to Prime Minister in the Rawlings regime, has tendered in his resignation from the executive of the NDC obviously to pave the way for his challenge. But many in the party do not believe the Wa-born veteran politician has any chance of leading the party into a battle with sitting President John Agyekum Kufuor.

The congress is tentatively fixed for December 7, this year but according to Youth Organizer Iddrisu Haruna, the NDC might be forced to adjourn the date if as being speculated the ruling New Patriotic Party goes to congress the same day.

The process of nomination is cumbersome. A candidate has to be nominated by a delegate from the 200 constituencies of the country and at least a proposer and a seconder from a member of the National or Regional Executive of the party.

National executive members contacted are tight-lipped. Asked to comment, Youth Organizer Iddrisu Haruna was non-committal. ? I cannot give any answer to that because executives of the party are to remain neutral so as to give a level field for all the contestants. But Weekend Agenda can confirm that Dr Botchwey is on cloud nine within the party.

When Botchwey returned home from his United States base recently, party faithfuls took over the Kotoka International Airport drumming and dancing. A similar crowd from the NDC welcomed Prof Mills from Canada. But since his arrival his support base is dwindling.

The controversial Sam Garbah, leader of the Reform Movement within the NDC has openly declared his support for the one-time Minister of Finance who resigned his post in 1995 in protest against the way Tsastu Tsikata was allowed to spend state resources with impunity at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. His principled stance against the authority of Rawlings at the time has won him many pundits in the NDC.

Reports reaching the Weekend Agenda indicate that most of the party?s cadres are pitching camp with Dr Botchwey.

Prof Mills appeared to have shot himself in the foot by his presence at the Kumawu by-elections where he sought unsuccessfully to hold a rally on the eve of the elections. Party activists who were in Kumasi say that the Professor?s failure to contribute to the party?s war chest for the Kumawu by-elections did his image no good in the eyes of grass root campaigners.

One main charge levelled against the former Vice-President is his inability to cut off his links with discredited former officials of the NDC. Weekend Agenda learnt that Prof Mills went to Kumawu in the company of Kwame Peprah, former Finance Minister who is standing trial in the infamous Quality Grain saga. President Kufuor also cited Peprah at his recent press conference that as Finance Minister he negotiated with himself to acquire the Gulf Stream III as Presidential Jet. The nature of the acquisition of the plane smacks of underhand dealings.

Party loyalists say that the Mills kitchen cabinet include the Ahwoi brothers, whose financial dealings and other activities in the past have contributed to the lowering of the image of the party in the eyes of ordinary Ghanaians.

In political terms, it is still a long way to congress on December 7, but early indications are that the Mills for President campaign is already floundering. If the Ekumfi-born law professor fails to catch the eye of the NDC, he has his mentor Jerry John Rawlings and his hangers-on to blame.

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