It has been confirmed that former President Jerry John Rawlings, the founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), will storm the Ho Jubilee Park in the Volta Region today for the launch of the party’s manifesto and campaign.
Special aide and spokesperson of the former president, Kofi Adams, toldDAILY GUIDE yesterday that the NDC’s founder would grace the occasion.
It is unclear what particular role has been earmarked for him though.
“We don’t know, we would know when we get there,” he told DAILY GUIDE.
It would be the second time Mr Rawlings would be visiting Ho in about two weeks.
His last visit was when he met the Regional House of Chiefs where he blasted the government for entertaining corrupt people who had hijacked the country’s resources.
Speaking on Adom FM on Wednesday morning, Mr. Adams disclosed that the Office of the former President had not received any official invitation from the NDC, but quickly added that if such an invitation was extended, it would be considered.
According to him, the former president would take the decision whether to attend or not. From the Wednesday evening conversation withDAILY GUIDE, it appeared that the former president had finally settled on gracing the NDC’s highly regarded occasion.
Earlier, when Simon Amegashie-Viglo, Volta regional secretary of the NDC, told journalists on Tuesday that former President Rawlings and some NDC gurus were expected to be at the launch in the party’s ‘World Bank’, Adams denied the claim.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicated that the invitation to Mr. Rawlings might have been received late; but that notwithstanding, grand plans had already been hatched for Mr. Rawlings’s role at the event.
NDC Women’s Organiser Anita Desooso had hinted that the former president would play a key part in the proceedings.
Whither Mrs. Rawlings?
It is unclear if Mr. Rawlings’s wife and former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, would be attending the function as well even though she is strongly linked to the breakaway National Democratic Party (NDP).
Checks by DAILY GUIDE indicated that Mrs Rawlings is currently on a trip to a Central African country and is expected home today.
Mrs. Rawlings, who has been linked to the breakaway faction of the NDC, the NDP, is unlikely to be by the side of her husband in Ho when he mounts the dais.
Indeed, this would not be the first time Mrs. Rawlings has stayed away from an important NDC event as she was conspicuously absent during the September delegates’ congress of the NDC that saw the endorsement of the party’s flagbearer, President John Mahama in Kumasi.
NDP in Limbo?
Jerry Rawlings, who fell out with the NDC since the party assumed power in 2009 because of what he has described as acute corruption in the party he founded, has also been linked to the NDP alongside his wife with whom he has always undertaken his political endeavours.
Several supporters of the NDP were relying on the charisma of Jerry Rawlings to bolster their nascent political fortunes, yet Mr. Rawlings has recently increased his hobnobbing with the NDC, sending conflicting signals to the supporters of both parties.
The NDP has however vowed to trudge on with its decision to challenge the NDC at the December 7 polls with Mrs. Rawlings as its flagbearer.
Mrs. Rawlings has received overwhelming flagbearership endorsement from NDP supporters.
Top executives of the party have publicly stated that they would give Mrs. Rawlings the first option of refusal of the party’s flagbearership.
On Wednesday, the NDP’s Zongo caucus in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa District in the Central Region emphasised this call for Mrs. Rawlings’s flagbearership with a statement signed by its district chairman, Frederick Asane.
Bated Breath
Anytime Jerry Rawlings makes an indication of attending key party function, the whole membership of the party is gripped with intense uncertainty as regards his famous provocative speeches fondly called “Booms.”
The manifesto launch would be the second major appearance of Rawlings at an NDC event since President Atta Mills died.
Meanwhile, information gathered indicates that the NDC manifesto would contain several ambitious plans that the ruling party intends to lay out in order to contain the soaring popularity of the NPP’s free Senior High School flagship.
According to John Jinapor, President Mahama’s spokesman, the NDC manifesto would include proposals for making basic education “free and compulsory.”
The party’s general secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, has reportedly hinted that the elusive one-time premium for health insurance would finally be implemented if the party wins.
