JJ Trapped Between Wife, Party

For former President Jerry John Rawlings to fully embrace President John Dramani Mahama at last Thursday’s special National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) congress, he would have had to ditch his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, and the National Democratic Party (NDP).

The former President’s presence at the special congress was due, in no small part, to intense diplomacy on the part of President Mahama to get former President Jerry John Rawlings back to the NDC fold. It paid off in the former President’s presence at the special congress in Kumasi, but not in the desired full embrace of the party that members hoped for.

Rather, President Mahama was presented with a list of demands which he diplomatically accepted as part of an ongoing process. But Rawlings’ move keeps the two forces pulling at him content for the meantime.

Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has indicated through a number of aides that she feels slanted by the lack of an invitation to attend the congress.But her issues with the party go beyond that.

She had earlier indicated that upstarts had taken over the party and marginalised her good self and grassroots supporters, including notably the 31st December Women’s Movement; that the Sunyani congress to elect the party’s flag bearer was unfairly managed to her disadvantage; and that even a Thank You tour she had undertaken to show appreciation to her supporters was sabotaged by some NDC officials.

To the list, her husband added the invectives by babies with sharp teeth against people who have sacrificed for the party, as well as the familiar but tough matters of accountability and probity.

To ensure that the party is cleansed enough for those alienated from it to rejoin, President Mahama will have to lower the troublesome babies with the bad water.

Even if he was prepared to meet these demands, the President would be hard put meeting them.

Luckily, the Rawlingses' aide has said that indications from the President that he is prepared to do something will satisfy the former President.

President Mahama, in his response at Kumasi, provided some indications in that direction.

But the issue of assuaging the disappointment of the former First Lady is going to be more difficult.

Even as the Kumasi congress was taking place, news filtered through that the National Democratic Party, peopled significantly by Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), was busy branding its campaign vehicles.

For former President Rawlings, campaigning with the NDP will almost mean seriously damaging his relations with the NDC, a party he gave birth to and whose members appear so eager to embrace him, as shown at the Kumasi congress. However, going with the NDC will also mean weakening the NDP and therefore weakening FONKAR’s bargaining chip.

His option may therefore lie in keeping the dialogue lines with both parties open while keeping a low public profile in the coming campaigns.