Maame Dokono hacks Rawlings

A GHANAIAN showbiz icon, Grace Omaboe, popularly called Maame Dokonu has gone to town, blaming her exit from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the tormenting personality of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, wife of the party’s founder, Jerry John Rawlings.

Speaking to DAILY GUIDE yesterday, Maame Dokonu said she was chased out of the NDC by goons set on her by the former First Lady.

She was the NDC’s parliamentary candidate for Birim North in the 2000 elections, losing to New Patriotic Party (NPP’s) Dr William Boakye Akoto.

According to the film star, she was kicked out of the NDC by Mrs. Rawlings who felt she was becoming too vocal and was courting a large women following due to the gender activist role she was playing.

Maame Dokonu disclosed that Mrs. Rawlings tormented her life to the extent that she became frustrated and had to flee from the party after the former First Lady had ordered soldiers to seize a vehicle she was using for a television programme for children.

The movie star intimated that she was by then the host of “By the Fire Side”, a television programme for children, produced by the 31st December Women’s Movement, the women’s wing of the NDC which was controlled and directed by Mrs. Rawlings; and that was how she got into the NDC.

She said she never registered as an NDC member, but was prevailed upon to stand on the party’s ticket as its parliamentary candidate in the Birim North constituency.

Maame Dokonu said she was continuously victimized by Mrs. Rawlings after the two had had a series of disagreements and she finally had to leave.

“I was originally born into a United Party (UP) family and my family has always belonged to the UP tradition. So when I left the NDC, I went back to where I belong because even before I joined them, I had established my life well and was not depending on anybody to take care of my children.

I have not regretted returning to my roots because the party is really helping women and children - the very thing I wanted to use the NDC platform to achieve.

“I was into helping women and children, defending their rights and my hosting “By the Fire Side” got me into contact with Nana Konadu who was also into the 31st thing. So when I wanted to get to Parliament to give me a bigger platform to defend women and children, I contested on the NDC’s ticket but did not win.

“The trouble was too much so I left because I was not a bootlicker and I had a better life to live other than being abused in the NDC,” Maame Dokonu noted.

When asked if she was not an opportunist who left the NDC because she did not win and had used the party to enrich herself, Maame Dokonu retorted: “My dear, the NDC did not make me who I am; it is true I had some political experience from them but before I joined the NDC, I was a responsible woman who was doing very well. I had four cars, four houses, my Obra Theater Group with our full set of instruments was doing well and we were making good money.

“If anything at all, I rather lost financially by joining the NDC. I had to abandon my building for a long time because I was using the money to campaign and when I lost the election, my brothers in the NPP bought a coffin and paraded it through the town singing that I had fallen on my buttocks and they were going to bury me,” she added.

Maame Dokonu said she had not regretted crossing carpets to the NPP because the party in government had introduced many programmes that benefit women and children – her two prime targets.

She was in full flight at the rally the NPP held in Takoradi last Sunday, and asked the crowd to vote for Nana Akufo-Addo, the party’s presidential candidate.

She cited the Capitation Grant which allows children to attend school free of charge; the School Feeding Programme which provides school children with one hot meal a day; the Metro Mass Transit which provides free transportation for school children; and the Free Ante-natal and Post-natal Care for Pregnant Women as examples of enviable programmes initiated by the NPP government.

Grace Omaboe debunked claims that she was a failure who had been paid to join the NPP, and gave an insight into her life: “I am not a useless woman as the NDC would want people to think.

I am a trained teacher and I have done well in the entertainment industry. I have educated my children well and one of them at age 28, works with the World Bank in Washington.

I have a daughter pursuing her Masters in Medicine in California. My twins are in Holland and my last but one is in Achimota College. Am I a useless person?” she asked rhetorically.

“That is ignorant talk because Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Governor, was an entertainer; we use what we do to educate people and if people think that means I am useless, well I leave them to their conscience, to the public who see what we do and to God,” she noted.

Meanwhile, Kofi Adam, Special Aide to Rawlings, has debunked claims that Maame Dokonu left the NDC due to the bullying attitude of the former First Lady.

He told Joy Fm that Mrs. Rawlings had no hand in Grace Omaboe’s exit from the opposition party.