General News of Thursday, 14 August 2014

Source: The Herald

Massive contradictions hit Rawlings household

Interesting developments are emerging from the Ridge residence of the founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Jerry John Rawlings, over the economic hardships the country is experiencing under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama.

Whereas the ex-President is proffering an all hands on deck to have the economic mess fixed, his wife Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, who is also the founder and onetime flagbearer of the beleaguered National Democratic Party (NDP), is going ballistic by apportioning blames to Government officials.

She even attacked the Government for going to seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to salvage the rapid depreciation of the Cedi.

The ex-President in the company of his first daughter, Ezenator Rawlings, last week told some party supporters who had gathered in his residence to honour two of Ghana’s most comical boxers, Bukom Banku and Ayitey Powers.

President Jerry John Rawlings admitted that he has not been spared the harsh economic condition that is blowing across the country.

In what appears to be his first public comment on the dire state of the country’s economy, the ex-President stated emphatically that times are really hard.

An incurable critic of the John Kufuor and the John Mills administrations, the ex-President John Rawlings has loudly been silent on the performance of the John Mahama administration.

With the high cost of living triggered by rising food prices, rising fuel prices, rising utility prices and a fall in the country’s currency, many have been waiting to hear what the ex-President thinks about the presidency of John Mahama and his management of the economy.

The ex-President did not fail to tell a story about how the strangling economic situation is affecting him, as an ex-President.

As the ex-President is being candid on the issue affecting all Ghanaians, his wife mounted the Accra-based radio station, Adom Fm, to hurl invectives at the current Government, pontificating that the Maham-led administration has failed the good people of this country.

Mrs Rawlings is also the founder of the 31st December Women’s Movement, a Non -Governmental Organization (NGO) championing the upliftment of women in the country.

The political watchers observing the developments from the ex-President’s residence are raising eyebrows about how the two most powerful citizens in the history of the land could be contradicting each other so blatantly.

They claimed that the raging contradictions have permeated into the political life of the two individuals.

While Mr Rawlings is the founder of the ruling political party, the wife is also the founder of a political party that is an offshoot of the husband’s party and a rival.