Mills Rules Out Nana Konadu As Running Mate

Who will be NDC Prof. John Evans Atta Mills running mate for the 2004 race to the Castle?

Could it be Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, John Mahama, Dr. John Kumbuor, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah or Dr. Obed Asamoah, the party's chairman?

It is not clear yet. Mills says he has not thought deeply about the subject. John Mahama, Minority spokesman on Communication has dismissed suggestions that he would be Mills' veep.

What is clear, however, is that Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings will not be Prof. Mills' running mate. The NDC flagbearer ruled her out of possible candidates.

"No, no she's not going to be my running mate," Prof. Mills told Joy FM's breakfast show host, Komla Dumor on Monday.

Mills said Nana Konadu Rawlings is not interested in the job, aside there is a long queue of potential candidates.

Except dismissing Nana Konadu as a possible candidate, Prof. Mills gave very little away on who he may have in mind.

But it could well be Jerry Rawlings himself serving Mills as the veep if the NDC wins the 2004 race. How about that?

The 1992 Constitution is not explicit on whether a former president who has served the maximum two four-year terms cannot be a vice president.

The 210-page Constitution is, however, unequivocal that a president who serves two four-year terms cannot offer him or herself for re-election as president

Prof. Mills said the former First Lady is not keen on the job of a vice president. That may well be true. Three years of her husband's exit from office, Nana Konadu Rawlings seems to have lost her voice and grip on the party, especially the women's wing at the grassroots.

Nana was the de facto leader of the women's wing of the NDC while her husband occupied the Osu Castle as President.

Her 31st December Women's Movement (DWM) has all but lost steam. The DWM white T-shirts with the imprint of a riffle-wielding woman are off the streets.

Nana Konadu Rawlings herself has been uncharacteristically quiet and out of public places since January 2001.

Thoughts about Nana Konadu emerging as the vice to Prof. Mills was bound to surface in the warm up for the 2004.

Towards the end of Rawlings' era it was feared that he was nursing the thought of building hegemony in the country's body politic by thrusting his wife on Ghanaians as his successor.

That suggestion in public angered Rawlings, but close aides of the former first family claim Rawlings and Nana Konadu had nurtured the idea of the former President's wife becoming President of the country at some point.

And in came Prof. Mills. Rawlings anointed him as his successor at what is now known as the "Swedru Declaration in 1998."

Prof. Mills may be keeping his cards close to his chest because of the possibility of the issue splitting the troubled and cash-strapped party through the middle once again as it did in the months leading to the 2000 race.

The choice of Martin Amidu, former Deputy Minister of Justice as his running mate for the 2000 presidential race deepened divisions in the then ruling party.

Amidu's boss Dr. Obed Asamoah was tipped to partner Prof. Mills for the race but Prof. Mills sidestepped him, stating unequivocally that he could not work with his former lecturer (Asamoah lectured Mills in law at the University of Ghana).

Some analysts even argued that Asamoah's support for Dr. Kwesi Botchwey for the election of the NDC presidential flagbearer for 2004 elections early this year, was a reaction to how Mills ditched the former Minister of Justice in 2000.

Indeed, on the day of election of the party's flagbearer this year, Asamoah openly asked the delegates to vote for Botchwey because Mills failed to take the fractious NDC back to the Castle when the party gave him the opportunity in the last general elections.

John Kufuor thrashed Mills in the 2000 presidential run-up following the inability of any of the seven candidates to secure 50 plus one (1) vote of the total ballots cast on December 8.

The biggest contest is yet to come. All the parties are busy oiling and test-firing their Election 2004 campaign arsenal.

The NPP may highlight the start of work on arterial roads linking Accra and neighbouring countries, its de-politicisation of national events, the administration's eagerness to admit false steps and a marked reduction in military presence in civilian activities as a positive change.

"Psychologically, people feel it's a freer society," Prof. Joseph Ayee, Dean of Social Studies of the University of Ghana told Public Agenda recently. But that may not be enough to get the Kufuor administration re-elected next year.

Prof. Ayee said the Achilles' heel of the NPP is the economy. After stabilising inflation, the cedi and other macro-economic indices, the economy is slowing down. Cost of production has gone up with the 90.4 hike in fuel prices early in the year and rise in the cost of other utilities.

But the Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo told Parliament that the "economy is on course".

So, who could partner Prof. Mills best to carry the party's message to the public that the NDC could beat the NPP record? Would Mills anoint Rawlings as his vice? The jury is out!