Spio to Contest Mills, Konadu in July

Reliable information reaching the New Statesmen indicates that Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Vice Chairman of the National Democratic Congress and CEO of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, London, may soon resign his lucrative London post and pick up his presidential nomination forms for the July contest.

He is likely to send his resignation letter as the party’s national executive to Kokomlemle this week, bearing in mind that the closing date for picking up nomination forms is Tuesday, May 10, the reliable source stated.

The former Education, Communications and Acting Mines & Energy Minister under President Rawlings, “Spio-Garbrah is to be sponsored by several top neutral NDC gurus (who are angry with Mills, but don’t want to support Mrs Rawlings)”, according to the source.

Other likely sponsors, according to our source, are “disgruntled wealthy Ghanaian business leaders who believe that while President Atta-Mills may have failed in achieving his 'Better Ghana Agenda,' former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, even if she wins the NDC primary will be unelectable nationally.”

To quote another deep source in the belly of the Spio camp, "President Mills has lost the support of the Founder and the rank and file of the NDC. But, Mrs Rawlings cannot win a national election in Ghana even if she beats Mills at Congress. We need a third force, and that’s where Spio comes in."

While calls to Spio's office in both Accra and London went unanswered, his backers believe that the former first runner-up to Atta-Mills at the 2006 NDC Congress and former Ambassador to the United States may actually have more support now within the party than in 2006.

“If Rawlings had supported Spio rather than Atta-Mills in 2006, the NDC could have avoided the current crisis,” says the deep source, who readily confirmed our earlier information that Spio was preparing to pick up his nomination forms.

Despite a public averment by Koku Anyidoho, the President's Director of Communications that "Spio can never win any post in the NDC," Dr Spio-Garbrah went on to win a vice chairmanship role in the NDC and has, arguably, since become the second most visible vice chairperson of the party after Mrs Rawlings.

Dramatically brushed aside by President Atta-Mills, for whom Spio reportedly raised billions of old cedis to support in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008, the former Communications Minister has not had any luck with the Rawlingses either, although he has publicly and notably defended them from 2009, during a period when it became very unadvisable for an NDC guru to defend the Founder and his wife.

With his challenge seeming increasingly a done deal, both the Rawlings and Mills camps may now have another loud-mouthed, internationally connected and financially resourced challenger to deal with.

Senior NDC politicians from the Volta region, wealthy Fanti and Kumasi businessmen and NDC financiers in London, US and Canada are said to be behind Spio's potential bid.

Spio may still decide to remain neutral for the sake of party unity and use back channels to keep the July contest from getting nasty and destroying the eventual nominee in 2012. He has so far attempted to keep a good rapport with both President Mills and Mrs Rawlings, but is under increasing pressure to challenge both and save the party from political Armageddon.

The Rawlingses won't support Atta-Mills even if he wins, and Atta-Mills/Ahwoi won't support Mrs Rawlings even if she beats them. Either way, the NPP's Nana Akufo-Addo will be the eventual beneficiary of the internecine battle within the NDC.

If the Kumasi born, Fanti PR firebrand Ekwow Spio-Garbrah eventually decides to challenge both Mills and Rawlings -- they will have no one else to blame but themselves.