Mills, Konadu in Face-Off---In Sunyani on Saturday
With four days to go for the national delegates congress of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Sunyani, the battlelines for the party’s flagbearership slot has been drawn.
After weeks of campaigning and overtures, the two contenders, President John Evans Atta Mills and former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, are set to take their case to the delegates to settle a fiercely anticipated battle of thumbs to determine the party’s presidential candidate for the 2012 election.
This is the first time a sitting Ghanaian President will have to win his party’s nomination through the ballot via a keen internal contest. The convention had been for the ruling party to acclaim a sitting President for a second term.
But the soul-mate of the founder of the NDC, Nana Konadu, has decided to torpedo that convention as she pits her strength against
President Mills’s as the first female to contest the flagbearership of the NDC.
Reports of threats and intimidation from both President Mills and Nana Konadu camps have traversed the media landscape.
Riding enthusiastically with the incumbency advantage is President Mills whose obvious message to the candidates will be to maintain him in the driving seat of the ‘ Yutong Bus’.
The President has not taken the Sunyani dance with destiny and history lightly, as he takes the field by storm in spite of scathing criticism.
No longer the fresh voice of change, President Mills cuffs his sleeves for a re-election bid on Friday, July 8, 2011 by asking anxious delegates to let him finish the job he started in 2009.
While seeking the presidential slot of the NDC in 2006 for the 2008 general election which he won, President Mills anchored his bid on the message of hope in 2006 but this time, he will run on his record as well.
That means delegates will evaluate him on what he has achieved, including his ability to hold the party united as it mounts a formidable challenge to meet its arch-rival, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 general election.
On the opposite side stands a woman described by many in Ghanaian politics as the ‘Iron Lady’ — Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.
Her presidential ambition has provoked excitement and controversy, with supporters acclaiming a breakthrough for women while her critics are concerned about the prospect of an entrenched political dynasty.
But Nana Konadu has remained unfazed; the woman of steel cut her political teeth while massing up thousands of Ghanaian women behind her husband during the days of the revolution and the aftermath.
That notwithstanding, connoisseurs of the political scene believe that she has a tall order to twist the convention of an endorsement for President Mills in her favour.
A beacon of hope and celebrated feminist, the ‘Iron Lady’ may be the underdog in the encounter but with the firebrand and her main pillar cast in the mould of former President Rawlings behind her, President Mills must just wait until the last vote is counted.
Nana Konadu’s aspiration follows an emerging trend of former first ladies trying to step into the shoes of their husbands. A trend not restricted to Latin America, and partly inspired by Hillary Clinton’s 2008 bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination in the United States of America (USA).
Hillary Clinton failed to make the transition, but former first ladies in Latin America, and now in Ghana, are following in her footsteps and campaigning to become presidents, in what may become a fresh wave of female heads of state.
For months, the presidential hopeful has been angling towards challenging President Mills, the man to beat in the upcoming election.
The path to the required electoral votes for President Mills could well be tougher this time. In 2006, he reached it by aggressively turning out a figure that sent his opponents home well vanquished but he appears to have shed support, especially from the Rawlings camp.
The President’s re-election, this time, will not have the stamp of former President Jerry John Rawlings, the political godfather who thrust him into the political limelight in 1996, and helped define the mood of 2008.
But to capture the party’s ultimate diadem, Nana Konadu has an uphill task to shake off perceptions that the Rawlingses are set to make Ghana’s presidency a dynasty.
There will be a lot at stake at the congress and among the list is the test case of the influence of the founder and former President, J.J Rawlings, who has consistently criticised the Mills administration.
Be it as it may, analysts of the political scene believe Rawlings carry a magic wand which a Mills re-election hinges on.
Rawlings is vital to the NDC since he holds a bag of influence and magic — even if a paler version — which is essential to Mills’ re-election chances in 2012.
Opinions of the NDC’s cocktail of calculations are varied. For some pundits, Nana Konadu knows she has no hope to lead the party to contest the 2012 general election. However, testing the political waters for her can be a prelude to contest the party’s flagbearership and possibly win the general election in 2016.
For others, President Mills would have wanted the sun to set on his political career at the end of his first term, but the fear of possible deep cracks after his one-term era is pushing him for a second term.
Come the D-day, eyes will be watching, hearts will be thumping on the sidelines of a history-making moment in the annals of the country’s politics.
After weeks of campaigning and overtures, the two contenders, President John Evans Atta Mills and former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, are set to take their case to the delegates to settle a fiercely anticipated battle of thumbs to determine the party’s presidential candidate for the 2012 election.
This is the first time a sitting Ghanaian President will have to win his party’s nomination through the ballot via a keen internal contest. The convention had been for the ruling party to acclaim a sitting President for a second term.
But the soul-mate of the founder of the NDC, Nana Konadu, has decided to torpedo that convention as she pits her strength against
President Mills’s as the first female to contest the flagbearership of the NDC.
Reports of threats and intimidation from both President Mills and Nana Konadu camps have traversed the media landscape.
Riding enthusiastically with the incumbency advantage is President Mills whose obvious message to the candidates will be to maintain him in the driving seat of the ‘ Yutong Bus’.
The President has not taken the Sunyani dance with destiny and history lightly, as he takes the field by storm in spite of scathing criticism.
No longer the fresh voice of change, President Mills cuffs his sleeves for a re-election bid on Friday, July 8, 2011 by asking anxious delegates to let him finish the job he started in 2009.
While seeking the presidential slot of the NDC in 2006 for the 2008 general election which he won, President Mills anchored his bid on the message of hope in 2006 but this time, he will run on his record as well.
That means delegates will evaluate him on what he has achieved, including his ability to hold the party united as it mounts a formidable challenge to meet its arch-rival, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 general election.
On the opposite side stands a woman described by many in Ghanaian politics as the ‘Iron Lady’ — Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.
Her presidential ambition has provoked excitement and controversy, with supporters acclaiming a breakthrough for women while her critics are concerned about the prospect of an entrenched political dynasty.
But Nana Konadu has remained unfazed; the woman of steel cut her political teeth while massing up thousands of Ghanaian women behind her husband during the days of the revolution and the aftermath.
That notwithstanding, connoisseurs of the political scene believe that she has a tall order to twist the convention of an endorsement for President Mills in her favour.
A beacon of hope and celebrated feminist, the ‘Iron Lady’ may be the underdog in the encounter but with the firebrand and her main pillar cast in the mould of former President Rawlings behind her, President Mills must just wait until the last vote is counted.
Nana Konadu’s aspiration follows an emerging trend of former first ladies trying to step into the shoes of their husbands. A trend not restricted to Latin America, and partly inspired by Hillary Clinton’s 2008 bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination in the United States of America (USA).
Hillary Clinton failed to make the transition, but former first ladies in Latin America, and now in Ghana, are following in her footsteps and campaigning to become presidents, in what may become a fresh wave of female heads of state.
For months, the presidential hopeful has been angling towards challenging President Mills, the man to beat in the upcoming election.
The path to the required electoral votes for President Mills could well be tougher this time. In 2006, he reached it by aggressively turning out a figure that sent his opponents home well vanquished but he appears to have shed support, especially from the Rawlings camp.
The President’s re-election, this time, will not have the stamp of former President Jerry John Rawlings, the political godfather who thrust him into the political limelight in 1996, and helped define the mood of 2008.
But to capture the party’s ultimate diadem, Nana Konadu has an uphill task to shake off perceptions that the Rawlingses are set to make Ghana’s presidency a dynasty.
There will be a lot at stake at the congress and among the list is the test case of the influence of the founder and former President, J.J Rawlings, who has consistently criticised the Mills administration.
Be it as it may, analysts of the political scene believe Rawlings carry a magic wand which a Mills re-election hinges on.
Rawlings is vital to the NDC since he holds a bag of influence and magic — even if a paler version — which is essential to Mills’ re-election chances in 2012.
Opinions of the NDC’s cocktail of calculations are varied. For some pundits, Nana Konadu knows she has no hope to lead the party to contest the 2012 general election. However, testing the political waters for her can be a prelude to contest the party’s flagbearership and possibly win the general election in 2016.
For others, President Mills would have wanted the sun to set on his political career at the end of his first term, but the fear of possible deep cracks after his one-term era is pushing him for a second term.
Come the D-day, eyes will be watching, hearts will be thumping on the sidelines of a history-making moment in the annals of the country’s politics.
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