…Rawlings moves against Obed
With almost a month to the National Delegates’ Congress of the minority NDC, reports say there are underground manipulations and lobbying for positions.
According to “The Independent”, an Accra private newspaper, “two protagonists who took the centre stage in the NDC Vice-Presidential slot saga have again resurfaced with former president, Rawlings using his influence in the party to scuttle Dr. Obed Asamoah’s chairmanship bid in the December congress.”
Dr. Asamoah is the former Attorney General and Minister for Justice and currently, the head of the NDC re-organisation team.
Reports say Rawlings told a meeting with the NDC Youth Forum, at his Ridge residence in Accra that he would have preferred his former advisor on governmental affairs, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu as the chairman of the party instead of much favoured Asamoah.
In a move devoid of the tact subtly and lobbying, ala popular “Swedru declaration,” that go with internal politics in the run-up to a party’s delegates’ congress, the ex-president was unequivocal about his desire that the Obed Asamoah bid is nipped in the bud.
He swore to resign from the party if the delegates make the unpardonable mistake of electing the former A-G as chairman of the party, the Independent reports on its front-page page.
“Desperate not to be overtaken by the “Obed for Chairman bid”, the Independent learnt from the meeting that the ex-president said, “I will do everything possible to woo all delegates before the congress.”
“The Independent also learnt from credible sources at the meeting that a bemused Youth Forum which included former National Union of Ghana (NUGS) president, Idrissu Haruna, Fiifi Kwetey and one Bismark (all leading members of the Youth Forum) and other crack Rawlings faithfuls – E.T. Mensah, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah and Verbal Marksman, Tony Aidoo were all taken aback when the former president went into tantrums and swore to derail the Obed Asamoah bid through an orchestrated smear campaign on some selected radio stations.”
He said, “If he (Obed) thinks he can do a coup on me, I will show him that I have done two coups,” The Independent quotes Rawlings as saying at the meeting.
The Independent further gathered that the former president suspected that the party’s decision to strip him off his leader and founder positions and make him a nominal founding figure was mooted by the former Attorney General who according to sources at the meeting: “the former president is so much scared of his chairmanship bid.”
This is the second time the former president is moving in on Dr. Asamoah after his strong case for the maintenance of the co-chairmanship idea was thrown overboard by the executive council of the NDC.
The belief within the pro-Rawlings faction who are in favour of the co-chairmanship idea is that an Obed chairmanship would not be absolute.
Last Tuesday, the Legal Committee which compromises Alban Bagbin, minority leader, Kenneth Dzirasah, second deputy speaker, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, MP for Kumbugu, Kweku Baah and others also in agreement with the decisions reached through the reorganisation tour of the party unanimously moved to torpedo the co-chairmanship idea.
To the Rawlings-led group, the major obsession is to find any way possible to curtail the powers of Dr. Obed Asamoah who indications on the ground show has emerged as a sure bet for the NDC chairmanship.
The decision to make Rawlings the Founding Father of the party was based on a consensus reached at the preliminary rounds of the party’s nation-wide reorganisation tour, which had most Rawlings allies as an integral part of the team.
The popular decision was that as a former head of state, there was the need for Mr. Rawlings to rise above partisan politics and the only position commensurate with his current position as a statesman should be an honorary one. Sources say the former president is also worried about the cordial relationship between Dr. Asamoah and former P/NDC members – Paul Victor Obeng, former presidential advisor and Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, former Finance Minister all in the NDC regime and Captain Kojo Tsikata, former security advisor in the PNDC regime.
These three functionaries of the P/NDC who Rawlings consider as his nemesis are likely to return to the NDC in the event of Obed’s election as the chairman of the NDC.
At the height of the impasse between the Rawlingses and Captain Tsikata, it was through the magnanimity of Dr. Asamoah that the former security advisor got a place to lay his head.
Captain Tsikata’s official residence was upon the orders of the ex-president taken away from him because he had dared to ask about the sources of funding for the 31st December Women’s Movement.
A distraught source told The Independent that the mention of these three names brought intense tears from the former president. “How? How can he bring all these people back into the party I toiled to build,” a tear-drained Rawlings asked.
It would be recalled that the leader and founder positions were conferred on the former president at the NDC’s National Delegates’ Congress at Sekondi in 1998.
One party functionary described the Rawlings tantrums as the cries of a baby who is aware that he is about to lose a treasured toy, the paper says.
Based on prevailing circumstances, the party has every legitimate right to decide who occupies that position based on popular acclamation or adult suffrage.
Rawlings’s list
Other media reports say the former president has a list of names of his favourites who by indications will easily find themselves in the National Executive of the NDC.
The names of the hardcore loyalists who could help in the grand Rawlings design to fill almost all-executive positions of the party with cronies of the former president are included in the list.
Media reports say the list contains names of former functionaries of the NDC. The names that featured prominently in the media speculations include former Education Minister and current Chairman of the publicity committee of the NDC, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, former Minister for Youth and Sports, Enoch Teye Mensah and former deputy Defence Minister, and Tony Aidoo.
Meanwhile, Dr. Tony Aidoo has denied ever attending the meeting and accordingly described the Independent story as false. He was speaking to this reporter on phone in reaction to the story.
The former deputy Defence Minister was mentioned as one of the people who attended the meeting with Rawlings and also one of the names on Rawlings’s list of favourites to take executive positions in the party.
Source: GhanaWeb
