Mahama Is Only Doing A Thank You Tour And Campaign...Kick Him Out - Konadu Rawlings

Former First Lady and flagbearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, yesterday called on Ghanaians to kick the John Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government out for poor records and corruption. The call came at the time the NDC was lobbying her husband and founder of the ruling party, Jerry John Rawlings, to join the party�s campaign. Nana Konadu insisted that the increasing levels of poverty and corruption in the country were the bases for the need to change the NDC, explaining that the change that Ghanaians cried for in 2008 did not yield the needed results. �I don�t think he is ruling the country because he is doing a �thank you tour� and campaign; so I have not seen what he has done. All this while, he�s been campaigning,� she said on the midday news of Adom FM yesterday, insisting, �We�ll have to change (the government) again because when things are not going well and Ghanaians are still suffering, everybody will have to take a decision.� The life president of the 31st December Women�s Movement stressed the need for every Ghanaian to examine their living conditions before going to vote on December 7. That, the former vice chairperson of the NDC said, was in view of the fact that �living conditions have become extremely tight and as I have been saying, there are people who finding one meal a day is very difficult for them�. According to her, her association and interaction with ordinary Ghanaians had enabled her to know their problems at firsthand and realised the hardship people were going through, noting, �So when a lot of people can�t get food to eat; even one meal a day�we must know that we are not going the right way and that where we must focus our attention to make life a bit meaningful for Ghanaians.� She therefore indicated her intentions to place the concerns of Ghanaians above politics when given the opportunity to govern the country. Mrs. Rawlings also spoke of plans by some leading members of the NDC to influence parliamentary candidates of her party, the NDP, to change their minds, and advised them from falling for any such schemes which she described as high corruption. Overtures At the time Mrs. Rawlings was firing salvos in the studio of Adom FM, the leader of the NDC had sent a group of old guards of the party from various regions across the country to her husband, former President Rawlings, to convince him to join the party�s campaign for the upcoming election because the ruling party�s campaign was suffering. In a speech read on behalf of the group, made up of about 100 people by one Alhaji Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, they noted ��Our campaign machinery cannot fly without your involvement.� That, they said was because �we have witnessed our campaigns in the past and can say without fear or favour that your absence on the trail is not a good development�, stressing the need for a revolution in the party. In view of that, the group indicated, �we, as former executive of this party from various levels, can therefore not continue to sit idle when just a few people in the name of being executives of the party or ministers of state, engage in acts that have the tendency to destroy this great party of ours.� But Mr Rawlings said, �I hope to play my part in this election period. �I am four years older than I was in 2008 and all the exertion plus my international roles mean I am a tired man.� Mr Rawlings said he was hoping to retire after the last election but �unfortunately things did not fall in place the way they should have�. Though he expressed the wish that President Mahama would win the upcoming elections, Mr. Rawlings stated, �As a party, we have failed in several aspects of governance, particularly with respect to offering confidence to the people that they will receive justice at all times.� He enjoined the old guards to hit the campaign trail, noting, �Your input is valuable to the cause so don�t go back home and watch from the sidelines.� Notable among the former NDC executives present included Nana Osei Bonsu, former national vice chairman, Kofi Mintah, former Central regional chairman, Kofi Sarfo, former Eastern regional chairman, Nana Nimpong, founding member from Brong Ahafo, Hajia Tanato Yakubu, former Northern regional women�s organiser and Iddrisu Ismaila, a former constituency chairman in the Northern Region.