First encounter with Mrs Rawlings unimpressive – Journalists

Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings

Some journalists who turned up for the first media encounter with the flag-bearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, say they were unimpressed with the way and manner she answered their questions.

Though some admitted that the former First Lady is an “intelligent person”, they believed she decided to give simple and direct answers, and at times “brushed some of them aside” to avoid drawing attention to her person.

In her presentation that lasted for about five minutes, Mrs Rawlings said placing people at the center of all national policy direction will be her prime objective if she is elected president.

The former First Lady says her over twenty years role in empowering women in the country has given her a better appreciation of the challenges confronting women and children.

“We cannot continue to underestimate our productive potential because existing policies are blocking the people from harnessing their potential,” she said.

During the question time, one of the journalists put to her that she is in the race just to ensure the defeat of the NDC and not really to win, and another journalist asked about the influence of former president Rawlings on her decision to contest the presidency on the ticket of the NDP and there was also another on corruption.

Even though she responded to their questions, some of the journalists told Joy News her responses were quite short and not detailed enough for someone with very little time to campaign.

“I wasn't too satisfied with the answer she gave me, because those were direct questions that I asked but I think most of the questions that came she found a nice way of going around them. For me it leaves a lot of doubt…so the next time I will advise that her handlers will be in a better position to tell her to be forthright. These were just simple direct questions that require direct answers. I think she didn't do badly.”

Another said: “There was not much of a policy statement that I was expecting. Also some of the questions too, the answers were not forthcoming.”

But a political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kwasi Amakye thinks the journalists were “running ahead of her”, and asked that she is given some time to settle in the already heated political terrain.

He believes Mrs Rawlings' news conference was to "address certain issues" and to declare herself to the Ghanaian public, contrary to what the journalists thought would be setting out of her policy statement.

“At the right time the party will come out with their policy statement,” he anticipated.

“We should give her time, and her party time to sit down and work things out and come out with areas they want to look at.”