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03.12.2015 Feature Article

Nana Konadu Distorts Her Way Back Into NDC

Nana Konadu Distorts Her Way Back Into NDC
03.12.2015 LISTEN

Former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings mis-stated some facts at a lecture marking the anniversary of the NDC at the National theatre in Accra. The former first lady stated, “We find ourselves in a situation today; having survived the massive corruption of Mr. Kufuor and his NPP and their violent abuse of power and injustice, yet there are so many countries in the world who still pretend and indeed pamper these people who almost destroyed and collapsed our country with corruption, injustice, nepotism and cocaine”. She continued that” the NDC has shown it is a strong party, surviving several machinations by the NPP including persecution, prosecution and stealing, all in the attempt to obliterate the image of the NDC but they did not succeed”.

There are so many lies packed into these paragraphs that one is not sure where to start.

She accused the NPP of corruption, forgetting the numerous cases of corruption leveled against PNDC/NDC functionaries over the years. Only one example will suffice because it directly implicated the Rawlingses. There was evidence presented before a Norwegian court that the Norwegian company SCANCEM, owners of GHACEM in Ghana had paid NDC functionaries, including the Rawlingses millions of dollars to curry influence between 1993 and 1998. There are many more instances of corruption linked to the NDC, including the sale of State-owned enterprises to NDC functionaries, including Mrs. Rawlings at “Donkomi “prices.

On abuse of power and injustice, it is breath-taking that the woman who once had the keys to the “Fiat Campagnola” used to collect and murder the judges in 1982, whose party gunned down the “Kume Preko” demonstrators, “shit-bombed” opponents and brought us the “culture of silence” would complain about violence by others.

The final point that made the former first lady’s remarks brazen and breathtaking is the reference to cocaine. When she was first lady, there were embarrassing rumours that she had once been searched at JFK airport for drugs. Diplomats in the PNDC had been linked to drugs and her husband had been rumoured to use drugs and to behave inappropriately sometimes while under the influence. Recently, many tried to link the Nayeli Ametefe drug case to the NDC government. While many believed these rumours, I never did. One would expect that one who’s family, party and government have been the subject of these rumours would be very reluctant to peddle them against others but she was not.

The former first lady forgot the adage that those who live in glass houses must not throw stones. While each of the charges she made are false, her family, her party and its government live in glass houses whose fragility make her charges reckless.

W e must end the stupid practice of making violence and drugs in particular partisan issues. The NDC and its parent the PNDC have perpetrated enough violence for all its leaders to burn in hell forever and they should not insult us by lying about it.

On illegal drugs, no party has a policy to promote drugs. There is neither a Narcotic Peddler’s Party nor a National Drugs Congress. However, there drug dealers and users in all parties in Ghana. And they exist in every institution, including our churches. As I show clearly in my book, “THE DRUG INVASION OF WEST AFRICA” it is a problem which, if not confronted, will destroy our society. Let us stop making it partisan and deal with the root causes.

Let the former first lady stop lying and let us move forward--- together.

Arthur Kobina Kennedy

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