Konadu hits back at Botwe over 'takeover' claims

The former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings has hit back at critics following assertions that the family is taking over the ruling party's structures and usurping the authority of President JEA Mills.

Member of Parliament for Okre and leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dan Botwe, in the wake of the recent outburst by the president said if there was anybody challenging the authority of the sitting president, that person should be ex-president Rawlings.

He cited recent demands by the ex-president for District Chief Executives and security heads appointed by the Kufuor government to be ousted, contrary to an earlier order by the president for them to stay on.

The former presidential candidate for the NPP also made reference to ex-President Rawlings' unannounced visits to the national headquarters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and his wife's (Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings) "thank you tours" to markets following the victory of the NDC.

But in a strong rebuttal, the former first lady told Citi News on Thursday, Dan Botwe has no rights to question the actions of her family.

She said Mr. Botwe should rather worry over how their party, the NPP, has emptied the coffers of the state, inundated the country's shores with cocaine and impoverished the Ghanaian people.

Mrs. Rawlings dismissed claims that her visit to the markets were to 'outshine' the sitting first lady-Naadu Mills, adding she was accompanied to the markets by other women in the party as well as the 31st December Women's Movement.

She was appalled by continued references to her activities as an attempt to undo the first lady.

"You can only become the first lady when you are the wife of the president. My husband is not the president," she said.

Why do people not refer to Ursula Owusu's activities in the media as an attempt to outshine Mrs Kufuor, she lamented, adding there must be “consistency in the judgement of people.”

On the performance of the 31st December Women's Movement, an NGO she presides over, Mrs Rawlings insists the movement is still in existence contrary to claims that it has folded up.

She accused the immediate past president, Mr. Kufuor, for personally seeing to the bankruptcy of the movement but said all his attempts proved futile.

She also accused the media of giving low publicity to the activities of the NGO in the past eight years.

Mrs Rawlings however dismissed claims the NGO was funded by the then NDC government which her husband presided over.

Story by Nathan Gadugah