by?Pan-Africanist Briefs
It must not be forgotten that ex-President Rawlings reluctantly relinquished power as the dictator only after a long period of the PNDC misrule and a lot of pressure. And that despite all the veneer of accountability and probity, he is the only President of the 4th?Republic who has entrenched provisions in the constitution permanently defending him for accounting for any actions or omissions committed under his leadership. The National Delegates Convention of the National Democratic Party (NDP) has just ended, with Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings elected unopposed as the Presidential candidate of the NDP. The delegates met at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi to elect a presidential candidate for the December elections, with Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings as the sole candidate and her husband Jerry John Rawlings, of the NDC, as the special guest.
Connecting the dots from the speech and his recent meeting with Akufo-Addo, Rawlings is seeking assurances of ?being taken care of? properly. Rawlings would want assurances that he would not go through what they went through under the Kufour Administration. Thus issues of diplomatic passports, VIP services by State Protocol, as well as other deals such as immunity from prosecution for himself and especially his wife, no witch-hunting and free from political persecution, a sort of safe-passage under the envisaged NPP government, would naturally be on the list. Rawlings is hoping that a defeat at the polls would cause a revolt in the party. This is childish. No political party forgives saboteurs, even if they may claim to have had good intentions.
The very idea that under the protection of Akufo-Addo Administration, he could cause a revolt in his own party is ridiculous, far-fetched and betrays a certain level of weakness and desperation. The deal is that Rawlings is to help torpedo the NDC from power and hand it over to the NPP. Rawlings would then be protected by the new government, and from that position of strength, he plans to instigate the take-over of his run-away party. This is in anticipation that a defeat at the polls, would sow the seeds of an internal party revolt, and would be instrumental in his bid to take-over of NDC after it has been defeated in the impending elections.
He began his speech by saying he was going to keep it “as short as possible because today is your day, today is Nana’s day,” and spoke for one hour and fifty two minutes. It must provide a window into how he must have felt with the ten minutes he was given at the NDC Congress for the same spot. Students of Shakespearean tragedy who see the inevitable fall from grace to grass as a moment of dramatic irony. Rawlings also wear a cloth. And the insect there may finally prove to be his own undoing. One lesson that Mr. Rawlings would also do well to beware of before negotiating his personal safety under an Akufo-Addo regime, in exchange for bringing down the NDC government and helping the NPP to win, is that there is always a Catch 22. Things don’t always go according to plan…
Rawlings first sentence was a proverb that set the tone. “If a certain animal wants to bite you, then it is wearing your cloth.” He joked, even though he was clearing baring his teeth publicly at the NDC. He is the ?animal? with the ?sharp teeth? wearing the NDC cloth that wants to bite the party. The proverb was apt. The ?animal? is Rawlings, and it is the skin of the NDC that is in trouble, for daring to clip his wings! He was fully conscious that coming from deep inside the cloth of the NDC, he can bite that party where it will hurt, and bite hard.
“Oh, by the way…,? he was calculatedly offhand. This, no doubt, in order not to show the obvious link between his desire to ?bite? the NDC, and Akufo-Addo’s visit on the eve of the NDP congress, ?People have began to put all sorts interpretations on Nana Akufo-Addo’s… [laughter] “Tia tia no” [“the short one”, laughter] call on me yesterday?. He continued, ?We are all doing whatever we can, and contributing our part to send a clear signal to our supporters that we want a very vigilant but peaceful election. And that meeting was designed to also send signals to our supporters that if we can do dialogue at this level, there is no reason why it cannot percolate the whole way down.?
The well-rehearsed spontaneity of his initial remarks gave the game away. Rawlings the con-artist, was clearly at his best. ?Oh, by the way?, at the very beginning of his speech, and as casually as possible, as if to say it has nothing to do with the proverb, even though everything points to that. How Rawlings plans to undermine the NDC in order to give Akufo-Addo the pass, is no easy task, due to the growing unpopularity of Akufo-Addo as the front-man and harbinger of GMO contamination in our food chain. His warlike and 419 promises have reduced him into a laughing-stock and an under-dog in the race. His rush to pay courtesies to Rawlings is an act of visible desperation.
What remains even more baffling is how the Rawlings managed to convince themselves that a defeat at the polls with their help would translate into any capability to take over the NDC. Unless his ?House cleaning campaign? is intended to break the law and murder his political rivals he suspects to be corrupt, as they did during the AFRC days, it remains to be seen how the angry and frustrated NDC supporters would turn to the arsonist to play the role of a fire-fighter. without and come back to take over the NDC is politically unrealistic. It simply means, from now on, Rawlings finds himself in a political cul-de-sac, with ?returning as tedious as going over?.
As the Special Guest of the occasion ex-President Rawlings found himself once more, in the same electoral year, before party delegates about to elect a leader. The first one was the NDC, where he was indirectly given strict instructions publicly not to exceed his time of ten minutes allotted to each speaker. At the just-ended NDP Congress, there was nothing of the sort. For the first time former President Jerry John Rawlings had all the time in the world to explain his apparently complex motives, wheelings and dealings behind the scenes, and make some meaning out of his strong opposition the the late President Mills, and why despite the ?divine intervention?, he has chosen to pursue the NDP agenda.
Mr. Rawlings address at the congress also offers a unique key to the understanding of the Rawlingses themselves and what they are up to. What they want is power. Their bottom line is to regain undemocratic control over the ruling party. The speech shows clearly that the couple have been having trouble sleeping, and that what really makes them tick is the sense of insecurity as a result of losing power. When the first couple of a former military dictatorship, guilty of the most heinous crimes and egregious human rights abuses, who have slammed all doors of political accountability with entrenched provisions of absolute immunity, and impunity, fear to retire quietly because they are afraid of persecution, what they are really saying is that they are in this for the long haul. This is all about the extension of the Rawlings dynasty.
The whole show is like a Hollywood movie in which you know how the story is going to end. Judging from their performance at the Sunyani Congress where Konadu only got 3% of the votes polled, the inevitability of failure is predictable with mathematical precision. Since the Rawlingses are so worried about accountability, probity, and the respect for human rights, they should not be surprised that the ?high moral grounds? on which they seek to stand is what is finally going to prove to be their undoing. Ghanaians do not like murders, irrespective of party orientation. Ghanaians hate corrupt politicians, especially those who do not want to relinquish power and would rather continue a dynasty than allow their own party the peace of mind to win an important election. There is no doubt that after the Rawlingses have clearly demonstrated to the Ghanaian public that they are a spent force, the day of the reckoning will be at hand at last!
Pan-Africanist International – Ghana
For Life, the Environment, and Social Justice!
Social Media Outreach
Pan-Africanist International – a grammar of Pan-Africanism and its manners of articulation!
www.
