The former first couple Jerry Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman, who are staging a comeback
And that is how it is panning out so far. Former President Rawlings, apparently
frustrated by the “slow” pace of the Mills government, has been snapping at the heels of his former deputy ever since Mills came to power on 7 January 2009. Along with his wife, Rawlings was so
influential in the election of Mills in De- cember 2008, and has been unhappy with some of the “bastards” (as Rawlings called them last year) surrounding Mills. Rawlings has also been unhappy that
Mills would not arrest and jail some former ministers and officials who worked under ex-President John Kufuor, for alleg- edly corrupting themselves or causing fi- nancial loss to the state. As a result, for the
greater part of Mills’ 28 months in office, Rawlings has been all over him, publicly criticising and berating him at the least opportunity and creating the impression that Mills is not up to the job. But as a law professor turned politician,
Mills has shown high statesmanship and refused absolutely to engage Rawlings in the public vituperations. He has taken everything his former boss has thrown at him on the chin and got on with running the country. In the process, two sharply divided camps have emerged in the rul- ing party that the Rawlingses founded in 1991. Tere is now a Rawlings Camp and a Mills Camp, at war with one another. In effect, the law of karma has returned
and strike a blow at the Rawlingses. In 1991, when they were creating the NDC, they poached the heavyweight members of Kwame Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) to shore up the infant NDC. Tat gave the young party huge legs to stand on to fight and win three elections in 1992, 1996 and 2008. President Mills is from the CPP rump of the NDC. Since coming to power, he has radically put Nkrumah back on the agenda, including making him the “Founder of the Nation” and proclaiming his birthday a national holiday. Tis could only rile Rawlings as he has publicly said on several occasions in the past that he is not an Nkrumaist. He therefore sees Mills and the “bastards”
New African June 2011 | 47
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