office when people are throwing mud at you. Tey must have developed a thick skin to subject themselves to all that.” But if Mrs Rawlings wins the primaries


against the great odds, can she ever win a national election and become president? Boakye Djan answered: “In Ghana it is a matter of money, so


if she can pull the money anything is pos- sible, because from my experience, policy doesn’t count much in Ghanaian poli- tics; it’s money, even a good name doesn’t count any more. If you are prepared to pay money, you can do so much. “So Nana Konadu winning an election


tactics in the NDC in the run-up to the 2012 election, which will allow Akufo-Addo a free run to victory” – Boakye Djan (above)


home – and this frightens Ghanaians! As one university lecturer in Accra told


New African: “Imagine if President Mills had been Mrs Rawlings sitting in Te Cas- tle [the seat of government], where would Kufuor’s former ministers have been by now, and what great political dust such ar- rests and detentions would have kicked up in the country? Imagine the implications for national stability and peace!” In fact, many people are amazed that


defeat Mills and become the presidential candidate. Voters will not even need to get out of bed to know that “Buy One, Get One Free” is the new fashion in town. As Araba Tagoe put it: “Mrs Rawlings


is being ably supported by her husband, which means he would be the one making the political decisions for her, something Ghanaians frown upon”. All these views have congealed to cre-


ate the impression that Rawlings is bent on becoming a “backseat driver” steering national affairs from the comfort of his


the Rawlingses want to stage a comeback at all. Said Boakye Djan last August when he was asked why the Rawlingses want to return: “I was tempted to give in to Lord Acton’s great saying that ‘power cor- rupts and absolute power corrupts ab- solutely’. It’s strange! It just defines the possible answers to what is happening to the Rawlingses. If you were less sure of yourself, about what is possible in private life without state largesse, then you would be tempted to get back into public office to enjoy those frills and privileges. “It could also mean that their exit plan


has failed them, otherwise they would be content to stay put and out of the public glare. “Tat’s the best objective answer I can


give, otherwise it doesn’t make sense to me that after 10 years of uncontrolled dic- tatorship and 8 years of semi-detached dictatorship, you want to come back into


“There are going to be spoiling


is likely to happen, but not in 2012 even if she were to replace Mills at the [primaries]. Her persona at the moment does not go down well with a lot of Ghanaians, and yet my intelligence is that they are prepar- ing to replace Mills with her at the next NDC congress.” Djan went on: “Te Rawlings camp has


calculated that without the party struc- tures behind Mills, he is game. But he is in charge of the government and if he can use the government machinery through his appointed agents, he can also mobilise enough money to fight back. Hence the open warfare, the stakes are high.” But what if Mills wins the primaries in


the end, how would the race pan out in 2012 against the NPP’s presidential can- didate, Nana Akufo-Addo? Djan’s answer has not been bettered by anybody since: “It all depends on how the NDC heals


its wounds,” he said. “If the wounds are not healed early enough, the NDC is going to lose in 2012, it doesn’t matter who they throw up because if they remove Mills, his camp will work against the Rawlings camp; and if the Rawlings camp doesn’t win the presidential nomination, they will make sure that Mills loses in 2012 so that 2016 will become a free show in which Nana Konadu and everybody from their camp can contest. “And so there are going to be spoiling


tactics in the NDC in the run-up to the 2012 election, which will allow Akufo- Addo a free run to victory. Tat’s my fore- cast. None of the groupings in the NDC is going to give in to support another to fight Akufo-Addo, they would rather fight each other to lose so that the leadership struggle will open up for 2016. But it will start immediately from 2012, that’s the way I see it.”


New African June 2011 | 49


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