I Didn't Receive $5m From Government - Nana Konadu(3rd October 2011 10:21:10 by Benjamin Glover)

Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has denied ever receiving $5million from the government on behalf of the 31st December Women’s Movement to run the Nsawam Fruits Cannery. She has also denied ever receiving financial assistance from the government to operate a chocolate factory.

According to her all these assertions by some people she failed to name in the current government, were part of a deliberate attempt to tarnish her image in her quest to secure the flagbearship of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Speaking to a packed audience at the VAG Hall mostly dominated by women in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region as part of her “Thank You Tour,” Mrs Rawlings urged her followers to ignore such allegations, since she contended they were intended as a grand scheme to destroy her image and portray her as an ungrateful person.

“We have struggled to get the factory running on our own. Never has government come to our aid. So anybody who comes to tell you that I am collecting money from the government, it is not true,” she said.

“Five million for me? Even the founder himself, who is supposed to be taken care of as a former president, that has not even started, how much more me, the wife? So when they come, tell them to stop lying about our founder, stop lying about our party,” she urged, adding, “Those who are peddling lies about me are new in our party. They did not sleep in the bushes to form the party, they didn’t walk in the rains to form the party, they did not drink in the villages to form the party as we did, as you did, as I did.

They have come to join a party that is already growing and have become prosperous. They should come and join and learn in order to let the party grow instead of coming to destroy things for us,” she said.

She justified her nationwide tour to express appreciation to those who sacrificed their time and effort during her failed bid to become a flag bearer, stressing that it was only proper that she expressed appreciation to all who supported her.

She indicated that she would continue to mobilise the party at the grass roots in order to make the NDC a strong and formidable party.

Mrs Rawlings bemoaned the unemployment situation in the country, especially among the youth and called on the government to do something extra to give the youth, hope and life.

The former first lady also urged supporters of the party to take active part in the Biometric Registration when the Electoral Commission declares the exercise open later in the year.

A Deputy General Secretary of the NDC and spokesperson for the Rawlingses, Mr Kofi Adams condemned what he termed, attempts by some elements within the party to shift the NDC from the Social Democratic philosophy to that of Nkrumahism.

“What has changed suddenly that five days after winning elections, you have a member of this party in the person of Hannah Tetteh going to sit with the Americans to sit to turn the NDC into something else?” he said, in apparent reference to the contents of recently released leaked cables , Wikileaks.

“Those who think that they want to dismember NDC by their action must be taken out. This is a party that has values. We welcome new members, but we must show them we have a track record,” Mr Adams added


On the decision by Major Boakye Gyan, who has filed to contest for the Jaman South parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NDC, Mr Adams questioned how someone who six months ago described the NDC as an illegality, was being allowed to pick forms to contest as a parliamentary candidate.