Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings; Our Best Bet for the Presidency!

Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings is the best bet for Ghana, and the safest. We will probably have the safest eight years in our history. It would be smart tactical move and would most undoubtedly help the NDC out in terms of votes from both the Ashanti region and women votes.

Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was raised in a middle-class family in Cape Coast. From that classic suburban childhood in Cape Coast, Konadu went on to become one of Ghana's foremost advocates for women, children and families; an astute politician and as thorough as the iron lady of Britain Margaret Thatcher, very influential; a former first Lady of Ghana who helped transform that role, becoming a champion for health care and families and a champion of women's rights and human rights in Ghana and beyond.

Politically, no NDC activist is better positioned than Nana Konadu; she has established herself as an icon of leadership. The NDC need political cover, and Mrs Rawlings has the necessary hard-line standing in the country and beyond. She would give the NDC more political protection for tough decisions on policy issues than would any other NDC leader. Nana Konadu also have terrific-relation with the ordinary man on the street. She knows the issues that affect the ordinary man. At this point the only viable Presidential candidate the NDC have is Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings. She matches up incredibly well with both Nana Addo and Alan Kyeremanten.

Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings is a true Ghanaian heroine who has served this country long and honorably, and she is the best person to lead us into the future.The nation needs someone who has the temperament, the intelligence, the perspective, the vision and the compassion to steer us through difficult times. That person is Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings. She has emerged as someone who is poised under pressure, a natural-born leader who inspires both by word and deed. Perhaps most significant is Nana Konadu’s view of the world and her intellectual curiosity. She is not a stark one-dimensional viewpoint where everything is good or bad, right or wrong, black or white. She recognizes rightly that the world and its problems are presented in shades of gray and that the solutions to those problems are likewise multi-dimensional. Her enthusiasm and charisma can go a long way toward healing this country and uniting us in common purpose. Electing Konadu as president will send a powerful message to the world that Ghana is ready to move beyond an administration marked by arrogance and smug condescension. Electing this woman of substance will prove to us and to the world that this country has moved to a new place of inclusion and acceptance.

To claim, as her opponents are desperately trying to do, that we don’t need another Rawlings to be a president is ludicrous and downright obtuse. Her every word and action has been examined under the microscope of a public campaign for more than 19 years. Her background and her philosophy have been laid out in detail while in public office as first lady of Ghana. The picture that has emerged is of a thoughtful woman deeply devoted to country and family. She is a conciliator and synthesizer, ready to give due respect to opposing views -- a grace desperately needed in paralyzed Ghana.

To fault Nana Konadu for a lack of experience likewise falls short. In addition to her real accomplishments as a president of 31st December Women movement — and yes, as astute organizer — she has shown a mastery of the complex issues that she will deal with as president.

For disaffected NDC activists as well as many Ghanaians like me, John Mills is an irascible grandstander of slippery ideology who has made a career out of flattering and courting the media. It remains debatable whether Mills' traumatic experience as a president have enhanced or distorted his admittedly wide-ranging knowledge of national issues. Crystal clear, however, is Mills’ startling awkwardness as a public speaker. With stilted, stodgy intonations that seem to descend from the late-19th century era of one-room schoolhouses, John Mills laboriously reading a speech is a painful spectacle. After the mumbling, disjointed John Kufuor, doesn't Ghanaian deserve a more sophisticated leader on the international stage?

And to those who says the world is not ready for yet another woman president must look back and reflect over the exploits of Margaret Thatcher (The Iron Lady) of Britain and Indira Gandhi (Lion Heart) of India. In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto (late) at age 35 became the first woman elected to lead the country from 1988-1990 and again from 1993-1996. Megawati Sukarnoputri a muslim woman, also became the president of Indonesia between 2001 and 2004. Gloria Arroyo of Philippine and Angela Mikel of Germany as well as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia are perfect example of what leadership is all about.

Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings is not perfect. But she’s right on most of the issues. She is the best bet before us to heal this country, change the politics of Ghana, unite us and guide us out of our current leadership crisis. In a choice between the future and the past, the decision is easy.

Nana is the best choice for the next president of the Ghana.

Emmanuel Dela Coffie

www.delacoffie.wordpress.com