Bature’s wrong predictions

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday June 16, 2011.
ALHAJI IDDRISU Bature, the Managing Editor of Al-Hajj newspaper seems to be carrying on with his bid to destroy the presidential ambitions of former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings who is lacing her boots to contest President John Evans Mills to enable her lead the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2012.

Now that it has become clear that there is going to be a straight fight between President Mills and Mrs. Rawlings, Alhaji Bature has started making started talking once more.

This time around, he says he is certain that Mrs. Rawlings will not go to contest the President in Sunyani insisting that the former First Lady will announce her decision to back out of the NDC race in a matter of days.

He was emphatic on Adom Fm, a Tema based private station that should Mrs. Rawlings fail to stop contesting President Mills he (Bature) should be barred from speaking on radio and contributing to panel discussions as a ‘resource person’.

According to him, the party has scheduled a meeting between the NDC founder, Jerry John Rawlings and President John Evans Atta Mills and based on the outcome of the meeting, Nana Konadu will announce her withdrawal from the impending congress.

“They want to rebuild the party so if they (Jerry Rawlings, President Mills and council of elders) are able to meet and put across the issues that they think is not going well or what they expect to be done by this government, I believe amicable solutions will be arrived at and Nana Konadu will graciously bow out of the flagbearership race,” he reiterated.

He claimed that it has never been the intention of the former first family for Nana Konadu to contest as president, and stressed that Mr. Rawlings meant it when he declared in Tamale that no member of his family was interested in the presidency.

“It is not speculation, do you remember that Rawlings said in Tamale that neither he nor any of his family members is interested in the presidency. There were denials from Kofi Adams and co but if you compare it with what he reiterated in Kumasi, you can see that their intention is not for Nana Konadu to go and become president.

Konadu is in the race because there is a problem and if it is amicably resolved, why will she continue to be in the race?” he asked.

It will be recalled that on several occasions, Alhaji Bature, who has virtually become the unofficial spokesperson of the NDC boldly predicted that Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings will never contest President Mills at the ruling NDC congress slated from July 8 to July 10.

First, he had said Nana Konadu who is being fully supported by her husband Flt. Lt. JJ Rawlings, the NDC founder, was not serious about her presidential ambitions and went ahead to state that she was only “testing the waters.”

But Nana Konadu who campaigns on the slogan “Be bold” finally picked up her nomination forms for the contest despite complaints of glaring intimidation from her opponent’s campaign team, Get Atta Mills Elected (GAME).

After getting a rude shock, Bature recovered to claim that some NDC leaders were urging the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to impress upon Mrs. Rawlings not to contest President Mills but that did not work.

Mrs. Rawlings then went ahead to subject herself for vetting and has since been cleared to contest President Mills.

Bature then threatened “there’s a lot of information I am suppressing on the Rawlingses, but if people like Kofi Adams (Aide of the Rawlingses) push some of us and we come out to disclose them, his boss will not be able to work on the streets (again). We are suppressing all that information for the unity, progress and growth of NDC; but if Kofi Adams keeps calling us blackmailers or sycophants, we may be forced to come out.”

He was however not bold enough to disclose the so-called ‘information’ he has on the Rawlingses despite Mr. Adams persistence in calling Bature’s bluff.