Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings was one of the major pioneers of the National Democratic Congress, in fact, her exceptional role in decision making and activities of the party during its genesis is a major contributing factor to the creation of the NDC, Former Minister of Education, Fritz Baffour has said.
Touching on Ghana’s political history on Metro TV’s ‘Good Evening Ghana’ show, Mr. Baffour noted that Mrs. Rawlings, at the time Ghana was set to become a democratic state, worked relentlessly to ensure that the NDC had its acts together and was solid enough to face other competing parties in the system considering it was a fairly new party compared to others including the Nkrumahists National Convention Party (NCP) and the NPP which had a strong historical backing from the Danquah/Busia period.
She among other things he said, worked on couching a suitable emblem and slogan for the party at a time when the NPP had already taken off with their their party symbol, the elephant and their slogan.
“By 1992, we decided to become a democratic nation and the constitution came in and we had the referendum and political parties and then we started. I originally started with the Eagle club but then I realized there was another one which became the National Democratic Congress”
“That was a lot of work from Nana Rawlings, she did an incredible job to create the NDC, she worked very very hard, she was very much part of the foundation”
“At the time, the NPP had taken off, they had their emblem; their ehyieee, the elephant and all we were struggling with our emblem which became the umbrella eventually which Prof. Kwame Addo and Nana Rawlings worked on because they were the ones that were artistically inclined”, he stated.
Mr. Baffour also named Dr. Obed Asamoah, and Professor Kwame Addo as key players in the creation of the party.
“Dr. Obed Asamoah was also there because there was another grouping which was more Nkrumahist which was the NCP”, he said.
He described former President Jerry John Rawlings as one of the most admirable Presidents in the history of Ghana. He extolled the former military man as one who was welcoming to new ideas and very open to contributions even from civilians during his military rule.
“I started spending a lot of time with him, filming and he was very welcoming to new ideas and I admired him a great deal as a president.”
“PV Obeng, Captain Tsikata, Tsatsu Tsikata, D.F Annan, Kwesi Botchwey were very much part of it.....There was big contribution by civilians, people like Kofi Totobi Kwakye, Ato Austin, they were all there and they were working very very hard and there was a lot of selflessness at the time among the time”, he indicated.
