.SOS To Elders

Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that the unwarranted attacks by the Rawlingses last Tuesday on the credentials of President Kufuor and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufu-Addo, has shaken the very foundation of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), creating uneasiness among the rank and file.

The paper has gathered that some panic measures are in the pipeline to gag the maverick couple and therefore prevent them from further shooting the party in the foot with what has been described as 'their unguarded utterances'.

As at press time yesterday, at least one person has declared his intention to formally ask the Council of Elders of the NDC to tell founder Rawlings to shut up if he has nothing better to say.

Speaking on Joy FM yesterday, National Youth Organizer of the party and MP for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu admitted that what Nana Konadu said about President John Agyekum Kufuor and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo could destabilize Professor John Evans Atta Mills' campaign for the December general elections.

Indicating that the youth wing of the party is worried about the development, the firebrand politician did not mince words in condemning the allegations made by the Rawlingses, which has turned out to be nothing but falsehood.

"I must say that we are deeply concerned," he told Joy FM, adding that everything must be done to prevent a repeat of the incident.

Hon. Haruna Iddrisu said in a critical election year as this, making unsubstantiated allegations against one's political opponents are bound to backfire.

He said he has contacted a member of the council on the measure to take to call Rawlings and his wife to order.

Incidentally, Mr Rawlings is chairman of the Council of Elders. Nana Konadu's reputation has further been dented by the response from no other institution than the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), of which the two NPP leading lights are members.

GBA President, Nii Osah Mills, has confirmed that Nana Akufo-Addo and President Kufuor are qualified lawyers registered with the association.

Speaking on Adom FM, Nii Osah Mills was emphatic that one does not necessarily need to have a first degree in Law in order to qualify as a Lawyer.

The GBA President and Nana Addo were called to the Ghana Bar in the same year, DAILY GUIDE learnt.

The seemingly embattled former First Lady later told the VOA that she was merely trying to set some records straight, and denied she was attacking the character of personalities in the ruling party.

According to her, she decided to revisit the issue because there was no response from the NPP when an NDC MP, Benjamin Kumbuor raised the issue six years ago.

Ironically, Konadu had insisted before the TEIN leadership that she had evidence to substantiate her claims.

The former First Couple had in the past two weeks held two controversial press conferences at their Ridge residence during which they goofed seriously.

In the first instance which took place on the Republic Day, July 1, 2008, Rawlings blasted both the NPP and NDC, claiming they had failed in their respective duties.

After accusing the ruling party of human rights abuses including the killing of the Ya Na, he said the NDC merely looked on sheepishly without raising a finger.

The royal status of Nana Akufo-Addo was also raised as a subject during the press conference.

Then just last Tuesday, his wife declared during an interaction with members of the party's students wing, Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN), that President Kufuor and Nana Addo had lied about their law credentials, stressing that she could prove that they were not lawyers as they claimed on their CVs.

According to her, Nana Akufo-Addo, who studied Economics at the University of Ghana and was called to the English Bar, Inner Temple, merely worked with the economics department of a law firm, only to metamorphose into a lawyer overnight.

"If we have a situation where they are lying to us about their certificates and their CVs, then they can lie about anything.

Kufuor was not a lawyer, and we all know that. And we have another person coming again, I mean Mr. Nana Akufo-Addo.

"We all know he is an economist and not a lawyer. He worked in France, and if I had known I was going to speak, I would have brought along the name of the company," she alleged.

Former President Rawlings went on to verbally attack Ben Ephson, editor of Daily Dispatch, calling him a Western spy.

But arguments of the former First Couple, which glaringly stirred the hornet's nest, were deflated from both sides of the political divide.

The first person to react, Owusu Afriyie, a.k.a. Sir John, revealed that President Kufuor was admitted to the Bar on 21st November, 1961, while Nana Addo joined on 22nd February, 1975.

He gave Nana's enrolment number as 1190, and debunked the claims of the Rawlingses, saying they were the effusions of confused minds.

This was followed almost immediately by the reaction of Professor Mills and his campaign team, who in a swift rebuttal, retorted that Nana Konadu's claims cannot be correct, pointing out that it could only emanate from an ignorant person.

Responding, his spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga, disclosed that Prof. Mills, a former law teacher, said he had no doubt whatsoever about the professional competence and qualifications of Nana Akufo-Addo. He therefore dissociated himself from the claims of the former First Lady.

The NDC presidential candidate said those making the claims were either ignorant or had been misled.

"Certainly, Professor Mills has been a law teacher for a couple of decades, and he's known the Hon. Nana Akufo-Addo for a very long time.

He tells me that he has no doubt whatsoever about his professional competence.

He is qualified as a lawyer and so whoever has made statements about his qualifications is definitely not properly informed or has been misled. Definitely, Nana Akufo-Addo has the competence as lawyer".

As if that was not enough, Hon. Clend Sowu, Ayawaso Constituency chairman of the NDC, told Citi FM that the allegations were unfortunate.

He therefore regretted that in this day and age when ICT had made it easier for people to access information by merely pressing a button, people could still make such reckless allegations, and pleaded with the former First Couple to desist from making any further unguarded statements.

Even Fred Agbenyo, the Greater Accra regional TEIN chairman, who led the team of students to the house of the Rawlingses on Tuesday, said he was personally embarrassed at Konadu's statements, saying, "that was not what we intended".

By Bennett Akuaku