President John Dramani Mahama and the leadership of the ruling National Democratic Congress have been challenged to gather the courage and humility to go and beg Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings for reconciliation if they want to win the upcoming general election.

Alhaji Iddrisu Bature, a leading NDC member who threw the challenge, believes the wife of former President Rawlings, founder of the ruling NDC, has got the power and influence to determine the electoral fortune of the party in the December polls.

Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, who is linked to the newly formed National Democratic Party, did not attend the NDC special delegates’ congress to endorse the candidature of President Mahama as the party’s presidential candidate.

According to Ben Ephson, Editor of the Dispatch newspaper, she had even made desperate moves to keep the husband, Mr Rawlings, away from the congress.

Speaking on Asempa FM Friday, Alhaji Bature insisted any move to seek reconciliation with Mr Rawlings would be an exercise in futility if the ruling party failed to reconcile, first, with the former first lady, the women he described as the “power broker."

“If they want their reconciliation with Rawlings to succeed, they should go and plead with Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings. She will determine whether the NDC will win or lose,” he maintained.

At the party’s special delegates congress in Kumasi, Mr Rawlings somewhat sought to give the conditions that may convince him to support the party’s bid for a second term mandate.

The NDC founder charged President Mahama to restore integrity to the presidency, his government and the NDC, adding that his ability to do that would determine whether or not he would win the December presidential election.

He also charged the president to get rid of the foul-mouthed and destructive elements in his government who he described as “babies with sharp teeth spewing horrible invectives” on people they disagree with.

According to Alhaji Bature, “it was regrettable and unfortunate” for Mr Rawlings to indicate there was no integrity at the presidency, adding that the claim by the NDC founder was a serious indictment on President Mahama who had been the Vice President of the late President Mills for more than three and half years.

“If somebody comes to say Mills has destroyed the presidency, where does Mahama belong in this circumstance? It is an indictment on President John Mahama himself because he was the vice president. So if the government was so denigrated, then John Mahama was part of it,” he noted.

He also accused Mr Rawlings of denigrating the memory and legacy of the late President John Evans Atta Mills with the suggestion that there was no integrity as the presidency, adding that he had provided a campaign weapon to the NPP to use against the NDC.

Alhaji Bature cautioned the leadership, as well as the rank and file of the NDC, not to jubilate over the mere presence of the party’s founder at the special delegates’ congress in Kumasi, expressing scepticism even about the impact Mr Rawlings would have on the party’s campaign, at a time the campaign strategy had already been developed without him.

“For close to 43 months, when President Rawlings decided to abandon the baby he gave birth to, the NDC carried out its policies, strategies and programmes without him. Three months to elections, he comes. I am worried and I'm cautioning that the NDC should not jubilate too much,” he charged.