President Mills may be having butterflies in his stomach about whether the Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings would contest him for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flag-bearership for the 2012 elections after she allegedly rejected the position of Foreign Affairs Minister he offered her.
Sources within government say after realising that the sidelining of the Rawlingses is part of the reason why Ridge is giving the presidency a hard time, a decision was taken to offer the position of minister of Foreign Affairs to Mrs. Rawlings as Obama did to the Clintons by appointing Hilary Clinton the US Secretary of State.
Mrs. Rawlings however would not fall for the bait which would obviously derail her presidential ambitions which sources close to her say she has.
The first emissary to be sent to her was Mrs. Christina Amoako-Numah, one time Minister for Environment, Science and Technology and later Education in the Rawlings government.
Obviously, she was chosen for this difficult assignment because she is seen as one of the few people in the NDC government of today who have not stepped on the toes of the NDC founder and his wife.
After she failed in this enterprise of convincing Nana Konadu to accept the Minister of Foreign Affairs position, another Rawlings stalwart, Betty Mould Iddrisu was also sent on this expedition.
However, she could not do more than Christina Amoako-Numah leaving the presidency exasperated, frustrated and sitting on tenterhooks.
Very reliable source to Ridge says Nana Konadu rejected the bait dangled before her because her grievances and that of her husband are beyond that of the Foreign Minister position.
The Founder of the NDC himself is said to unhappy about the style adopted by the Mills administration to govern the country. He particularly believes that Mills and his kitchen cabinet are treating the officials of the erstwhile Kufuor administration who ransacked the state coffers with kids’ gloves.
Rawlings is also said to be privy to several machinations of the so-called Mills camp led by Ato Ahwoi and his brother Kwesi to reduce the influence of Rawlings within the NDC.
Any person, be it a business man or woman, pro-NDC journalists or ordinary party supporter, who is seen as a pro-Rawlings is seen as an anti-Mills person.
Furthermore, such actions as surveillance place on the Rawlingses is said to be irking the former first couple.
The last straw that may have broken the camel’s back is the silence from the Presidency while some heavyweights in the party as well as Kwesi Pratt and Raymond Archer took the Former First couple to the cleaners.