By Gifty Arthur

Getting tired with the brouhaha over the accommodation of the founder of his party, or pushed to score political points, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Sene in the Brong Ahafo Region, yesterday begged ex-President Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings to come for his newly-built mansion to end the nagging controversy over his accommodation, in both the party and the media.

Mr. Felix Twumasi-Appiah, who, obviously, was furious about the never-dying accommodation palaver for the Rawlings family and its negative implication for the NDC, asked the ex-president to come for the keys to his newly-built mansion to end the accusations and counteraccusations over whether or not government was taking steps to replace the former first family’s burnt house.

The NDC MP made the offer when he called into Radio Gold’s Newspaper Review programme yesterday, in reaction to a publication by ‘The Enquiry’. In his opinion, the paper served no purpose with the story it did because the items and money that were mentioned in the story meant nothing, considering the status of Mr. Rawlings.

Mr. Twumasi-Appiah did not, however, point out what or who in government has failed towards housing the Rawlingses, whose Ridge residence was gutted by fire on Valentine’s Day 2010. It is not clear whether the NDC MP will start the paper works towards transferring his new house to Mr. Rawlings.

He said that the items listed in the publications: one 29-inch flat-screen TV, two 21-inch TV sets, five table-top refrigerators, seven UPS and six split air conditioning units, installation of a DSTV and upfront payment of subscription for six months, all worth over GH¢40, 000 to enable the Rawlingses settle into their chosen temporary home could not have met the NDC founder’s housing difficulties.

Mr. Twumasi-Appiah, who personally called into the programme, explained to the listeners of the station that when his personal house was gutted by fire some years ago, several friends including the producer of the Gold Paper Review programme, Rowland Acquah-Stevens and The Editor-In-Chief of the “Insight”, Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jur. came to his aid with cloths and other necessary materials to redeem the problem temporarily.

He claimed that the donations although very timely, did not solve the problem he found himself in.

When asked by the host of the programme, Alhassan Suhiyini, whether if after receiving the support he still went out crying that he has never gotten anything from anybody as in the case of the Rawlingses, the legislator responded no, saying that he had always been grateful to his benefactors for coming to his aid.

Unlike his situation, he said Mr. Rawlings’ accommodation problem was a bigger one because of his status as the NDC founder and an ex-president. He wondered why people should come up with various rationalizations, especially the publication by the paper to suggest that government had put in more effort but it was rather the Rawlingses’ who were not being appreciative of government’s efforts at providing them with the appropriate accommodation.

After his submission, two other members of the party, Dr. J. H. Peley and a human interest lawyer, Sam Pee Yalley, called into the programme to make their submission on how the issue of the finding of accommodation for Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings was negatively affecting the image of the NDC.

While the former expressed disappointment about the publications and inferred that the story sought to mischievously attract unnecessary political point, which the party did not need, Mr. Yalley, was of the opinion that Mr. Rawlings’ stature was bigger than the cheap attention those around him were seeking to court in the media, adding this could go a long way to tarnish the image of the party and government.

After listening to other submissions from fellow party members and text messages, reacting to the issue again, Mr. Twumasi-Appiah called into the programme, almost attacking the host for a comment, and then announced that he was prepared to give his fine new house which he is yet to occupy to Mr. Rawlings if only he will accept the offer.

The Sene MP who used to be very vocal during the NDC’s days in opposition, defending the party’s position on the issues of the day on Peace Fm, Adom Fm, Joy Fm and others, but had to strangely stop doing so, did not mention the location of the said house and how secured it is for the Rawlings family.

He averred that he was neither a minister nor board member in the Mills’ administration but had been able to acquire that property through gold transactions, and would not mind giving it out to the founder of his party to live in, adding that the ¢400 million (old cedi) value put on the items given to Mr Rawlings was insignificant, as he could spend that amount in a day given his financial status due to his gold business.

Meanwhile, a Deputy Minister of Tourism, James Agyenim-Boateng, has insisted that the ex-Presidents of Ghana, JJ Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor, were involved from the conceptual stages to the completion point of their mansions at the Trasacco Valley Estates.

Aides to the ex-Presidents, a few weeks ago, made the headlines when they broke the news that their bosses had rejected the government mansions because they were not involved in the planning, specifications of the houses and the locations among others.

However Agyenim-Boateng, on last Tuesday, told an Accra radio station that those were wild allegations because the views of the two existing former heads of state concerning the mansion, were duly taken onboard.

“Contact persons of the two former presidents were kept in the known,” Agyenim-Boateng said. “At every point in time when government was going to make payment, they were kept in the known at every single point, and there was no objection,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show.

He reiterated that the keys to the two mansions purported to have been rejected by the former presidents have not been handed over to government, therefore it is strange to say the buildings were rejected.

“It is not as if anybody in government woke up one morning and said that government has provided accommodation for the two former presidents without regard to what their own specifications were or without putting them in the known. That is far from the truth. ”

He maintained that there was no security threat with regards to the mansions and the ex-presidents were safe to relocate to their new residences.