…The Chronicle already doing hatchet work on the Rawlingses

By Awura Ama Obeng

Even though Mrs. Agyeman-Rawlings, Former First Lady and a Vice-Chairman of the
NDC has not said she will vie for the 2012 flagbearer slot of her party, a
clique within the NDC have drawn their daggers out of their sheath and hired
pro-NPP newspapers to smear her.

Intelligence available to the Daily Post reveals that a member of the clique met
two editors a fortnight ago at Cantonments in Accra and gave them the task of
smearing Mrs. Rawlings.

While one editor was tasked to publish opinion polls that suggest that Mrs.
Rawlings would and cannot win any election held in Ghana, the second editor was
tasked to make issues of the past, especially the issue involving the 31st
December Women’s Movement’s purchase of Nsawam Cannery, a subsidiary of GIHOC
as well as other matters.

Human Rights abuses during the PNDC era are also to be raised to demonise the
Former First Lady. Daily Post is unable to say how much the editors were paid to
do this dirty job.

Already, another pro-NPP newspaper, The Chronicle, has set the pace to demonise
the former First Lady.

A content analysis of the publications of this paper reveals an average of one
negative headline about Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings a week. The interesting thing
about these publications is that they are fraught with outright lies, rumours
and half-truths.

Last month saw an intensification of these publications on the Rawlingses.
The Friday, June 4, 2012 issue of the paper ran the bold banner headline
RAWLINGS CAN STAGE A COUP. Three days later, it produced the screaming headline
“At last the cat is out of the bag! KONADU TO CONTEST MILLS IN 2012. Yet,
nowhere in the story could the paper prove that Mrs. Rawlings had announced that
she was going to contest President Mills.

In its Wednesday, June 9, 2010 edition, The Chronicle ran the headline “plot to
unseat President Atta-Mills. IBRAHIM ADAM SNUBS KONADU.

“DON’T LISTEN TO RAWLINGS…Konadu will send party into opposition”was the
headline of the Monday, June 14th edition of The Chronicle.
Just last Friday, the paper came out with the headline NAADU SNUBS KONADU IN
BRUSSELS.

The negative reportage, obviously at the behest of the clique in the NDC,
however, will do no damage to the Rawlingses as NDC supporters do not expect any
positive news about them or the NDC in a paper like The Chronicle whose
publisher , Kofi Coomson, has publicly stated his preference for a Nana Addo
Presidency than a Mills one, according to a diplomat in Accra who wants to
remain anonymous.

“In fact if anything at all, whoever the members of the clique in the NDC are
working for will be the loser. Dr. Spio Gabrah chose The Chronicle to campaign
prior to the NDC congress in the 2007 and paid dearly for it. Any NDC person who
campaigns in a newspaper which is seen as pro-NPP would simply be singing his
own swan song” he said.
In the coming weeks, the Rawlingses should expect more negative reportage on
them by pro-NPP newspapers who themselves are eager to see the NDC out of power.