VICTOR SMITH FIRED?

Former president J J Rawlings Credible information picked up by The Statesman's newshounds indicate Victor Emmanuel Smith, long serving aide to former President Jerry John Rawlings has virtually been fired. The Rawlingses and their close aides are said to be livid at Mr Smith's alleged leaking of the news that NDC flagbearer John Evans Atta Mills had consulted NDC founder Jerry Rawlings on who becomes his running mate, and the two had agreed on Prof Mills’s choice of John Mahama.

At an emergency meeting Tuesday night, the decision was taken to relieve him of his duties as aide to the former president and de facto party spokesman and reassign him to a temporary office in the party while a permanent decision is taken on his fate.

On Tuesday, April 1, 2008, the Daily Graphic reported that after months of speculation on who will partner Prof Mills, the party had finally settled on John Dramani Mahama, MP for Bole Bamboi.

According to the paper, the consultations ended when Prof Mills briefed the former President on his choice of Mr Mahama. Crucially, the paper reported that Mr Rawlings’s spokesman, without naming the person, had described the choice as a good one. Victor Smith has been accused of passing on the information while insisting on his not being named specifically as the source, creating the impression that he was speaking for the Rawlingses while expressing his own opinion.

While the former president is said to be ambivalent to Prof Mills’s choice, Victor Smith would prefer a John Mills-John Mahama ticket, contrary to the wishes of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, wife of Mr Rawlings and Life Patron of the 31st December Women’s Movement, the de facto women’s wing of the NDC, who prefers Betty Mould Iddrisu, wife of former Minister of Defence and defeated flagbearer aspirant Mahama Iddrisu.

Basically, our sources say, the Rawlingses have lost confidence in Victor Smith. At an emergency meeting Tuesday night, the decision was taken to relieve him of his duties, but in order to ensure a smooth transition, to send him to either the party office or the Mills campaign team office.

He had earlier been forced to issue a statement in which he damned the Daily Graphic report as "absolutely false and a great lie calculated by self seekers and their agents to sow seeds of discord in the NDC."

He attributed the publication to certain selfish individuals in the party who had made it their preoccupation to disseminate lies about the party and attribute it to the former President.

Mr Smith, who served as special assistant to Mrs Rawlings during the NDC regime and was shifted to the former President in 2001, was overhead telling associates on Tuesday he was on the verge of losing his job. Widely seen as the Rawlingses mouthpiece, he was the most vocal defender of the former first couple and the party they founded, sometimes rationalising actions that many felt were indefensible.

Even his voice could at times be confused with that of the former president. However, he appears to have been paid for his long years of loyalty by being fired for not going for the choice of Mrs Rawlings, who many say is the real power behind the throne.

Reacting to the story on several radio stations Tuesday, the former First Lady denied that a final decision had been made on the issue of running mate, insisting her husband "has not made up his mind." Prof Mills was virtually forced to admit who 'owns’ the NDC, when he publicly backtracked on the majority endorsement of his choice by the party leadership because the Rawlingses do not approve of Mr Mahama.

Indeed, former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings served notice of her husband’s intention to scuttle Prof Mills’ plans when she asserted in an interview with Accra-based Joy FM that the thrice defeated candidate will not have things his own way in the choice of a running mate.

She went as far as to say that she could not promise any support to Prof Mills’ campaign if John Mahama is not dropped for the choice preferred by she and husband, Mrs Mould Iddrisu.

Nana Konadu told Joy FM’s Akwasi Sarpong that Mills, in the 2004 elections, was treated with ‘kids gloves’ in his choice of a running mate, a decision which did not sit well with some officials of the party, including then Chairman, Obed Asamoah. "And look at what happened to us then," she said in reference to the electoral defeat.

"Atta-Mills can only nominate and when he nominates, he takes it to the Council of Elders and then he takes it to the NEC, (National Executive Committee) they will do their deliberation before he can say, ‘this is the person I want’ and that has not been done."

However, information available to this paper is that the National Executive Council and the party’s Council of Elders of the NDC met and endorsed John Mahama as Mills’ candidate. Prof Mills submitted three names, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, John Mahama and Mohammed Mumuni, Prof mills’s running mate in 2004, once again ceding his party constitutional right to nominate a running mate and present him to the Council of Elders and NEC for consultation because the former President has his choice whilst the current leader has his. But what Prof Mills did in 2004 was to take his candidate (Mumuni) and JJ’s (John Mahama) to the NEC, but according to Mrs Rawlings Tuesday, Mr Rawlings had already told the NEC to go along with Mills’s choice, which they did. A decision the Rawlingses rue to this day, according to Mrs Rawlings. But, intelligence available to The Statesman indicate the former first couple face opposition in the form of the Ahwois, the Ayarigas and a host of others who are telling Mills to hold his ground.

Thus, Prof Mills finds himself caught in the middle, between his major source of funds (an estimated 60% of the resources needed for the presidential campaign is expected to come via the former first couple) and the wishes of a large proportion of his party. According to information picked up by The Statesman, the founder of the NDC and his wife have threatened to deny Prof Mills campaign funds if he defies them on the choice of running mate. Meanwhile, the NDC leader has denied categorically, media publications claiming he has settled on John Mahama for a running mate.