News:
March 20, 2012
The former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, has impressed upon Parliament to fast track the passage of the Affirmative Bill into law.
She is convinced that the Bill’s early passage will empower the nation’s women to assume their rightful positions in every sector of the economy.
She said Ghana by now should have had the Affirmative Action Law needed to make women become more productive.
She was addressing female students of the Akuafo Hall at the University of Ghana, Legon alongside the NDC’s Mantse Agbona rally which she and her husband boycotted.
Mrs. Rawlings who has been championing women’s development through her Non-Governmental Organization, the 31st December Women’s Movement, noted with deep concern that women have been marginalised in many Ghanaian societies.
This situation she observed has hindered their rapid transformation over the years, despite attempts made to bridge the gender disparities.
She thus challenged the nation’s young women to fight for their rights to be able to move away from stigmatisation.
Commenting on the internal bickering within the party her husband Jerry Rawlings formed, the former first lady attributed it to fallouts from the Sunyani Congress where she was badly defeated.
According to her, the National Democratic Congress risked disintegrating due to the leadership paralysis that has characterised the party lately.
She maintained that the Sunyani congress was rigged in favour of her arch-rival President John Mills who is leading the NDC to contest the December elections.
In her own words, “Even though we went to Sunyani, I did not want to break up the party so there were a lot of things that I did not want to talk about.”
She said: “People who were not delegates were voting as delegates and I know all the delegates; more than a thousand were not delegates, they voted so I let it be because if I wanted to deal with it, I will take the whole bunch to court, but I just decided no, it’s not worth it, let them steal it, if that makes them happy, let them steal it”.
Source: citifmonline.com