Feature Article of Wednesday, 16 May 2012Columnist: Thompson, Kofi By Kofi Thompson
I was taken aback by news reports that Mrs. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings is claiming the logo of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), as her intellectual property - because she apparently came up with the design. How extraordinary.
I am not one of those who bash Mrs. Rawlings, regularly, in the Ghanaian media world. Indeed, since the Woyome judgement-debt scandal broke, and the subsequent dismissal of Martin Amidu, as Attorney General, by President Mills, I have consistently urged the NDC to rid itself of President Mills and Vice President Mahama - and replace them with a new party ticket, consisting of Martin Amidu for president, and Mrs. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings as his running-mate.
So, on the whole, I have often empathised with her - because in the war of the sexes, I am firmly in the camp of the female of the species.
However, to claim the NDC logo as her intellectual property, is absurd - and petty. If she designed it, was it, in fairness, not simply her contribution to the party - one of the many contributions other party members too, made: to get the party off the ground, initially? So why register it surreptitiously, in 2010?
Has it not dawned on her yet, that over the years since the party's founding, many individuals too have contributed their quota, to its sustenance and growth - by freely giving, amongst other things: their hard-earned cash; their ideas; their time and energy; etc.?
If such individuals also suddenly decided that they wanted to emulate Mrs Rawlings - and, like spoilt siblings suddenly angry with their playmates, elect to take their ball home too, because they had come to the conclusion that they no longer liked the faces of those playmates, for some spur-of-the-moment reason - would the NDC have survived in the political wilderness, for eight long years, and successfully return to power again, and against great odds, in January 2009?
What would she say to those who point out, and ask, if it is not significant that she only thought of registering the logo as her intellectual property in 2010 - at precisely the point when relations between her and the party had soured?
Would it not be reasonable for the fair-minded to accuse her of bad faith? And could a case of malice aforethought not be made against her, by the NDC, too?
And what self-respecting and fair-minded judge, will find in her favour, if she took the NDC to court, over this daft example of meanness of spirit, and, sodding pettiness, I ask?
Let her be absolutely clear about one thing: what is important today, is that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) must be prevented from returning to power - for the sake of our dear nation. She must focus her considerable energies on that instead.
Sadly, one would have to concur with the uncharitable in our midst, who say that overweening ambition is definitely clouding her judgement. Does she want to destroy the NDC?
Has it not occurred to her that perhaps that selfsame party will help one of her four offspring, to become a president of Ghana, someday - and that it is that child of hers, not she, who will be the next one in their family to lead Ghana, and follow in President Rawlings' footsteps?
Above all, it is time she understood that any political party formed by her now, will never be as strong as the NDC - and will never be as popular around the country, either. Ever. She must simply let sleeping dogs lie. A word to the wise...
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