THE internal crisis facing the NDC has now reached a fever pitch with the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, claiming ownership of the NDC’s logo. According to a letter written to the National Chairman of the NDC, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, by Nana Konadu’s solicitors, Nana Konadu gave her unhindered permission to the party to use the logo but later at the party’s Sunyani Congress reminded the party of “her exclusive intellectual property interests and particularly warned the party against the infringement of her exclusive moral rights in the logo.”
THE letter, however, said those rights Nana Konadu mentioned are still being infringed upon by both party leadership both in their public utterances and deeds and thereby denigrating the symbolic value of the logo.
THEN comes the expected: “Our client believes that those values were embodied in the vision of the founder of the party and subsequently enshrined in the constitution of the party. Our client further instructs that the said denigration of the logo has manifested in disrespect for the founder, the disunity of the party, the neglect of its egalitarian values, lack of accountability by key party leaders to the membership of the party and consequently in the disaffection of the rank-and-file.”
WHAT may account for this we ask..? Could it be that the ‘Akatamanso’ logo is to shift camp to the National Democratic Party? Her actions indeed smear of sour grapes. Nana Konadu’s demand reinforces the Rawlingses’ claim that the NDC is their brainchild to be possessed by them and used to achieve their political objectives. Those who have thought otherwise and succeeded in preventing them from claiming the NDC as their own seem to have underrated the power of the Rawlingses to cause havoc at will.
CERTAINLY, a party’s public image is reflected by its logo and what it represents. The spirit behind the party largely dwells in that logo. If the former first lady goes ahead with the threat, many have begun wondering what logo the NDC would use for the 2012 elections.
WHAT will the NDC lose without that logo? Produce a new one, re-design and re-engineer itself to be recognised as a new NDC by the electorate? Or will the party’s leaders simply call Nana Konadu’s bluff and let her go and burn the sea in protest? Time would tell.
THE NDC’s internal crisis is definitely proving to be insurmountable for several reasons. The most important of which is the inability of the main players to accept that they are the problems to be solved.
WE on Today wait to see who else will come forward to demand his or her pound of flesh from the NDC? Nana Konadu has set the pace to set the party apart; would it be a surprise if her husband follows suit to demand that the very name of the party be given to him? The NDC may sink together in all of this.
