In an overture aimed at healing long-standing divisions within the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the party’s General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, has made a passionate call for the full reintegration of the family of the party’s founder, the late President Jerry John Rawlings.
Speaking at a commemorative event marking what would have been Rawlings’ 78th birthday—now observed annually by the party as Rawlings Day—Mr. Kwetey underscored the urgent need to bring the Rawlings family, including his widow Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings and children, back into the party’s core structures.
A call for unity and restoration
“The moment has come for the family of Rawlings to again be in the very foundation of everything with us,” Mr. Kwetey declared to cheers from party faithful gathered at the NDC headquarters in Adabraka, Accra, on Sunday, June 22, 2025.
“And the family of Rawlings means not just Rawlings, but also Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.”
In a speech that was at once conciliatory and reverent, the NDC General Secretary emphasized that the legacy of the former president could not be truly upheld without the full involvement of his immediate family.
“It is a celebration of a special person who actually was born with a special mission, and we happen to be beneficiaries of that mission,” he said. “Whatever he started, this is the time for us to build a foundation so that the real reset agenda that he had in mind can start to happen.”
A complicated history: How the rift began
The appeal from Mr. Kwetey marks a significant shift in the NDC’s posture toward the Rawlings family, especially in light of the turbulent relationship that developed over the past decade between the party and its founding household.
The fallout traces back to the 2000s and gained public visibility after Rawlings—known for his no-holds-barred criticism—repeatedly accused the NDC of straying from its values of probity, accountability, and social justice.
Tensions escalated further in the run-up to the 2012 and 2016 elections when Rawlings, and especially his wife Nana Konadu, openly expressed dissatisfaction with the direction of the party.
Nana Konadu’s eventual break from the NDC came in 2011, when she formed the National Democratic Party (NDP) after unsuccessfully challenging the then-sitting President John Evans Atta Mills for the NDC presidential ticket in 2011.
Her new party ran against the NDC in the 2012 general elections, marking a deep and public schism that lasted until Rawlings’ death in November 2020.
Even after passing of J.J Rawlings, relations between the NDC and the Rawlings family remained frosty.
The party leadership was notably absent or low-profile at several family-organized memorial events, and the Rawlingses did not prominently participate in major NDC activities.
Dr. Zanetor Agyemang Rawlings, the eldest daughter of the NDC founder is the Member of Parliament for the Klottey-Korle Constituency in the Greater Accra Region on the ticket of the NDC
But, Kimathi Rawlings and his sister Amina have maintained a quieter, apolitical public posture, further underlining the distance between the two camps.
Toward reconciliation?
Sunday’s remarks by the General Secretary appear to signal a new chapter.
The NDC is now seeking to restore the Rawlings family to its place of prominence within the party—a gesture that could resonate deeply with the party’s grassroots base, where Rawlings’ legacy remains revered.
“This is not just about remembering Rawlings,” Mr. Kwetey said.
“It is about ensuring that the spirit he gave to this party and this country lives on, and that means embracing his family as part of that spirit.”
Whether Nana Konadu, who remains politically active though largely in the background, will respond positively to this olive branch remains to be seen.
However, Mr. Kwetey’s inclusive tone and emphasis on unity suggest a growing recognition within the NDC that the founder’s family must not remain estranged from the movement he built from scratch in 1992.
A founder beyond memory
In his closing remarks, Mr. Kwetey made it clear that honouring Rawlings must go beyond ceremonial events or rhetorical tributes.
“The moment has come for us to understand that this is the time to honour the memory of this great soul—not with mere words but with actions that preserve and advance what he stood for,” he said.
With that, the NDC appears to be setting the stage not just for a reunion with the Rawlings family, but for a broader ideological reawakening—rooted in the values of the man who once shook the very foundations of Ghana’s political landscape.
