Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was a former First Lady of Ghana
Ghana continues to mourn the passing of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, a woman whose name defined activism, courage and fierce commitment to the empowerment of Ghanaian women. Tributes have poured in from every corner of the nation and beyond, honouring her legacy.
But as the accolades flow and memories are shared, one story stands out, not because it praises her, but because it reveals a hidden wound she carried quietly for years; a wound that explains her political battles, her public silence at certain times, and the abrupt collapse of the once-powerful 31st December Women’s Movement.
This revelation came from Ex WO1 Bright Segbefia, whose personal encounter with Nana Konadu opened a window into the untold truth behind the fall of the movement.
How Rawlings feigned joining a choir just to win Konadu’s heart
Segbefia recalled how, in 1999, he appealed to several organisations for medical support for two sick children at Dzemeni. Only one institution responded: the 31st December Women’s Movement. Their intervention, he said, led to one of the children successfully undergoing surgery at the Peki Government Hospital.
Years later, after leaving office, President Jerry John Rawlings introduced Segbefia to his wife. It was at the encounter – their first ever face-to-face meeting, that the soldier presented her with the old 31 DWM appreciation letter.
What followed was a nearly hour-long conversation, one that shifted unexpectedly from gratitude to a confession laced with sorrow.
According to him, Nana Konadu first asked why only one child got help.
When Segbefia explained, she moved on to ask what had become of the boy who got help from her organisation.
Upon hearing that he had completed SHS and become a barber, she expressed genuine joy and, according to him, “wished to support him with capital to expand his business and help others.”
Then came the revelation.
To his shock, Nana Konadu disclosed that the collapse of the 31 December Women’s Movement was no accident, no natural decline, and no political casualty of changing administrations.
According to her, it was planned, and from the inside.
“She revealed what many Ghanaians may not know. According to her, the collapse of the 31st December Women’s Movement was not natural; it was engineered by an individual within the NDC,” he stated.
She explained that the movement’s strength came from supply contracts with the Ghana Armed Forces; contracts that kept thousands of Ghanaian women employed from producing gari, kenkey, “sabola,” ‘dzomi,’ bread, and other foods.
It wasn’t politics or a lack of funding that crippled the Movement, she explained. It was a single action:
“When the contracts were abruptly cancelled, she lamented, not only did these women lose their jobs, but also the movement itself was financially crippled.”
The cancellation was not administrative. It was, in her words, the deliberate act of someone inside the NDC. And this surgical cut to the movement’s lifeline was the real reason for her fallout with the party, Segbefia recalled gently, suggesting reconciliation.
Explaining further, the retired soldier said Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings‘ response was soft but loaded with meaning:
“Oh yes, I have forgiven everyone!” but forgiveness, he sensed, did not erase the quiet pain of betrayal.
He added that she carried “not bitterness, but the calm sorrow of someone who had given her all and watched an entire movement she built with thousands of Ghanaian women crumble from the decision of an individual.”
FKA/AE
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