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Rebecca Akufo-Addo, wife of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said she is unfazed by all the negative spotlights beamed on her husband, as she praises Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings for her boldness. �I was not a supporter of the 31st December coup, but I must say that, as a woman, I admire and respect the boldness and perseverance of Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings,� she told a gathering of students at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) yesterday. According to Mrs Akufo-Addo, the intense vilification of Nana Akufo-Addo should have forced her to call it quits with politics. �It would have been easier for me to use my husband�s negative experience and the effect it has had on me and our five daughters to say simply to you: �stay away from politics�,� she stated. �But I will rather use his story to motivate you. He knows what he has set himself to do for his nation and he shall not be moved by those who seek to pull him down. I know and he knows that politics is good when good people brave the storm to determine its course�. �He is not insulted and have lies told about him because he is bad for Ghana and must be stopped at all cost. These bad things are said about him because some people believe wrongly that they could destroy him to advance their own political ends. So they have spewed vicious venom against him. And, yet, he shall not be moved,� she stressed. Mrs Akufo-Addo was speaking to KNUST students in Kumasi on �The Role of the Modern Woman in Politics�. Speaking about the character of her husband, she stated, �My husband is a good man. He is a kind, sincere, intelligent and compassionate man. He is a man with an excellent vision for Ghana. His programme for access to free and quality education for every Ghanaian child is a doable necessity. It is the bedrock for building a society of fair opportunities for every girl or boy child. His vision to make Ghana an industrialised nation is a non-negotiable option if we are serious about creating decent jobs with decent pay and moving the mass of our people from poverty to prosperity, yet, this great patriot, this honest and visionary leader is probably the most vilified politician in our country today.� �We should never allow those who spew special venom against us to discourage us from doing well for our society through politics,� she told the gathering of students and other invited guests at the programme. She however feared that �the more society gives free oxygen to dirty politics that seeks to destroy reputations, the less good people, especially women, will find politics a career option worth pursuing.� �I find much of the politics we do in Ghana disheartening and a major disincentive for the many brilliant young women who may have considered politics as a career option. I dislike what we do to ourselves in the name of politics. I dislike the kind of politics we do that gets in the way of the real politics about improving lives,� Mrs. Akufo-Addo decried. Mrs Akufo-Addo said rather than get crestfallen by this �venomous� attributions, she was rather motivated by her husband�s �unyielding spirit and his unflinching commitment to the Ghanaian people.� She decried the low participation of women in Ghanaian politics. According to her, political parties should be proactive in recruiting more women to compete for positions, especially given the fact that women formed more than half of the Ghanaian population. �Women have their own interests and needs and even if those interests and needs usually coincide with those of societies� as a whole, women are in the best position to defend those interests. An even participation of women and men can lead to a diversity of ideas, values, priorities and patterns of behaviour that can only improve our governance and enrich society,� she stated. The prospective First Lady said even though she was not a professional politician, and enjoyed her work as a florist, as well as her charity work for the elimination of malaria, �I will be the first to say we need many more women in politics. We need more women around the table of decision-making�. She paid a glowing tribute to some women in Africa who had risen above the odds to become worthy examples of how women could excel in politics. She mentioned President Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, and opposition leader Hellen Zille of South Africa as women who �have shown what it means to be bold as a woman in the man�s world of politics�.