The recent brouhaha and out-and-out war that has broken out over the school feeding program must cause the scales to slip from the eyes of the majority of Ghanaians. For many of our people, the simple and brutal fact is becoming clear. Our President may be a Professor of Laws, but the simple and brutal truth is also that at heart he is just a thug!
For a large number of Ghanaians, there is a growing feeling of dismay at the sheer and barefaced employment of brute force and thuggery in official matters. They have witnessed a long list of such rampant abuses orchestrated by the Mills Administration, but the latest abuse in the school feeding program is causing many people to catch their breathe.
They are in shock, and they are asking themselves; is this what we really voted for? For many people, it would be more palatable to blame the underlings of President Professor for the numerous stories of abuses that we are hearing, but I would not be so charitable. I think that I would like to live by the mantra which Professor Atta Mills repeated often times when he was in opposition and running for the presidency that the buck should and would stop with him.
For whatever is happening, the President has the ultimate responsibility. He is responsible, and he can no more remove himself from blame, when things go wrong, than the people directly implicated.
For what is happening in the school feeding program, one may blame the MMDCEs. One may blame vicious characters like Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and the rest who are out there defending this crappy behaviour, but the fact is that the man who makes it all possible is John Evans Atta Mills.
Even as we are debating the issues with regard to the school feeding program, it is now also emerging that people working in the Office of the President, at the level of the Deputy Chief of Staff, has constituted themselves into a syndicate to deal with suspected stolen cars.
I was very amazed when I heard this piece of news. I had a feeling of déjà vu. It reminded me of something I had heard before. And I wondered, whenever did the job of reviewing stolen cars become the preserve of the office of the Chief of Staff? What happened to Interpol, the Customs, Excise & Preventive Service? What happened to the National Security set-up at Blue Gate, which normally has been responsible for some of these things?
Busybodies like Alex Segbefia, Deputy Chief of Staff, are suddenly in this daylight robbery and thuggery because Professor Atta Mills makes it possible. It is the same way he made it possible for Akufo Addo’s car to be seized and never returned. It is the same way that the vehicles of a number of Ghanaians to be seized.
It is the same way he allowed members of his party across the length and breathe of this country to seize public toilets and car terminals.
It is the same way he allowed the numerous beatings, intimidations and outright murders to take place and the perpetrators to walk scot-free. It is the same way he allowed Akwasi Osei Agyei’s passport to be seized and detained in spite of two court judgments. And it is the same way that he is turning a blind eye even as his party illegally kicks people out of their contracts in order to award them on silver platters to his party functionaries.
It is so, because Atta Mills is a thug.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Atta Mills: A President Who Does Not Respect Statistics.
In any other place but Ghana, it would amount to a basis for impeachment and for people to question the abilities and capabilities of the President to govern. But in Ghana I guess that eventually we are going to gloss over it and sweep it under the carpet, as usual.
In an interview broadcast on the Voice of America, President Professor John Evans Atta Mills expressed his complete contempt and disrespect for statistics.
Hear him, “We should not allow the churning out of figures to take the better side of us or else we get our fingers burnt…I don’t think there’s anyone in the country who can tell you the employment rate in the country!”
In other words, Mills does not care about statistics and yet he is a President of our country! For many intellectuals, the pronouncements from the President must come as a cold shower, awakening us to the fact that our President is unfit for the high public office he holds. If he does not respect statistics and the facts, on what basis is he making the many decisions he is making, if he is not looking at the numerical effect of his decisions?
We are in hell indeed. For me, the interview the president granted to Shaka Ssali goes a long way to expose our President as a duplicitous character who is unwilling and unable to take responsibility for the high demands of his office.
For instance, in that he interview, he blamed the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for the fuel shortages in 2009, because according to him, the NPP piled up huge debts. This is after governing for six months. I mean, if things were that bad when Mills came to power, the symptoms would not be manifesting in fuel shortages after six long months. It is amazing that after six months in office, he is still blaming the former government.
According to Mills, the previous government painted a picture that all was well and that the economy was thriving. The question I ask is did President Atta Mills say that the economy was thriving when he was campaigning? He made the entire nation to believe that the economy was in trouble, so why is he shouting at the rooftops that the economy is in trouble? In any case, would an economy that is in dire straits attract the whopping 535 million dollar aid that it recently attracted from the World Bank? The President should come again!
I listened to the president as he justified the attacks that the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) has been mounting on the freedoms and rights of former government appointees with the claims that his own wife was detained for three hours. Clearly, our President, who is a law professor, has scant respect for rule of law.
His views are clouded by his own bitterness at the perceived ill-treatment he and his party received in times past. Otherwise, if it was his legal training and not his emotions speaking, he would have had huge problems with the detentions and interrogations of the BNI, especially when they are taking place without legal counsel.
A first year law student would tell you that t is wrong to interview suspects when their lawyers are not present, which is what the BNI has been doing, and which is what the President has endorsed. With a president like this, Ghanaians can only expect further abuses of the rights of more Ghanaians.
But for me, my biggest problem with President Atta Mills, when he spoke to VOA, was when he said that he owes nobody any apology over how his government has been treating opponents of his government and that there has been no discrimination under his regime.
It is a well-known truism that one cannot cure a deformity without first correctly identifying that deformity. The President’s inability to recognize that there have been huge levels of discrimination under his watch should be a problem for all of us, because there has indeed been a lot of discrimination.
We were in this country when 1200 young Ghanaians who had received appointment letters to be recruited into the Armed Forces were turned back for no good reasons. The real reasons, however is that the new government thinks that they are NPP. When the President had his first press conference, a large section of the press was turned away because of their perceived political leanings. The Ghana School Feeding programme is in trouble because experienced caterers are being turned away because it is felt that they have political allegiance to the former administration.
In all fairness, I wonder how Atta Mills can say that there is no discrimination under his administration when all this is going on! In this man, we have a bitter old man who is only out for revenge. But more deadly to our situation is the fact that he is incompetent, intellectually and attitudinally, for the position he occupies, because, in his own words, he does not respect statistics, facts and figures.
In an interview broadcast on the Voice of America, President Professor John Evans Atta Mills expressed his complete contempt and disrespect for statistics.
Hear him, “We should not allow the churning out of figures to take the better side of us or else we get our fingers burnt…I don’t think there’s anyone in the country who can tell you the employment rate in the country!”
In other words, Mills does not care about statistics and yet he is a President of our country! For many intellectuals, the pronouncements from the President must come as a cold shower, awakening us to the fact that our President is unfit for the high public office he holds. If he does not respect statistics and the facts, on what basis is he making the many decisions he is making, if he is not looking at the numerical effect of his decisions?
We are in hell indeed. For me, the interview the president granted to Shaka Ssali goes a long way to expose our President as a duplicitous character who is unwilling and unable to take responsibility for the high demands of his office.
For instance, in that he interview, he blamed the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for the fuel shortages in 2009, because according to him, the NPP piled up huge debts. This is after governing for six months. I mean, if things were that bad when Mills came to power, the symptoms would not be manifesting in fuel shortages after six long months. It is amazing that after six months in office, he is still blaming the former government.
According to Mills, the previous government painted a picture that all was well and that the economy was thriving. The question I ask is did President Atta Mills say that the economy was thriving when he was campaigning? He made the entire nation to believe that the economy was in trouble, so why is he shouting at the rooftops that the economy is in trouble? In any case, would an economy that is in dire straits attract the whopping 535 million dollar aid that it recently attracted from the World Bank? The President should come again!
I listened to the president as he justified the attacks that the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) has been mounting on the freedoms and rights of former government appointees with the claims that his own wife was detained for three hours. Clearly, our President, who is a law professor, has scant respect for rule of law.
His views are clouded by his own bitterness at the perceived ill-treatment he and his party received in times past. Otherwise, if it was his legal training and not his emotions speaking, he would have had huge problems with the detentions and interrogations of the BNI, especially when they are taking place without legal counsel.
A first year law student would tell you that t is wrong to interview suspects when their lawyers are not present, which is what the BNI has been doing, and which is what the President has endorsed. With a president like this, Ghanaians can only expect further abuses of the rights of more Ghanaians.
But for me, my biggest problem with President Atta Mills, when he spoke to VOA, was when he said that he owes nobody any apology over how his government has been treating opponents of his government and that there has been no discrimination under his regime.
It is a well-known truism that one cannot cure a deformity without first correctly identifying that deformity. The President’s inability to recognize that there have been huge levels of discrimination under his watch should be a problem for all of us, because there has indeed been a lot of discrimination.
We were in this country when 1200 young Ghanaians who had received appointment letters to be recruited into the Armed Forces were turned back for no good reasons. The real reasons, however is that the new government thinks that they are NPP. When the President had his first press conference, a large section of the press was turned away because of their perceived political leanings. The Ghana School Feeding programme is in trouble because experienced caterers are being turned away because it is felt that they have political allegiance to the former administration.
In all fairness, I wonder how Atta Mills can say that there is no discrimination under his administration when all this is going on! In this man, we have a bitter old man who is only out for revenge. But more deadly to our situation is the fact that he is incompetent, intellectually and attitudinally, for the position he occupies, because, in his own words, he does not respect statistics, facts and figures.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD AT THE CASTLE ANNEX, OSU, TO DISCUSS VEHICLE DELIVERY PROCEDURES AND OTHER RELATED MATTERS ON FRIDAY 28TH AUGUST, 2009.
IN ATTENDANCE
Mr. Kosivi Degbor {Deputy National Co-ordinator (Ops)}, Flt/Lt M. G. Tackie (rtd) {National Security Council Secretariat, Headquarters}, Lt. Col Ben Agudogo (rtd) {National Security Council Secretariat, Tema Detachment}, Capt. A. R. Cudjoe (rtd) { National Security Council Secretariat, Tema Detachment}, Robert Kwame {Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Headquarters}, Kuudaamnune John Vianney { Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Headquarters}, Mr. Seidu Iddrisu { Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Headquarters}, Mr. Frank Ebo Brown { Meridian Port Service}, Mr. Kwesi Tamakloe {Stakeholder Observer} and Mercy Coleman {Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority}
ABSENT
Mr. Alex Segbefia- Deputy Chief of Staff, Castle Osu
Mr. Carl Wilson - Chairman, Confiscated Vehicles Committee
Opening Remarks
Opening the meeting at 3:00pm, the Chairman welcomed participants and noted the absence of some principal actors invited to the meeting. He however, was of the view that the meeting could proceed to discuss matters objectively and dispassionately in spite of their absence.
The Chairman also spoke of public disaffection with the conduct and activities of the Confiscated Vehicles Committee (CVC) and underlined the need to streamline procedures at the Port.
Agenda
The Chairman set out the agenda for the meeting as follows:
1. Profile and mandate of the CVC
2. Confiscated vehicles and related matters
3. Relations between CVC, Security Agencies in the Port and the general public
4. Other matters
Discussions
2.1 Image of Confiscated Vehicles Committee
The Tema Port Security Co-ordinator raised a number of concerns, notably, the failure of the CVC to follow laid down procedure and their poor human relations and attitudes towards the general public. Also mentioned were
*Undue delays occasioned by the CVC claims to contact FBI and other agencies to confirm the origin and status of some vehicles.
*Request by CVC for additional documents to prove ownership of vehicles
* Unnecessary stoppage and obstruction of vehicles duly processed and cleared by CEPS and National Security.
The Security Co-ordinator recommended the wearing of a jacket embossed with the NSC to distinguish its personnel from other operatives.
2.2 Arbitrary Acts of CVC at Golden Jubilee Terminal
The GPHA expressed worry about the CVC issuing orders totally inconsistent with shipping practice and regulations to the Port Authorities.
The Port Authority representative noted for example, the way the CVC orders the seizure and withholding of vehicle keys from their bona fide declarants or owners.
2.3 Confiscated Vehicle Law and Administration
The Deputy Commissioner (Ops) drew the attention of the meeting to the Law establishing the Confiscated Vehicles Committee i.e. ACT 634, 2002, Subsection III, adding that the CVC comprise persons drawn from the under listed offices.
*Office of Chief of Staff
*Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
*Customs Excise and Preventive Service
Mr Kwame pointed out that the role of the CVC is very well established in law but the problem is how to execute its mandate.
2.4 Sales Procedure
Mr. Seidu Iddrisu, a member of the CVC, briefed the meeting on some aspects of the committees work and how it deals with vehicles within its jurisdiction.
*Interested applicants apply to COS, CEPS and Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. Applications thus received are sent to the CVC for necessary action.
*CVC issues letter to sector Commander, Tema Harbour, to assist persons allocated vehicles to view their allocation.
*Confiscated vehicles earmarked for public disposal are disposed of on the following basis:
Office of chief of staff-60%
CEPS-20%
Ministry of Economic Planning -20%
2.4 Office Location And Secretariat
According to Mr. Seidu Iddrisu, CVC member, the Committee’s office is located in Accra at the former office of the Food and Drugs Board.
Membership of the committee is made up as follows:
Chairman: Mr. Carl Wilson, Office of COS
Member: Seidu Iddrisu- CEPS
Member: Emmanuel Fordjour, MFEP
Meetings of the Committee are held every Thursday.
Mr. Seidu, lamented that the CVC was not working in the manner it is expected to operate. Aside not sitting, allocations are being done single handed by the CHAIRMAN without the knowledge of other members and revealed that he had recently informed the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning of his intention to relinquish his membership of the committee.
He also expressed surprise that CVC has set up an office at the Tema Port adding that the office was unknown to committee and its and entire membership.
Other contributors called for the immediate removal of the CVC from the Car Park where they have set up an office which is posing security challenges to the park and its managers.
More soon
Mr. Kosivi Degbor {Deputy National Co-ordinator (Ops)}, Flt/Lt M. G. Tackie (rtd) {National Security Council Secretariat, Headquarters}, Lt. Col Ben Agudogo (rtd) {National Security Council Secretariat, Tema Detachment}, Capt. A. R. Cudjoe (rtd) { National Security Council Secretariat, Tema Detachment}, Robert Kwame {Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Headquarters}, Kuudaamnune John Vianney { Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Headquarters}, Mr. Seidu Iddrisu { Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, Headquarters}, Mr. Frank Ebo Brown { Meridian Port Service}, Mr. Kwesi Tamakloe {Stakeholder Observer} and Mercy Coleman {Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority}
ABSENT
Mr. Alex Segbefia- Deputy Chief of Staff, Castle Osu
Mr. Carl Wilson - Chairman, Confiscated Vehicles Committee
Opening Remarks
Opening the meeting at 3:00pm, the Chairman welcomed participants and noted the absence of some principal actors invited to the meeting. He however, was of the view that the meeting could proceed to discuss matters objectively and dispassionately in spite of their absence.
The Chairman also spoke of public disaffection with the conduct and activities of the Confiscated Vehicles Committee (CVC) and underlined the need to streamline procedures at the Port.
Agenda
The Chairman set out the agenda for the meeting as follows:
1. Profile and mandate of the CVC
2. Confiscated vehicles and related matters
3. Relations between CVC, Security Agencies in the Port and the general public
4. Other matters
Discussions
2.1 Image of Confiscated Vehicles Committee
The Tema Port Security Co-ordinator raised a number of concerns, notably, the failure of the CVC to follow laid down procedure and their poor human relations and attitudes towards the general public. Also mentioned were
*Undue delays occasioned by the CVC claims to contact FBI and other agencies to confirm the origin and status of some vehicles.
*Request by CVC for additional documents to prove ownership of vehicles
* Unnecessary stoppage and obstruction of vehicles duly processed and cleared by CEPS and National Security.
The Security Co-ordinator recommended the wearing of a jacket embossed with the NSC to distinguish its personnel from other operatives.
2.2 Arbitrary Acts of CVC at Golden Jubilee Terminal
The GPHA expressed worry about the CVC issuing orders totally inconsistent with shipping practice and regulations to the Port Authorities.
The Port Authority representative noted for example, the way the CVC orders the seizure and withholding of vehicle keys from their bona fide declarants or owners.
2.3 Confiscated Vehicle Law and Administration
The Deputy Commissioner (Ops) drew the attention of the meeting to the Law establishing the Confiscated Vehicles Committee i.e. ACT 634, 2002, Subsection III, adding that the CVC comprise persons drawn from the under listed offices.
*Office of Chief of Staff
*Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
*Customs Excise and Preventive Service
Mr Kwame pointed out that the role of the CVC is very well established in law but the problem is how to execute its mandate.
2.4 Sales Procedure
Mr. Seidu Iddrisu, a member of the CVC, briefed the meeting on some aspects of the committees work and how it deals with vehicles within its jurisdiction.
*Interested applicants apply to COS, CEPS and Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. Applications thus received are sent to the CVC for necessary action.
*CVC issues letter to sector Commander, Tema Harbour, to assist persons allocated vehicles to view their allocation.
*Confiscated vehicles earmarked for public disposal are disposed of on the following basis:
Office of chief of staff-60%
CEPS-20%
Ministry of Economic Planning -20%
2.4 Office Location And Secretariat
According to Mr. Seidu Iddrisu, CVC member, the Committee’s office is located in Accra at the former office of the Food and Drugs Board.
Membership of the committee is made up as follows:
Chairman: Mr. Carl Wilson, Office of COS
Member: Seidu Iddrisu- CEPS
Member: Emmanuel Fordjour, MFEP
Meetings of the Committee are held every Thursday.
Mr. Seidu, lamented that the CVC was not working in the manner it is expected to operate. Aside not sitting, allocations are being done single handed by the CHAIRMAN without the knowledge of other members and revealed that he had recently informed the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning of his intention to relinquish his membership of the committee.
He also expressed surprise that CVC has set up an office at the Tema Port adding that the office was unknown to committee and its and entire membership.
Other contributors called for the immediate removal of the CVC from the Car Park where they have set up an office which is posing security challenges to the park and its managers.
More soon
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Atta Mills: Face Of A Failure
I wonder what is wrong with our President, whether he has some kind of inferiority complex about his position, because it is strange that a man who has been elected as President, and who has been duly sworn in as President, would keep going on with claims that he is the President of Ghana.
Of course Professor Atta Mills is the President of Ghana, and the sooner he came to realize that, the better it would be for all of us.
He should stop constantly telling us that he is the President, because if he is still dreaming about his Presidency, the rest of us are not.
We have to live with his Presidency every day, and it is painful, to say the least.
I find it painful, for instance, that the President would tell us that this country is being governed by laws, at a time that the laws are being so abused in our country.
Since this professor of law became the President of this our country, he has said umpteen times that he is committed to the rule of law.
Yet, with amazing and monotonous regularity, the courts of our land have been canceling the actions of our President for being illegal. For a man who believes in constitutionality, it seems that our President has a special and deep dislike for behaving in lawful manner, and this is painful.
It is also painful the way and manner our President keeps on portraying himself as a victim of others.
Our Commander In Chief says that he is being forced to take decisions that are not in the national interest, and he would not be cowed. I wonder who is threatening our President to the level that he has come out in protestation.
I have my own suspicions, and I know you do too, because all of you have been listening to the baying from Ridge.
But is it not strange that the President would tell us that his doors are always open to listen to all his critics, at a time when his close political associates are screaming to the high heavens that he has not been listening to them? If Atta were indeed a listening President, I do not think that Rawlings, Bagbin and co would have come out to state that the President had surrounded himself with sycophants and greedy bastards who have formed a complete bracket around him, totally shielding him from all access by others.
But for me, the most sorrowful aspect of the President’s pronouncements was his claim that plans were far advanced to improve the lot of Ghanaians.
My brothers and sisters, we are in the first year of the Atta Mills Presidency, but already he has presented his first two budgets and so far we have no reason to hope.
Indeed, if the President had any plans, I am sure that he would have rolled them out as soon as he got into office, and not two yeas after, which leaves me with the firm conclusion that the President has no plans to better the lot of Ghanaians.
I am sorry to state that so far, it is clear that the future is bleak for Ghanaians, and they are not going to be comforted by new and empty promises of future prosperity!
Atta Mills is indeed a failure!
Of course Professor Atta Mills is the President of Ghana, and the sooner he came to realize that, the better it would be for all of us.
He should stop constantly telling us that he is the President, because if he is still dreaming about his Presidency, the rest of us are not.
We have to live with his Presidency every day, and it is painful, to say the least.
I find it painful, for instance, that the President would tell us that this country is being governed by laws, at a time that the laws are being so abused in our country.
Since this professor of law became the President of this our country, he has said umpteen times that he is committed to the rule of law.
Yet, with amazing and monotonous regularity, the courts of our land have been canceling the actions of our President for being illegal. For a man who believes in constitutionality, it seems that our President has a special and deep dislike for behaving in lawful manner, and this is painful.
It is also painful the way and manner our President keeps on portraying himself as a victim of others.
Our Commander In Chief says that he is being forced to take decisions that are not in the national interest, and he would not be cowed. I wonder who is threatening our President to the level that he has come out in protestation.
I have my own suspicions, and I know you do too, because all of you have been listening to the baying from Ridge.
But is it not strange that the President would tell us that his doors are always open to listen to all his critics, at a time when his close political associates are screaming to the high heavens that he has not been listening to them? If Atta were indeed a listening President, I do not think that Rawlings, Bagbin and co would have come out to state that the President had surrounded himself with sycophants and greedy bastards who have formed a complete bracket around him, totally shielding him from all access by others.
But for me, the most sorrowful aspect of the President’s pronouncements was his claim that plans were far advanced to improve the lot of Ghanaians.
My brothers and sisters, we are in the first year of the Atta Mills Presidency, but already he has presented his first two budgets and so far we have no reason to hope.
Indeed, if the President had any plans, I am sure that he would have rolled them out as soon as he got into office, and not two yeas after, which leaves me with the firm conclusion that the President has no plans to better the lot of Ghanaians.
I am sorry to state that so far, it is clear that the future is bleak for Ghanaians, and they are not going to be comforted by new and empty promises of future prosperity!
Atta Mills is indeed a failure!
NEWMAN GOING OUT, K. AHWOI COMING IN!?
The Chief of Staff, Mr. John Henry Martey Newman, may be on his way out of the Castle, the seat of government, as the Chief of Staff, with his place to be taken by Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi.
Unimpeachable information reaching this blog indicates that plans are far afoot to replace Mr. Newman as the Chief of Staff for the key reason that he is a virtually unknown commodity within National Democratic Congress (NDC) circles, a factor that is causing deep worry among the rank and file of the party.
This blog has learnt that many activists of the NDC are heavily aggrieved with Chief of staff Martey Newman, who they see as an outsider, and have expressed the opinion that they would be more comfortable with Kwamena Ahwoi, with whom they have had longer association.
His place, this blog has learned is to be taken by Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi, one of the all-powerful Ahwoi brothers, who was at one time a Minister for Local Government and currently lectures at the Ghana Institute of Management and Professional Administration (GIMPA).
Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi has been a long-time stalwart of the NDC whose face is known to the rank and file of the party, and who can identify many of them by face as well.
Intel from the Castle, the seat of government indicates that already much of the decisions that matter at the Castle are taken by one of the two senior Ahwoi brothers in the persons of Mr. Ato Ahwoi and his brother Kwamena, and the appointment of Kwamena as Chief of Staff would only be a natural graduation, since he is already taking many of the decisions that matter anyway.
The only fly in the gel, according to insiders, is a current tiff between former President Rawlings and Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi, who are said not to see things eye to eye of late.
In this direction, a prominent chief of the land, who is also a leading member of the NDC and was linked to a ‘pono’ young woman recently has bean reached to mediate amicably between the two gentlemen before the announcement is made anytime within the next few days.
As at press time yesterday, Mr. Ahwoi was not picking his calls in spite of repeated calls to his mobile phone.
Reached for his comments, Mr. Kofi Adams, Spokesperson to former President Rawlings, said that he had no knowledge of any on-going mediation efforts between his boss and Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi and told this reporter to get his ‘boss himself’.
Unimpeachable information reaching this blog indicates that plans are far afoot to replace Mr. Newman as the Chief of Staff for the key reason that he is a virtually unknown commodity within National Democratic Congress (NDC) circles, a factor that is causing deep worry among the rank and file of the party.
This blog has learnt that many activists of the NDC are heavily aggrieved with Chief of staff Martey Newman, who they see as an outsider, and have expressed the opinion that they would be more comfortable with Kwamena Ahwoi, with whom they have had longer association.
His place, this blog has learned is to be taken by Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi, one of the all-powerful Ahwoi brothers, who was at one time a Minister for Local Government and currently lectures at the Ghana Institute of Management and Professional Administration (GIMPA).
Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi has been a long-time stalwart of the NDC whose face is known to the rank and file of the party, and who can identify many of them by face as well.
Intel from the Castle, the seat of government indicates that already much of the decisions that matter at the Castle are taken by one of the two senior Ahwoi brothers in the persons of Mr. Ato Ahwoi and his brother Kwamena, and the appointment of Kwamena as Chief of Staff would only be a natural graduation, since he is already taking many of the decisions that matter anyway.
The only fly in the gel, according to insiders, is a current tiff between former President Rawlings and Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi, who are said not to see things eye to eye of late.
In this direction, a prominent chief of the land, who is also a leading member of the NDC and was linked to a ‘pono’ young woman recently has bean reached to mediate amicably between the two gentlemen before the announcement is made anytime within the next few days.
As at press time yesterday, Mr. Ahwoi was not picking his calls in spite of repeated calls to his mobile phone.
Reached for his comments, Mr. Kofi Adams, Spokesperson to former President Rawlings, said that he had no knowledge of any on-going mediation efforts between his boss and Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi and told this reporter to get his ‘boss himself’.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Atta Mills: A Very Divisive Person
Indeed, if ever there has been a person who is a source of divisiveness in our body politic, that person is John Evans Atta Mills, and I would demonstrate why I think so.
Do you remember a certain Member of Parliament called Michael Teye Nyaunu, who told Ghanaians that he had been punished by President Professor Mills and turned into an outcast in the party because he had criticized President Mills as being a sick man when they were in opposition and vying for power?
If you remember, Nyaunu raised the issue of the health status of Professor Atta Mills in the media in the run-up to election 2008 and called upon him to resign as flag bearer of the NDC because according to him Prof. Mills was unwell and unfit for the presidential campaign.
According to Nyaunu, he has never been forgiven for expressing a genuine concern, and the evidence is available in the fact that since the NDC won power, he has been sidelined from all appointments, even though as an MP there are many places he could have served.
I am also certain that you remember Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah, who is currently a Vice Chairperson of the NDC and at one time an aspirant for the position of flag bearer of the NDC.
In the run-up to the flagbearership congress of the NDC, it was Spio Garbrah who sent round text messages suggesting that Atta Mills was sick and that it was unlikely that he would be able to lead the NDC into the presidential contest.
In spite of his concerns, Mills went on to win the race, and Spio, as the runner-up to Atta Mills, legitimately expected that he would be given a ministerial position in the NDC.
This expectation never materialized, and in bitterness, Spio penned and published his famous ‘pissing-in and pissing out’ article, which led to huge controversy in this nation, and is indeed still simmering.
It was as a direct consequence of President Atta Mills’ inability to unite with Spio that he eventually decided to vie for the position of Vice Chair of the NDC.
I cannot also dilate on whether or not President Atta Mills is a unifier without spending a little time on the statement that was made by his former Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga to the effect that the President had ordered all his appointees to ensure that they create space to address the concerns of members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
By that statement, President Atta Mills created two classes of Ghanaians in Ghana, which are the NDC Ghanaian, and the rest of us.
Indeed, nothing can be more divisive than for a president to tell his functionaries to give preferential treatment to his own people to the disadvantage of the rest.
In any proper democracy, such talk would have led to impeachment, and demonstrates clearly that Atta Mills is unfit to be president by temperament.
I also cannot expand on whether or not the President is a unifier, without bringing to mind the decision that was taken by the son of the glutton, Koku Anyidoho, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, to keep out certain journalists because according to him, he cannot deal with them.
Personally, I find Anyidoho and his boss to be a pair of chargeable characters.
The Presidency is for all of us, and personal feelings do no come into it. It is in this direction that Anyidoho’s attempts to create divisions on the media front should be seen as totally unacceptable and the President’s acceptance of same as reprehensible and conflict-ridden.
But why am I complaining? Was it not Mills who said that people in the public services who do not share in the vision and ideology of his party ought not to be in public services? It was Mills himself, the President. With such utterances, how can anybody claim that Mills stands for unity?
Once again I say that when you see Atta Mills, remember one clear fact; he is a man who endorses evil for his own political ends and a source of divisiveness.
Do you remember a certain Member of Parliament called Michael Teye Nyaunu, who told Ghanaians that he had been punished by President Professor Mills and turned into an outcast in the party because he had criticized President Mills as being a sick man when they were in opposition and vying for power?
If you remember, Nyaunu raised the issue of the health status of Professor Atta Mills in the media in the run-up to election 2008 and called upon him to resign as flag bearer of the NDC because according to him Prof. Mills was unwell and unfit for the presidential campaign.
According to Nyaunu, he has never been forgiven for expressing a genuine concern, and the evidence is available in the fact that since the NDC won power, he has been sidelined from all appointments, even though as an MP there are many places he could have served.
I am also certain that you remember Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah, who is currently a Vice Chairperson of the NDC and at one time an aspirant for the position of flag bearer of the NDC.
In the run-up to the flagbearership congress of the NDC, it was Spio Garbrah who sent round text messages suggesting that Atta Mills was sick and that it was unlikely that he would be able to lead the NDC into the presidential contest.
In spite of his concerns, Mills went on to win the race, and Spio, as the runner-up to Atta Mills, legitimately expected that he would be given a ministerial position in the NDC.
This expectation never materialized, and in bitterness, Spio penned and published his famous ‘pissing-in and pissing out’ article, which led to huge controversy in this nation, and is indeed still simmering.
It was as a direct consequence of President Atta Mills’ inability to unite with Spio that he eventually decided to vie for the position of Vice Chair of the NDC.
I cannot also dilate on whether or not President Atta Mills is a unifier without spending a little time on the statement that was made by his former Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga to the effect that the President had ordered all his appointees to ensure that they create space to address the concerns of members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
By that statement, President Atta Mills created two classes of Ghanaians in Ghana, which are the NDC Ghanaian, and the rest of us.
Indeed, nothing can be more divisive than for a president to tell his functionaries to give preferential treatment to his own people to the disadvantage of the rest.
In any proper democracy, such talk would have led to impeachment, and demonstrates clearly that Atta Mills is unfit to be president by temperament.
I also cannot expand on whether or not the President is a unifier, without bringing to mind the decision that was taken by the son of the glutton, Koku Anyidoho, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, to keep out certain journalists because according to him, he cannot deal with them.
Personally, I find Anyidoho and his boss to be a pair of chargeable characters.
The Presidency is for all of us, and personal feelings do no come into it. It is in this direction that Anyidoho’s attempts to create divisions on the media front should be seen as totally unacceptable and the President’s acceptance of same as reprehensible and conflict-ridden.
But why am I complaining? Was it not Mills who said that people in the public services who do not share in the vision and ideology of his party ought not to be in public services? It was Mills himself, the President. With such utterances, how can anybody claim that Mills stands for unity?
Once again I say that when you see Atta Mills, remember one clear fact; he is a man who endorses evil for his own political ends and a source of divisiveness.