Dan Abodakpi Counsels Mills

BY Larry-Alans Dogbey

Ghana’s High Commissioner to Malaysia, Mr. Dan Kwasi Abodakpi, has strongly urged President John Evans Atta Mills, to as a matter of great urgency, re-engineer and retool government to enable his administration to be able to confront the huge development challenges facing the country.

Mr. Abodakpi said this in an exclusive interview he granted The Herald Newspaper prior to his departure back to his post after a 3-week consultative visit to Ghana

The former Member of Parliament for Keta Constituency in Volta Region, stated that the NDC government under President Mills, has a historical opportunity to restore hope, trust and confidence of Ghanaians in government and the process of governance after eight years of decay and pillaging of the national economy.

He, however, emphasized that this can only be actualized if the Mills-led government is able to carry the mass of the people along with it.

Mr. Abodakpi opined that there is the urgent need to achieve greater coordination and synchronization among and between sectors for the effective implementation of government policies across sectors.

He further strongly advocated the need for effective communication from both the center and from sectors to clearly clarify to Ghanaians the current state of affairs and what is being done to move the country to the next highest level of growth and development.

Mr. Abodakpi, an ex-Minister of Trade, emphasized that government is not telling its story well enough and is, therefore, not carrying the people along with it, and this does not serve its interest at all. “Complacency in governance is a canker that must be fought with all the strength and vigour we can marshal”.

On the issue of the high expectations of party cadres or what one popularly referred to as foot soldiers, Mr. Abodakpi strongly advised against the use of the state apparatus to clamp down on the activism of party cadres.

He rather, advocate a programme of continuous engagement with the mass of the party’s faithful’s whose heroism, commitment and dedication to the cause of the party is what accounted for the party’s triumph in the last elections despite the massive rigging machinery that was employed by the then NPP regime.

Mr. Abodapki, therefore, called on the Party leadership to engage the people down to the branch level to educate the masses about Government policies and programmes. In interacting with the party’s cadres, the ex-minister stressed that “we should take into account the psyche of the masses and avoid patronage”.

On the fuss generated by the NDC chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei’s comments on the judiciary, the ex-MP stressed that whilst the chairman’s off the cough comment may be interpreted as impolitic, the generality of Ghanaians are acutely aware of the partisanship of the third arm of government, which was in full display during the Kufour-led NPP regime, and which tendency is still being displayed.

Whilst endorsing the assurance of the president to the judiciary that his government respects the independence of the judiciary, it is important for the judiciary to endeavor not to be perceived as an appendage of any political grouping.

“What Ghanaians expect of the judiciary is genuine, unalloyed justice, not the tyranny of the judiciary,” he told The Herald.

He recalled the manipulation of the judiciary under the guise of the rule of law, when the court distribute both fact and the law to suit the political purpose of the powers that be, resulting in the imprisonment of innocent people, including himself, and stated that what the people want to see is a judiciary that is not only perceived to be neutral in the adjudication of justice but must, indeed, be seen to be delivering justice.

The High Commissioner stressed that the callous murder of the late Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani and forty of his followers, the death of Issa Mobilla under very strange and dolorous circumstances, the intriguing murder of Rokko-Frimpong and the senseless murder of the Valliant young men of Anlo whose only crime was their defense of the heritage usurpation by government sponsored in posters, among a whole lot of others, cannot be allowed to be denied justice.

Similarly, the shameless run on the natural coffers, from the National level down to the District Assembly level, are not issues that the masses will just allow the die away because the judiciary decides to renege on its responsibility to ensure real effective and equitable justice that restores the hope of our people in government.

“This is not a call for revenge. It is a legitimate demand for this important arm of government to perform its duty in accordance with the letter and spirit of the constitution so as to restore hope and National pride in our people,” he insisted.

On the perceived cleavage in the NDC Party and the emergence of camps, Mr. Abodakpi stated clearly that after talking to key and leading members of the party, he is of the strong conviction that no such cleavage exits in reality.

He asked for a return to what he calls the fundamental values and principles upon which the party was founded, namely equity, justice, democratic inclusiveness, probity and accountability.

Once these values and principles are adhered to in the governance system to the full, the disillusionment, and the despondency among some of the members will just evaporate.

But to ignore or wish away these values and principles will amount to sounding the death knell of our party and our government.

Mr. Abodakpi stated without equivocation that the NDC will ride the storm and galvanize itself in good time for election 2012 and beyond. He has since left the country back to his base in Kuala Lumpar