Fear Grips Mills' Camp

A NEW hint of desperation has set in the Atta Mills camp as an extraordinarily combative Spio-Garbrah, smelling blood continues piling up the punches around the ears of the professor.

One fan of the former Minister at the New Site area where some members of the Spio family live on Tuesday described handlers of Atta Mills as 'Kindergarten handlers' because of their age and lack of experience, and said they have given the game away because of the way they whined at the ferocity of the perfectly legitimate blows being administered by Team Spio, who is fast closing in on the evaporating lead of Atta Mills in the minds of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) delegates in the Central and Western regions.

These are the deciding regions that every candidate must win to win the election. The youthful communications czar had left an excited crowd of NDC supporters in raptures after wowing his home crowd in his usual fast-talking fact-packed acerbic prose.

In response to Spio's campaign effort, Mills cleared his 'Kindergarten handler' to go after him and added another competitor and previous bankroller, Mr. Edward Annan of Masai fame, in one surprising attack, dripping with bitterness and ingratitude.

The young spokesman accused Annan of exploiting his financial wealth to further his political ambition and went on to repeat a worn out argument using President Kufuor's double consecutive election successes to say why Mills should be given a third chance.

Records show that Mr. Edward Annan was the financial pillar who more than anyone in the party bankrolled Professor Mills for the Presidential seat.

It was in his house that Mills indulged in his daily swimming regime and also had his breakfast, and some times pocket money. To think that Mills would one day repay him this way is beyond belief.

Mr. Nii Lante Vanderpuye responded to a suggestion that Mills is jealous of Eddie by saying that Mills 'has what it takes to run a campaign and win'.

"I don't know of the bank accounts of Professor Mills or the other contestants... but I don't think money should be used as a yardstick to measure a candidate."

He was careful not to use the words 'industry and resourcefulness', which is what it really boils down to.

In Cape Coast, Spio-Garbrah revealed what was not known to the press; that even the man who is widely perceived as a dinosaur in the line-up of younger legs for the presidency in the NDC, Alhaji Mahama Iddrissu, was once chairman of the Mills campaign team.

Alhaji Mahama was however left out in the Mills-inspired Ayariga swipe, apparently because he is a rank outsider who has failed even before the contest began.

This is because the mood in the NDC is all but set on a younger fresher face with no baggage of the 'bloody history' of the party with the most horrific human rights antecedent.

The former Minister of Defence and later de-facto Prime Minister has the most distinguished political record of all contestants in the race, and even boasts of a UP tradition like the late Justice D.F Annan.

What may have galled Ayariga/Mills most is simply because they had no response to Spio's charge as all the issues he raised were straight honest truths that could only be dealt with through a torrent of abuse.

The younger challenger reminded delegates and Ghanaians that Mills was at home waiting to be spoon-fed again. Since his defeat, Mills has not found a job to earn enough money or set up a business that could then show the party's donors that he is at least personally contributing significantly financially.

Typically, his town folks describe men like that as 'Taahobedze', roughly translated to mean 'freeloader', eating food which one has not contributed to its preparation.

MILLS RECORD MATCHING SPIO JIBES? Research shows that Mills' campaign effort is severely cash-strapped and his handlers are professional political youth, who stay in rented accommodation paid for by taxpayers unlike the candidate who stays in a Regimanuel Estates house off the Spintex road, secured with the help of guess who? Eddie Annan.

In Fante tradition, retiring public servants who return to the family home with no evidence of a house of their own are treated with opprobrium and disdain and are not expected to steal from the public purse to own a house or two of their own.

After Mills' 40 years in public service, he makes it easy to draw the disturbing parallels because of his failure to demonstrate the very elementary leadership aptitude of an ant. 'Consider the ways of the ant and be wise you sluggard ' is a well-thumbed Biblical injunction found in the Book of Proverbs.

While Spio has released a string of Galloper vehicles for his campaign, Mills appears to be hampered by cash as the expected dash two months away from the crucial delegates conference is not producing the resources to dispatch a team to neighbouring Takoradi, which is Spio's hometown - he is from the distinguished Mercer family in Sekondi and also from the Idan hills in Cape Coast.

Press Secretary Nii Lante Vanderpuije told The Chronicle that Mills would definitely be hitting the Western Region as he is currently doing the Ashanti region this week and would be coming to Greater Accra before making the journey to Takoradi.

One of the sources of intense nervousness in the Mills camp is the regular calls by Spio to the breakaway Obed Asamoah DFP to 'come back home'.

Obed's deep-seated disdain for Mills is so widely known that his emergence as the flagbearer of the NDC will certainly prevent the miniscule voters that he and his group could attract to be permanently lost to the NDC.

A Spio victory at the conference would pave the way for possible discussions with the likes of Bede Ziedeng, Obed, Adamafio and some of the leading lights in the DFP and possible collaboration or even a complete return.

Credible indications are that the 2008 elections would be so crucial and appears to be so close that every single vote would count in deciding which of the two main parties gets the 50 plus one percent of the popular votes, and it may very well be that DFP or CPP could make that crucial tip.