Kwesi Botchwey Swerves Obed

Dr. Kwesi Botchwey yesterday left Dr. Obed Asamoah and his DFP hanging when he failed to make a scheduled appearance at the North Kaneshie headquarters of the DFP to commiserate with old friends and associates in the DFP.

Sources close to Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, have told The Ghanaian Lens that Dr. Kwesi Botchwey decided at the very last minute to cancel his previously scheduled visit to the DFP headquarters because he got to know that his visit had been leaked to the press

?Dr. Botchwey, at the very last minute, cancelled what was to have been an informal goodwill visit to the DFP headquarters, because he had been informed that somebody had tipped the media to his arrival and that there were TV camera crews waiting at the place to capture his arrival,? one source very close to Dr. Kwesi Botchwey told this paper.

According to the source, ?Dr. Kwesi Botchwey is not unaware of the machinations going on in the country with regards to the use of his name as a Presidential candidate of the DFP; and having categorically put the matter to rest with a number of radio interviews, he was intrigued to learn that a wholly goodwill visit to the DFP headquarters would have been leaked to the press such that TV camera crews would come to be on standby to capture his arrival.?

?It was most clear to us that those who invited the media to come and capture the arrival of Dr. Botchwey did not have wholly altruistic motives for doing so. Especially as these whole thing was to have happened after Dr. Botchwey?s strong denials on radio that he would run for president on the ticket of the DFP, it was clear that those persons in the DFP who invited the media did so with a view to presenting Dr. Botchwey to the world as an insincere politician whose word cannot be trusted,? the enraged source revealed.

It would be recalled that The Ghanaian Lens, on 18th October 2007, published a front-page banner story with the headline, ?Kwesi Botchwey Endorses Atta Mills?. We reproduce the said story in full, together with accompanying photograph, for the benefit of those who may not have read that report.

For those who have never believed that the 2002 flagbearership contest between Dr. Kwesi Botchwey and John Evans Atta Mills has long been put behind to two gentlemen, Friday, October 12, 2007, proved that the one-time Finance Minister and the immediate past Vice President are people who hate to be rooted in the past, and prefer to move on in life.

The venues were, the Ridge Church and Osu cemetery, and the occasion, the burial service and interment of, Mrs. Shirley Ababio (Nee Bisson), a pillar in the PNDC/NDC governments, who passed on to glory last month at the age of 72.

The burial service and interment though sad events, had its other side of a joy-filled gathering as lots of former functionaries of the PNDC/NDC governments met and reminisced on times when they had to mortgage their lives to getting a derailed economy and national agenda back on track.

It was at these events that Kwesi Botchwey demonstrated, through body language and demeanor, that he believes that John Evans Atta Mills is the right man for the job of salvaging the country after the NPP gets booted out of office in December 2008.

Of course, this reporter was not privy to the full conversation between the two gentlemen However, snippets of the conversation picked up by this reporter strongly indicated Kwesi Botchwey's preference for Atta Mills as the next president of the Republic of Ghana.

Both Atta Mills and Kwesi Botchwey demonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt that whatever transpired in 2002, when the two competed against each other for the flagbearership of the NDC, was nothing to destroy their years of fond acquaintance as they hugged each other as friends, and complimented each other, as well as shared some jokes about the 2002 contest and other matters. Feeling very comfortable amongst his former colleague Ministers (the venerated Dr. Mrs. Mary Grant, Prof Atta Mills, Ato Awhoi, Kwamena Awhoi, Nana Ato Dadzie, Madam Sherry Ayitey, Hon E.T. Mensah, Dr. Don Arthur, Squadron Leader Clend Sowu, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, Mrs. Valerie Sackey, among others) which ought be the case, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey was in his elements as he switched from, English, to Ga, to Twi, To Fante, to split the sides of his former colleagues. Indeed, the former PNDC/NDC government functionaries could not help recounting the invaluable role that Mrs. Shirley Ababio played in those heady days of the PNDC government especially when the woman had to sanitize a government scholarship system that continued to pay monies to people studying abroad long after they had completed their courses or even after they had dropped out of school.

Of course, the sanitization of the scholarship secretariat also included making sure that scholarships went to deserving Ghanaians and not to non-deserving friends, concubines, and relatives of government officials.

Dr. Kwesi Botcwey, is currently a lecturer at the Fletcher School of Law in the United States.