Mills Bounces JJ

EX-PRESIDENT Jerry John Rawlings has revealed and is grousing that not a single advice or suggestion from him to President Atta Mills has been taken or treated as something important.

Jerry Rawlings, in narrating the matter, insinuated that all advice and suggestions he had personally given to President Mills were rubbished by some unnamed persons who spoke to the President later on, adding that he was so disturbed about the development that at a point, he had to inform the President about his reservations.

Speaking yesterday to Adom Fm, Jerry Rawlings said though Atta Mills had consulted him several times on various issues, nothing came out of those consultations, expressing his discontent with those “calling the shots” in the current administration.

“I was not going to comment on this but I guess I have no choice but to say that several consultations have been taking place over the years but I have had the occasion to once ask the President, just on one-on-one, that I would like him to give me one instance when I have given him a suggestion and he has taken it over the last eight years since we left office; just one instance, but the President could not give me one instance.

“In other words, is my suggestion, my advice, of no value to him? Who are those around him? It led to a situation where I was suggesting to the President that whenever we are going to have these discussions, those who make you see another point of view after we have discussed the issue, why don't you bring them here so we can argue it out in front of you?” Jerry Rawlings narrated.

When asked to mention what things he would have wished the current administration had done differently, Jerry Rawlings indicted the Mills Government on the choice of officials and probe of the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat.

He explained: “We have very glaring examples of misdeeds that took place, with human right abuses and killings, and yet we give priority to the materialistic things like investigating Ghana @ 50 when Mobilla's issue…does it mean that human life can be treated like chicken?

“What should have been done from day one, let's say with the Transitional Team, we lost some measure of goodwill on account of some of the personalities that the public had concerns with.

As good as they may be, a lot of those characters were suffering from prejudicial perceptions created by the NPP and in politics perceptions are probably even more important than the reality and until you can change these perceptions for the public to see the true nature of who you really are, they will continue to see you in the light that had been created for them.

“So characters like this should not have been brought into the frontline; they should have been kept at the back. No names for the moment but a good number of them are the ones calling the shots and I think they should not have been brought in the frontline in the first place,” the ex-President fumed.