NPP-USA : Kobby Acheampong Must Be Fired

NDC’s arrogant and politically immature Team B ministers, particularly Kobby Acheampong, Omane-Boamah and Okudzeto Ablakwah, have gained notoriety for insulting Ghanaians and flaunting Ghanaian laws. Despite President Mills’ hypocritical public admonishment of these despicable acts, he has tacitly supported these disrespectful political rouges without any punishment or rebuke for myopic political gains at the very peril of the country’s rule of law, nascent democracy, political stability and national security. The NDC government’s unlawful incarceration of dutiful policemen on the allegation of having insulted Kobby Acheampong, who wantonly violated a road traffic regulation, has grave implications for Ghana’s rule of law, democracy, morale of security personnel and overall national security.

Ghana today faces a menacing problem of road accidents due to poor infrastructure, over-speeding and drunk driving, to mention a few. While concerned Ghanaians who are losing their loved ones through the needless and uncontrolled carnage on our road ways are looking for answers to curb this killing machine, Kobby Acheampong, a deputy Interior Minister and a civilian boss of the Police, rather than championing the enforcement of the law of the land, violated it by recklessly driving over the established speed limit and was legitimately stopped by 7 MTTU personnel. Instead of demonstrating exemplary leadership, exhibited arrogance of power by asking the policemen “Do you know who I am?” Infuriated at the audacity of the police officers to stop him for over-speeding, he arranged with the Inspector General of Police to jail his own subordinates performing duties assigned them by these same superiors.

The Mills’ administration is turning Ghana into George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” where NDC party “gurus” are more equal than other Ghanaians. This is a classic case of an administration that symbolizes misuse of power and public trust, and also enjoys selective justice. Ghana’s rule of law and democracy is being blatantly undermined. Kobby Acheampong and his colleagues consider themselves “big men” above the national law. We want to caution President Mills that democracy does not, and will not thrive in the world of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”.

The public humiliation of the policemen is bound to lower their morale, confidence and enthusiasm to efficiently perform their duties as custodians of the law. Since the police cannot identify all the so-called NDC “Big Men” they would avoid intercepting all suspects including criminals to avoid jail for doing their work. The sequel is a state of collective insecurity with increased crime in Ghana. A more serious and probable cascade effect is that personnel of other state institutions would be limited in performing their duties to avoid a similar fate of jail time. This abominable situation is ultimately a recipe for anarchy and paralysis of governance associated with the incompetent Mills-Mahama administration.

President Mills has demonstrated leadership incompetence by performing abysmally as reflected in the deplorable economic, health, educational, and infrastructural conditions as well as increased crime and moral decadence in Ghana today. His failed policies are evident in the strikes by nurses and doctors resulting in the unfortunate death of innocent Ghanaians. To protect Ghana’s rule of law, democracy, and guarantee the security of Ghanaians, we call on President Mills’ to back his words with actions by sacking Kobby Acheampong from office to serve as a deterrent to other political deviants in his regime.

Vision without implementation is hallucination, which aptly describes President Mills’ leadership style of all words but little action. President Mills must decide whether he stands with the people of Ghana who entrusted him with the country’s destiny or with his corrupt, arrogant and power drunken “Team B” ministers. Unfortunately, in President Mills’ Ghana “the Falcon cannot hear the Falconer, things have fallen apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” his subordinates are let loose to loot and undermine our cherished democracy.

The NPP assures Ghanaians that respect for rule of law and dignity of Ghanaians would be restored where no Ghanaian would be an exemption to the law and disrespected by ministers of state*,* come 2012. We must remember that these cherished objectives can only be achieved through vigilance and dedication by voting the arrogant, corrupt, incompetent* *NDC out and replacing it with the NPP, the party with the requisite leadership, personnel and inherent abiding faith in democracy to restore Ghana’s democracy, dignity and a path to prosperity for the citizenry.

Public Relations Committee, NPP-USA.