National Awards Suspended?

This year’s National Awards which has generated a lot of controversy following the nomination of Professor John Evans Atta Mills as a recipient, may not be coming on after all. The recipients, according to deep-throat sources, might have to wait for another six months before being decorated.

Daily Guide gathered that the event, originally slated for 3rd July 2008, had been suspended till after the December general elections. A bird whispered to the paper that the suspension became inevitable following the agitations and political spin given to it when the media published five of the probable personalities on the list.

Even though no specific date had been given, the source intimated that it could come on in the first week of January next year, and it would probably be President John Agyekum Kufuor’s last official outdoor duty before handing over power on January 7, 2009.Prof Mills, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, was named last week as one of 158 personalities penciled to receive various categories of awards during this year’s Republic Day celebrations, but his inclusion was so politicized that it had to be called off in the national interest. The first political twist given to the award, when it was first announced by the President’s Press Secretary, Andrew Awuni, was by Koku Anyidoho, communications director of the Mills Campaign Team, when he asserted on a London-based Ghanaian radio station that by nominating the former vice president, President Kufuor had indirectly endorsed Mills as the one to take over the mantle of power come January next year.

It was followed by series of publications in pro-NDC newspapers including Ghanaian Lens owned by Koku Anyidoho, amplifying the spin. Anyidoho’s insinuation sparked spontaneous responses from activists of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), some of who frowned at the President for taking a ‘disastrous’ step. Not even a prompt clarification by the Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, which the final list was not ready, could quench the disenchantment sweeping across members of the ruling party. John Boadu, NPP National Youth Organizer was the first party man to officially express his displeasure at the President’s move, saying it was politically dangerous and ill-timed. He said it was ill-timed in the sense that it could give undue political advantage to some presidential candidates over their opponents.

“I believe strongly that since they are all competing, there is no need for any award to be given to any of them. If there is the need for an award, then all of them must be recipients,” he said, stressing that the award must be based purely on performance. Boadu contended that the former vice president had failed to impress the people in the areas of economic management and human rights protection, and therefore did not deserve the award. This was followed by the Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, who indicated that he was not comfortable with the timing of the nomination. He said even though he was not against recognizing the works of people, there was nothing astounding about the former vice president for him to deserve the award.

And as if that was not enough, the women’s wing of the NPP on Wednesday joined the “no award chorus”, calling on the President to reconsider his decision. A statement issued in Accra and signed by the National Women’s Organiser, Rita Asobayire, noted that the party’s women members were confounded that a person who was vice president when several Ghanaian women were serially murdered has been named for an award. “The mass of our rank and file would be massively demoralized with such a decision and we therefore call on the President to reconsider and review the decision,” the statement stressed. The women said it was unacceptable and hard to understand that someone who was the Vice President of this country did not utter a word when his government, after shaving and beating up Selassi O’Sullivan Djentuh, boyfriend of Ezenator Rawlings at the Castle, threw the boy’s parents in jail for two weeks because they protested against the dehumanization of their son.

The brouhaha naturally prompted a sharp rebuttal from the opposition NDC, watering down the earlier position that President Kufuor was endorsing Mills with an award. The opposition NDC retorted - against Koku Anyidoho’s position - that the professor had nothing to gain politically from the award. While Mills’ running mate, John Dramani Mahama said the award would not give the professor any advantage in the December elections, the party’s propaganda secretary, Fiifi Kwetey, alleged that the idea of nominating the former vice president was an NPP ploy to ridicule Prof Mills. Sounding disturbed at the way the issue was being politicized, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko, former vice-president of the Bank of New York, cautioned that if care was not taken the import of the entire award would be eroded and kicked into insignificance.

The first signal that the controversial award could be called off was noticed when the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng tried to explain that the nominations were not conclusive. The minister, who was making his first official statement on the matter through a release to the press on Wednesday, stressed that no nominee could describe himself as picked or honoured until the committee was out with its final list. “Government wishes to state that the nomination of Prof. Mills remains just that, and should not be misconstrued to mean that a definite decision has been taken on the matter,” it stated. The suspension of the award, observers noted, could help reduce the political tug-of-war it had generated.