Those around 'humble' Mahama are problematic – Rawlings

Ex-president Jerry John Rawlings has rated President John Mahama high as a “humble” and likable” person, but is afraid those “around him” are problematic.

Rawlings, who is a staunch critic of his former protégé, made the observation after Foreign Affairs Minister Hanna Tetteh walked out on him at the Summit of World Mayors in Accra when he insisted the minister cannot represent Mahama while vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur was in the country.

Ms Tetteh angered by attempts to prevent her from opening the ceremony ostensibly orchestrated by ex-President Rawlings walked out of the event prompting Rawlings to openly launch a verbal attack on the Foreign Affairs Minister.

Rawlings described Ms Tetteh’s behaviour as “disrespectful”, saying such posturing puts the president in a bad light.

Narrating what happened, Rawlings said while waiting for the start of the programme, he asked Vanderpuije “how soon is the president coming?”

“He said ‘no the president was not coming’ and that he has delegated the Foreign Minister to come. So I said to my brother [Oko Vanderpuije] he can't do that. We have a vice president here. The protocol is such that if he can’t do it he should ask his vice to do it and not his Foreign Minister,” Rawlings recalled.

“I tried to call the president and his aides, but he called back and I said we have a vice president on the ground and you can’t send your foreign minister. I told him we’ll wait, he should go and collect the speech and go through it.

“The Foreign Minister turned up and said we should start the conference. But the mayor said ‘sorry, the president says you should give your speech to the vice president’… Fortunately and thankfully, the mayor stuck to his grounds and made sure we waited for the vice-president.

“Humility is very important when we hold office. It is not everything that the president does that I like or agree with, but you can’t take away from him his humble way of doing things and his likable nature. I’m afraid some of the characters around him are the problem… She doesn't even have the patience to wait and sit and join the meeting....you pack up and go because you can't open the meeting?...This kind of disrespect," the ex-Military officer said.