You cant unite JJ & JAM

YOU CAN’T UNITE

Rawlings And Mills- Volta Youth Challenge Boakye Gyan & Afotey Agbo

By Newman Dotse (The Citizen) thecitizen.news@yahoo.com

A group calling itself Volta Youth For Total Action (VYTA) in the Volta Region has rubbished the recent statements made by Boakye Gyan and Hon. Afotey Agbo that they are better placed to unite the sitting president, Professor John Evans Atta Mills and the founder, former President Jerry John Rawlings for success in the forthcoming general elections, saying, the two mentioned above who are now calling for unity are not qualified to embark on unity talk between Mills and the former President Rawlings.

According to Mr. Lawrence Kofi Deditey, the leader of the group who made this known to The Citizen Newspaper last week, Boakye Gyan and Hon. Afotey Agbo have also wronged the founder in their utterances during and after the Sunyani Congress, adding, Hon. Afotey Agbo who is known to be strong NDC aficionado was silence when thumb sucking toddlers in the party were spewing lies about the founder in desperate attempt to accomplish the evil plan hatched by their masters to pin down the founder and eventually reduce him to nothing so that they can have their way to deep their long hands into the coffers of the state and further impoverish the Nation.

“ We think that the idea of going to the founder for unity talk is not bad but the people who offered themselves to embark on this journey have contributed enormously to the current happenings in the party, hence, they have no moral right to even talk about uniting president Mills and former president Rawlings. This thing can only be done by those who remained neutral before and after the Sunyani congress. In fact, even if somebody would have to do that, not the likes of Boakye Gyan and Hon. Afotey Agbo. We don’t think it is proper for anybody to go to the founder for unity talk without solving the problems he pointed out” Mr. Lawrence Kofi Deditey explained.

He said for now, they want the former president and the founder of the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Jerry John Rawlings to stay away from the 2012 electioneering campaign for those who say they can do it better without his involvement to go ahead and do it for all to see, adding, after all, they are the people enjoying today. The people, who think Rawlings is nobody and that the party as it stands now can do without his involvement, determine how the president manages the affairs of this country.

These are very people who managed to smuggle the likes of Boakye Djan into the NDC, with forged membership card in a bid to get his support to accomplish their mission of getting rid of the founder in order to secure their political future.

Surely, there are other ways of securing one’s political future other than making the whole lot of us walk down the road to imbecility. It is not a birthright of any group to appropriate to themselves the power to decide how Ghanaians eat, talk, work and sleep.

It is quite shocking to hear Boakye Gyan saying that he is now convinced that the NDC will need the support of its founder to win the 2012 elections for which reason every effort must be made to get him on the campaign trail as if he was not the very person who castigated him to the extent of saying Rawlings is not the founder of NDC and that he can never be the founder. Today, because Mills’ men realized that they cannot carry out their secret plan without Mills securing a second term, they are pretending to be championing the cause of unity talk to get the founder on their campaign trail with the hope to win the 2012 election and bid him farewell eventually.

It is now obvious that Mills- Mahama led administration is hyperventilating and killing itself from its own excesses.

After all the attacks on the founder by those thumb sucking toddlers running errand for the president, the President who many people say fear God, is saying there is nothing wrong with the lawlessness and corrupt behaviour of some of his followers who are only singing praise the lord because today, they are in the helm of affairs; intimidating people left, right and centre, dipping their long hands into the state coffers to acquire magnificent mansions both home and overseas at the expense of the hungry Ghanaians.

The system of governance as some foot soldiers say is traditionally buttressed by bootlickers, knee-bending sycophants and grovellers not to forget liars. What is happening in NDC government today is sufficient confirmation of a system that has gone terribly wrong, without the leader himself noticing it.

The unemployed graduates’ agitation nowadays is true confirmation of the abysmal performance of this government.

After all, it takes more than guts to stand up to a political system that does not put any value on intellect and skill for upward mobility but rather than how flat people can prostrate themselves in order to be rewarded. Indeed, that is what we are witnessing today.

As I see it, since the obtaining political system does not subscribe to high moral values, if any at all, people who speak their minds, such as the hardworking youth of the NDC party and some few people within Mills’ government because they still have conscience run the risk of alienating themselves from those to whom they owe their political life.

Political establishment must not skirt around issues or problems particularly if these come from the youth that are the backbone of the Country. Indeed instead of lancing the boil by tackling head-on grievances coming from any quarter of the Ghanaian populace, strange political establishment has the tendency of burying its head in the sand, perhaps in the hope that the problems will disappear on their own or resolve themselves. Never! It can never be, unless the right thing is done at the right time.

Thinking that the problems would evaporate without some kind of magic, of course, is wishful thinking conjured up by those who have taken leave of reality as is often the case with our political leadership.

MILLS WOBBLES

…As NPP Closes Gap

By Newman Dotse

It is now obvious that the 1% gap between Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, the flagbearer of the NPP and the current President and the flagbearer of the ruling National Democratic Congress, (NDC) has been cancelled as former President Rawlings expressed worries and unhappiness with what he says is the soaring popularity of the NDC's opponent, the NPP as a result of the lackadaisical attitude of President Mills in tackling electoral promises.

According to the NDC’s founder, President Mills has turned the governing party into an opposition party, thus running away from his responsibilities.

He noted that even though the NDC is in government, it is weaker than the opposition NPP, alluding that the NPP flagbearer is more popular than NDC’s President Mills, who always want to please people around him than being himself.

By all indications, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo is slightly ahead of President Mills on the popularity scale as he managed to cross the winning mark, and now poised to ascend to the presidential throne.

Political connoisseurs say Mills is not well placed to be given the second term because he has disappointed the people of this Country, more especially the youth. According to them, the NDC machinery realized that the popularity of their flagbearer has dwindled tremendously as a result of the attacks launched on the Rawlingses by his followers. As a result, they have no alternative than to soil the image of the NPP’s flagbearer, Nana Akufo Addo.

They say image assassination of the NPP flagbearer is not the right path for the NDC, the ruling party but rather the propagation of their achievements is the only thing that can possibly wipe off the possible embarrassment that is currently stirring at them. It is not how to deflate Akufo Addo either. Indeed, such vain propaganda won’t win the elections for the NDC. In effect, that’s not how to win elections.

There is nothing new about Akufo-Addo that Ghanaians are looking for to help them decide whether to reject him again or give him the nod this time. All that there is to know about him has been in the public domain ever since he emerged as a Presidential Candidate since 2008. It is no exaggeration, then, to say that those who want him to be Ghana’s President will not change their minds just because he is being attacked by his opponents, who want to score cheap political points. In the same vein, those who don’t want him to rule Ghana will never change their minds, no matter how much whitewashing he goes through. The government has better things to do and must do them than fighting NPP all the time.

President Mills’ poor performance has made Akufo Addo the most popular politician in Ghana today; and the pro NDC media houses are also making him more popular in their attempt to make him look bad in the eyes of the right thinking members of the society, forgetting that Ghanaians are more discerning so far as politics is concerned.

NDC camp’s pre-occupation with throwing mud at him won’t necessarily derail his campaign efforts nor will it wash with the electorates. The fact is that the man is really campaigning and his message reaching the masses that have the power to make and unmake.

Comments from public spirited personalities and the widespread condemnation of the ongoing politics of insults suggest that electorates are looking for better messages. They wouldn’t fall easily for any of the camps that insult the most. The electorates want issues based campaigns and will be turned off by what the NDC camp has resorted to.

Nevertheless, politics involves rhetorical maneuvers aimed at persuasion but when the main apparatus being used is nothing but the undermining of political opponents, then the perpetrators should expect some ricochet effects eventually.

The government must ensure that it sustains the peace and tranquility that Ghanaians need to live their lives even if they are complaining about the harsh conditions of life and blaming the government for it. It doesn’t pay to terrorized people to see things your way.

The government must do all it can to prevent anarchy while ensuring that it does not itself become a explicit participant in this dirty politics as it has already succumbed to pressure to engage its political opponents in unruly battle, all in an attempt to retain the seat of power, come 2012.

Insults don’t become the main weapon in democracies that are designed to succeed. Politicians win elections through sound reasoning and coherent policies and programmes that endear them to the hearts of the electorates.

The recent brouhaha surrounding the use of biometric voting and the NPP insistence that there cannot be biometric voting without verification has added another twist to the fuel being poured into the upcoming 2012 elections flames. However, after all the loose talk, the Chairman of Electoral Commission has come out to make it clear that his outfit has added to its budget to the government the acquisition verification gadget to ensure free and fair elections in 2012.

It is important for political parties to have faith in the electoral system, the Electoral Commission and its chairman Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan. Judging from their previous experience and performance in organizing elections there can be no doubt that Dr. Afari Gyan and his team has what it takes to organise the elections. In the past, the Commission has shown to be a credible institution that operates without favouritism.

Ghana is a constitutionally governed country and anyone who tries to disturb the peace of the land must be dealt with according to the laws of the land without hesitation. Attempt to stop the electoral commission from adding verification to its exercise could mean perhaps, some people would want to embark on rigging, thus overturning the will of the people.

The citizen Newspaper (233 27 731 4655)

GRAND PLOT TO GAG THE MEDIA IN MOTION

• Castle ‘Boys’ & Govt. Comm. Team Fingered

When one gauge the political temperature since President John Evans Atta Mills assumed control of the administration of this country, one thing that is protruding is that, the kitchen is too hot for some of his appointees and Ministers because of the unpardonable blunders that they have committed and still committing.

But because of the mouthwatering purse, privilege and the trappings of naked power, they are sweating profusely and in some instances are being burnt by criticism coming from some media organizations including some independent minded officials of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who are dissatisfied with the leadership style of the sitting President and exposing the misdeeds being committed by some of them but instead of them getting out to breath fresh air, they are using crude, subterfuge and covert method to intimidate and gag some of these media organizations and individuals into submission.

The modus operandi is simple; they influenced and compromised some producers and Morning Show Hosts of some Radio and Television stations in the country to sideline The Citizen by not reviewing it on their Newspaper Review and Analysis platforms.

Another scheme that has been put in motion because of The Citizen’s close association with FONKAR is the activation of the BNI and the National Security operatives to threaten, question and hound persons this Ministers and appointees perceived to have ties with the paper, not forgetting refusal of state institutions to give advert to this paper as a result of orders from above.

This media repression tactics this paper has established is being engineered and masterminded by powerful power brokers at the Castle, a Deputy Minister for Information as well as some members of the Government Communication team with tacit support of a ‘Kokomlemle’ based publisher and Managing Editor of a tri-weekly Newspaper.

The Citizen has also established that this Managing Editor has consistently been bad mouthing management and staff of this paper because of this paper’s exposé of a grand scheme to push the CPP agenda and relegate the philosophy and ideology of the NDC, championed by the Founder of the NDC and former President of Ghana, Mr. Jerry John Rawlings to the background, the criticism of the Mills administration and the exposé of the crude method his protégé who is a Deputy Minister is using to win parliamentary seat in the Volta region.

This paper has also learnt that this Managing Editor and his collaborators in Government are uncomfortable with this paper’s position on the sitting President’s second term bid, owing to the mouthwatering benefits and privilege that they are currently receiving from this Government.

The Citizen is of a firm conviction that the result of these nefarious and reprehensive activities of these State institutions and officials including their “attack dog” collaborators will not fly and will soon explode in their face. These State institutions including President Mills appointees should rather use their efforts and energy to promote the security and interest of the citizenry rather than using their limited resources and time to persecute individuals and organizations who have decided to exercise their fundamental human right which is one of the cardinal principles enshrined in the 1992 constitution (freedom of association and freedom of expression).

Currently, this Paper’s internet facilities has been shut down for months, its office facilities tampered with, fax machine and telephone lines disconnected at the behest of State institutions and President Mills’ appointees who carry themselves in public as apostles of freedom of speech and democracy.

This act of repression and intimidation that has been set in motion, which is gasping for breath to survive and succeed in a bid to collapse this paper is a clear manifestation that the root and tenet of good governance and free speech is seriously under threat and is yet to take firm root in Ghana’s political dispensation.

These State institutions and functionaries of the NDC Government are certainly swimming in shark infested waters because the repercussion of this scheme will be dangerous, counterproductive and costly because the trapping of political power is slippery and transient.

By the citizen Newspaper (233 27 731 4655)