Mills is a disaster - Says US-based African Commissioner

Kwabena Amankwah

A member of the African Commission in the City of Newark, New Jersey, in the United States of America , has descended heavily on President Mills, describing his government as “a complete failure and a disaster.”

According to Nana Attah Boamah, developments in the country since President Mills ascended the presidency bear ample testimony to the fact that the law professor does not have “the capacity to deliver the Better Ghana agenda he promised the people.”

In an exclusive interview during his recent visit to the country, the US-based African Commissioner regretted that the Mills presidency had witnessed massive deterioration in the living standards of the people.

“A critical, objective scrutiny of the government’s performance so far, and the reactions from the people who are suffering as a result of the extreme economic hardships convince me beyond every reasonable doubt that Mills has been a failure; he’s been indeed a disaster,” Nana Attah Boamah asserted. The Commissioner’s description of the Mills administration may not come as a surprise to some former gurus of the NDC who had long predicted that a government under Mills presidency would be a disaster.

One such prediction was made by Okatakyie Ward, a former member of the Central Regional campaign team of the NDC. “A government under the presidency of John Evans Attah Mills…would be a disaster because the law professor does not have what it takes to manage the destiny of over 22 million Ghanaians,” Okatakyie cautioned the electorate at a political rally at Mankessin. (The Statesman, Monday, August 25, 2008) Even as far back in 2004, a similar warning had come from Nana Adjei Ababio, former District Chief Executive for Sunyani. He foresaw that “Mills’ presidency will spell the nation’s doom”, and cautioned “it will be politically suicidal to vote for the former Vice President because he continues to prove skeptics right that he has nothing new to offer the nation.” (The Statesman, Tuesday April 6, 2004).

According to the US-based African Commissioner, his interactions with the ordinary people in the streets of Accra and Kumasi “have confirmed the widely held views that the economic circumstances of the people have changed for worse compared with how the people felt under the previous government.”

Asked what could be the reason, Nana Attah Boamah posited: “It’s all because the professor who is the driving seat of the government is not providing the right kind of leadership; a leadership that is focused, inspiring and pragmatic enough to engineer workable plans to make things happen.”

He described the previous government as “more focused, purposeful and forward-looking”, adding “the last time I visited home my old mother was able to tell me the government was doing well because she could attend hospital with her National Health Insurance Card; other people were talking about school feeding programme and other social interventions like the free maternal care which held good prospects for the nation.”

Nana Attah Boamah finds it unfathomable how such social interventions initiated by the previous regime could be rendered ineffective by a government of social democratic inclinations.

“My brother, what I witnessed and heard about these policies when the previous regime was in power was positive, but what is happening now as told by the people makes me wonder whether these social democrats really care about the people. All these good policies are now collapsing, and that makes it clear that the government has been a failure,” he decried.

Nana Attah Boamah mentioned the current irregular supply of kerosene, especially in the hinterlands, as part of the failures of the government.

“Some may consider this issue lightly, but I took it seriously when I was told by some rural folks how the shortage of that basic necessity has made life very uncomfortable for them,” he stated.