Rawlings Displeased with Victor Smith?

Former President Jerry Rawlings is believed lately to be not too happy with his personal aide Victor Smith over a number of issues. In the first place it has been alleged by sources close to the former president’s office that gradually Victor Smith has over-stepped the boundaries of his role as the spokesperson for J. J. Rawlings and is now embarrassing the ex-president with his pronouncements. The source revealed that, to the extent that Mr. Smith is using the name of the ex-president to send messages to certain international officials without Rawlings’s knowledge is said to be very, very worrying for J.J.

Maybe it is time for the ex-president to let Victor know his role properly so he can act accordingly. From what we understand in governmental and corporate circles a spokesperson is only supposed to communicate messages that come from his or her boss to the public or a specific target audience. A spokesman is only allowed to say what he has been asked to say. In a case where he has to make a statement on his own regarding the office, he does so in consultation with his boss - in this case the ex-president. The classical definition of spokesmanship forbids the spokesman from making any public utterances without seeking approval from his superior.

However sources close to Smith and the ex-president reveal that Victor is incurring the displeasure of Rawlings daily by doing the opposite of what a spokesman is allowed to do. It is alleged that Mr. Rawlings only gets to know of issues concerning him in the media only when mediamen call to tell him what Victor has attributed to him. Victor Smith goes to the NDC party headquarters and issues statements as if the ex-president has sent him. But when party officials confront Mr. Rawlings it turns out that he is innocent. My sources reveal that Victor sends e-mails to international officials from Rawlings’s e-mail box, with his (Victor’s) name under it. What on earth will give a spokesman the audacity to use his boss’s PRIVATE e-mail box to send messages without his knowledge? But your guess is as good as mine. Victor Smith is even using the ex-president’s cell phone to send text messages to people without the knowledge of his boss. One such evidence is a recent SMS message purpoted to have been sent by Jerry Rawlings to Professor Mills concerning his health and his supposed willingness or unwillingness to run for the flagbearership of the NDC. Rawlings is said to be displeased with how Smith & Mills are handling the issue of the so-called SMS message.

Investigations have shown that former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, who knows all about Smith, has warned her husband several times of how damaging Victor can be with his statements. For your information Smith served as Nana Konadu’s special aide during the NDC rule.

Insiders have revealed that because of Smith’s open support for Mills he intentionally sent a certain text message to Mills and made it seem that the ex-president had sent it. Of course if a message comes from Rawlings’s phone it can comfortably be assumed that it was sent by Rawlings. Victor Smith is believed to be making unapproved statements to the press, and therefore believed to be hurting the image of Rawlings, not just as the only living past president of Ghana, but also as a leader who left the legacy of having established such a formiddable political tradition called the NDC. Close friends argue that Rawlings and Smith are divided over Mills’s decision to run for the NDC congress. Simply put Rawlings does not think Mills can win victory for his dear party and is advocating for a new, dynamic face. On the other hand Smith openly supports Mills’s bid and sometimes conveys his own opinion as if it was coming from the ex-president. This behaviour is something J J is extremely worried about.

Rawlings questions why Smith is behaving this way regarding the NDC flagbearership. But he has been fed with the information that Mills has promised Smith the position of Chief of Staff if he becomes president.

But why would Smith act on such a promise from Mills. Mills is known to have made promises to Martin Hamidu, which he withdrew after the 2000 elections. The same promise was made to Mumuni which has been witrhdrawn, and John Mahama has been a victim of these same vain promises, not to mention what Alabi has suffrered at the hands of an indecisive professor. What makes Victor Smith believe that in the UNLIKELY event that Professor Mills becomes the president, he will honour that promise? Mills’s leadership is very unlikely because the NDC is not just looking for a flagbearer but a candidate that can win the presidency.

The very final revelation concerns the number of complaints the ex-president has received concerning Smith. Many officials have advised Rawlings to dismiss Smith because, as a spokesperson, he is not representing the interest of his superior.

In fact a source close to Rawlings, Smith and the NDC concludes that all the conflicts that have been created between the ex-president and the current president, the security apparatus, the police, the local media, other foreign heads of state, and some international organisations, have been due to the unauthorised utterances of Victor Smith. The NDC, Nana Konadu and others have appealed to the ex-president to dispense with the services of Smith if he wants to protect his image as a respectable statesman. There are those who believe that Smith will know too much about the former first family to be dismissed just like that, but close pals say the ex-president is poised on kicking Victor out if he continues down the wrong path.