An Open Letter To Alhaji Bature Iddrisu

By Kofi Thompson

Opanin,

This is a personal missive to you, as a friend. I will go straight to the point. Why is your party so determined to lose the presidential and parliamentary elections in December 2012?

In dismissing Martin Amidu as Attorney General when he did, President Mills, in one stroke sealed his own fate - and in so doing, paradoxically, also gave your party an opportunity to secure victory in the December polls.

The NDC must seize that opportunity. Opanin, the plain truth is that for many in Ghana today, as a leader, President Mills has proved to be a complete disaster.

Whatever hardcore NDC members like you may say or think, that is the perception held by the vast majority of ordinary Ghanaians about President Mills. And it is a reality you must all face squarely.

Massa, for those disillusioned Ghanaians, the December elections will simply be a referendum on Mills' leadership - and that is why he is heading straight for defeat in the presidential elections.

I have no doubt that the president is a good and decent human being.

However, what Ghana desperately needs is a leader, Opanin, not a meek born-again Christian, superintendenting over the selfsame thievery and corruption, which made some us risk our lives fighting to rid Ghana of the miasma that the corruption of Kufuor & Co., represented.

Before he dismissed Martin Amidu, I had always supported President Mills - because I believed that he was the most honest leader Ghana has had thus far, since Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966.

Your party must face reality. He is heading for defeat in December. That is why your party must rid yourselves of both President Mills and Vice President Mahama - to give the NDC a fighting chance of retaining power after the elections.

By selecting Martin Amidu as the new NDC presidential candidate, and choosing Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings as his running mate, you will give your party the possibility of winning in December.

Those in the NDC who choose to bury their heads in the sand, because of the material benefits they derive from supporting Mills-Mahama, must remember that they are helping the NDC to head for an electoral disaster.

Above all, those of them who think that somehow they can escape the verdict of history, ought to remember that that is not something that can be secured by endless spin and clever propaganda.

Looking back now, do you not see how prescient some of us were, in correctly guessing how much we said China would happily loan Ghana (US$20 billions) - if the new administration quickly headed for China, to seek funding for projects when it first came to power in 2009?

As usual, because that move came too late in the day, today, unfortunately, the powerful and greedy rogues who dominate the NPP, can gain political mileage - by mischievously asking what all the billions of dollars loaned from China, have been used for.

And do you also not see how right those of us who pleaded with President Mills, and members of his administration, to publicly publish their assets (as well as that of their spouses), to enable it occupy the moral high ground in Ghanaian politics, and put clear blue water between it and the NPP, were?

Unfortunately, because of its hard-of-hearing nature, the NDC government did not do so - and is today being accused by the masters of corruption, the NPP's plutocrats, of being the most corrupt administration in Ghana's history.

With respect, and in all humility, perhaps if your regime had listened to half of the things one told it, it would not be facing its present predicament - of having done a great deal to stabilise Ghana, after dealing with real-world-rot of the smoke-and-mirrors-economy left behind by Kufuor & Co.

So, for the sake of Mother Ghana, Opanin, at least mull over all that I have said in this email.

Massa, try and talk to President Mills - and ask him make the ultimate personal sacrifice. He must stand aside now (together with Vice President Mahama), whiles there is a window of opportunity to re-position the NDC, by giving it a new narrative of real reform of Ghana, under a President Martin Amidu.

President Mills and Vice President Mahama, must inform the good people of Ghana that in the interest of the NDC and Mother Ghana, they have elected not to stand as candidates in the December 2012 presidential elections. Peace and blessings to you, Opanin.

Yours in the service of Ghana,

Kofi.

PS In case you are wondering, Opanin, I have never met or spoken to Mr. Martin Amidu before - likewise Mrs. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings. As usual, Massa, this was written for nation-interest reasons only.