Ignore Kofi Wayo

By Ekua Kwansema

Kofi Wayo does not speak for President Mills. In fact he is not even a registered member of the NDC party. This man who could not even raise funds to contest the just-ended Parliamentary and Presidential elections has no business talking about what President Mills and the NDC party would or would not do. The last time I checked he was not a member of any of the NDC transitional committees.


As a result, I want to inform Kofi Wayo that he has no business issuing threats to former NPP Ministers. In he happens to grant interviews he should talk about issues that concern him and that of Ghana , but he has no business under the sun issuing false treats that would tend to tarnish the image of President Mills and the NDC.


Kofi Wayo, who consider himself as the so-called self-appointed power broker in Ghanaian politics (I wonder who gave him that title) granted an interview to Asempa FM in which he issued an ultimatum to former ministers and government functionaries under ex-president Kufour to return all state possession or risk prosecution.


What is even annoying and worrisome is that Kofi Wayo gave those ex-government functionaries two weeks notice and threatened that if they fail to return those items they would be jailed between 10-20 years. Is this man the new state prosecutor?


The question is who appointed Kofi Wayo an oversee of government property? This man went into hiding when he could not raise money to contest the elections, but now that the pieces are settling in with President Mills working hard to put his team of ministers together to run the country, out of the blue moon this man has come out to garner a little attention that he always crave.

What I want to tell Mr. Wayo is that the NDC does not need him for anything, therefore, when he is talking about national issues he should refrain from pronouncements that may sound as if he is acting on behalf of President Mills¢ government.. Ghana at the moment does not need another Adumadze III who would bulldoze his way through and cause havoc.


I expect the Mills¢ government to issue a statement informing Ghanaians that what Kofi Wayo said does not reflect the views of the government. They should swiftly condemn these pronouncements by Kofi Wayo that can further inflame passions in the country. Where was Kofi Wayo when President Mills told Ghanaians that he was not going to resort to witch-hunting by prosecuting ex-ministers? Where was he when the newly Presidential Spokesperson, Mr. Ayariga re-echoed what President Mills said?


Ghana is currently confronted with so many issues. A report released by the World Bank Country Director in Ghana , Ishac Diwan, stated categorically that the NPP government left Ghana ¢s economy in a much worse state than it inherited from the NDC in 2000. The report further stated that the county¢s economy situation took a deep dive during the last two years of the Kufour¢s administration, hence the terrible financial situation facing Ghana today.


It is due to this terrible state of the economy that necessitated a meeting between President Mills and the Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr. Acquah. Therefore, President Mills does not have the luxury to spend his precious time on issues that would further divide the country. If Kofi Wayo has something good to offer, now that Ghana has found more oil, he should bring some of his investors to dig for the oil. He has hounded Ghanaians about oil issues for far too long, and now that we have struck oil in larger quantities this is the time for him to act.


He should not self-appoint himself as the Sheriff-in-Chief, because the NDC does not need him in that capacity. I expect good thinking Ghanaians to ignore the threats from him, and treat it with the contempt that it deserves.

I am very happy about the swift manner with which the NDC party hierarchy denounced those who went and seized the management of public toilets in Ashiaman and informed the police to bring to book those who got involved in that seizure. These petty acts by some happy-go-round supporters are issues that should not be entertained by the party at the expense of its standing in the eyes of Ghanaians.


It is also gratifying to know that the car that was seized from the Barclays Bank MD has been returned. I would just advice that next time the police should act differently. They could have taken down the information of the car, by writing the vehicle identification number, registration number, colour and make of the car, information about who was driving the car and asked the occupant of the vehicle to drive away. Armed with the information, they could then have gone to the DVLA to check if indeed the vehicle belongs to the government or otherwise. The action taken by the NPP in 2001 whereby former NDC government functionaries were removed from their vehicles at traffic stops should not be revisited. NDC should prove to Ghanaians and the NPP that they are in power to do things differently for the overall benefit of the country.


ekwansema@yahoo.com