Is Koku Anyidoho Not Hiding Something From Us?

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

July 16, 2015

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

He has not made any credible public claims to the effect of representing the collective opinion of the the Ekumfi-Otuam family of the late President John Evans Atta-Mills, and yet Mr. Koku Anyidoho has the temerity to tell the very people who offered their mandate to the late leader to hold off their plausible demand for an inquest into the death of the former University of Ghana tax-law professor (See "No Need To Investigate Mills' Death - Koku Anyidoho" Atinkaonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 7/16/15). One wonders if his reaction and stance would be the same, if Mr. Anyidoho's father were to meet his death under similar questionable circumstances.

What makes his stance rather curious is that even the Head of the Mills Clan has publicly stated that the death of his distinguished relative was very likely caused by foul play; and yet, Mr. Anyidoho would have the rest of the country and the global community believe that he is far more credible than the blood relatives of the late President. In the wake of the mysterious circumstances leading to the death of Prof. Atta-Mills, Mr. Anyidoho, who served as the latter's Communications Director, used to humor Ghanaians with anecdotal tales of dreams that he nightly had in which he engaged in personal conversations with the former Director of the Ghana Revenue Authority.

Once, Mr. Anyidoho even claimed to have been dispatched by the ghost or spirit of the first democratically elected postcolonial Ghanaian leader to die in office to tell his countrymen and women that he was extremely happy and in good spirits, wherever he was, and therefore Ghanaians needed to stop worrying themselves silly about his well-being and whereabouts and move on with their lives. Well, what is significant to note here, at least in passing, is that the Deputy General-Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has absolutely no credibility, whatsoever. For instance, Mr. Anyidoho claims that work on the Cape Coast-located Atta-Mills Research Library is progressing on schedule and around the clock, as it were. And yet just last week, there was a media report clearly indicating that the contractor charged with construction work on the library had removed both his employees and equipment, resulting in a complete halt to any constructional activity on the site.

Significantly, Mr. Anyidoho did not mention the proposed Atta-Mills University of Brong-Ahafo, although he had not forgotten to mention the so-called University of Health and Allied Sciences in the Volta Region, where Mr. Anyidoho has his moorings. And so who is Togbui Trokosi fooling here? The former Atta-Mills public relations wag also does not give any constructive reasons against national outcry for an inquest into the death of his former boss, except to vacuously claim that President Mills had been shown enough love by Ghanaians while he lived, and therefore such morally refreshing demonstration of love ought to promptly put paid to any calls for an inquest.

Quite interesting because it was revealed in the wake of his tragic passing that President Mills had on several occasions come close to resigning the presidency, because he had reached his tolerance level for the torrents of verbal abuse hurled at His Excellency daily by the very people who had afforded him their mandate. And so maybe the Atta-Mills spinmeister needs to check himself into a psychiatric hospital or clinic before further complicating matters for both himself and the other key operatives of the National Democratic Congress, including President John Dramani Mahama, of course.

One thing, however, ought to be made crystal clear to Mr. Anyidoho and his ilk: and it is that no amount of face-saving memorial lectures or distractive hype would cause patriotic and well-meaning Ghanaians to forget that President Mills died under circumstances that would not have gone uninvestigated by the authorities of any civilized democratic nation. Nor can Mr. Anyidoho's lame rafts of subterfuges and downright lies and fabrications lightly muff up or obfuscate the palpably mysterious circumstances under which the third president of Fourth-Republican Ghana met his death.

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