Kwamena Ahwoi’s Working With Rawlings – Amidu’s critique VIII Part V

Introduction

This segment of the concluding critique on the two difficult years 1999-2000 continues the discourse on “Martin Amidu: A Surprise Choice” by telling in detail how Martin Amidu was summoned by vice president Mills to his residence on 3 September 2000 and eventually nominated the same day as his running mate for the 2000 presidential elections.

The intention is to put the reader in a better position to assess how Martin Amidu became not only a surprise choice but also excitedly swallowed a bait laid out for him by the author and his cohort of Professor Mills’ puppet masters. The processes giving rise to the proposed running mate agreeing to the offer are explained leading up to the formal confirmation of the nomination by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC the same night.

The reasons assigned to Ghanaians by Professor Mills for identifying and nominating his running mate are also discussed. The objections later raised to the nomination after the confirmation are also raised and discussed. It is suggested that the author waited to write his Working with Rawlings after the death of President Mills to enable him to fabricate the data to take revenge against the author’s perceived adversaries.

Mills invites Martin Amidu to come with his curriculum vitae (CV)

The telephone in my bedroom rang at about 6:00 am on the morning of Sunday, 3 September 2000 while I was still resting in bed. I picked the phone and said into the receiver: “Hello, hello,” and the line went dead. A call came through again within five minutes, and this time Professor Mills’ voice came on the line.

I was surprised he was calling me that early in the morning. He asked me to come immediately to his residence to see him. He added that I should come along with my curriculum vitae (CV). I answered: “Yes Sir!” and wondered what was brewing again this time round. Was Nancy winning?

President Rawlings had instructed when I was the Chairman of the Public Agreements Board (PAB) that an IDD telephone line be installed in my residence and office. I refused to have one installed in my residence because I did not want to be treated differently from other revolutionary comrades. I could not, therefore, call Dr. Amidu in Norway from my residence to inform him about the early morning summons.

There was no driver to send me to answer Professor Mills’ summons as my official driver was off duty that Sunday. I, therefore, drove to my office to pick a copy of my CV which I had written sometime earlier for another purpose. I then called my elder brother in Norway from my office to inform him of the latest development from our family friend, Professor Mills. My brother’s view was that since I had not heard the reason for the summons I should just go and listen and make decisions based on the encounter.

I called Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu’s residence next to acquaint him with the fact that Professor Mills had summoned me to his residence. Alhaji Iddrisu’s daughter, Sarika Iddrisu, took my call. I asked to talk to her father. She told me he was still in bed. I asked her to wake him up and tell him I needed to speak to him urgently. Sarika told me she could not wake him up or pass on the information to him. I drove to the official residence of Vice President Mills. I was left to my own fate.

THE OFFER AND THE RESISTANCE

At the Vice President’s residence, I was ushered into a sitting room to wait for Professor Mills. It did not take long for him to come there. He reminded me of his nomination to contest for the 2000 elections as the presidential candidate for the NDC and the fact that he had been praying and fasting for God to assist him pick a winning running mate.

He reminded me of our friendship and family relationship going over the years and the fact that we had supported each other and knew each other’s integrity. He then told me that after much prayer and fasting God had revealed to him to nominate me as his running mate.

I thanked Professor Mills for his kind words and trust in me. I told him I was not mentally, socially, politically, and financially tuned and prepared to be his running mate for the 2000 elections. I informed Professor Mills that being a Vice President had never been my ambition and I was not going to try to be one upon his entreaties. I tried to convince him that he already had two eminent contenders to choose from, Dr. Obed Asamoah, whom I worked with as the Attorney General, and Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu whom I looked to by custom and tradition as an elder brother just as Dr. Amidu.

My covert preference was Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu although I had a very good working relationship with Dr. Asamoah. It was unconscionable for me to accept a position either of them was contesting for as though I had covertly been contesting with them for the same position.

Professor Mills redoubled his appeal to our years of friendship and family relationship. I would be letting him down completely if I declined to accept to be his running mate at that hour because he had to announce his running mate to a meeting of the NEC of the NDC at the Osu Castle at 4:00pm that day: he had no alternative besides me.

I asked Professor Mills whether he had informed Dr. Asamoah of his decision to make me his running mate. His response was that Dr. Asamoah and he were supposed to meet me to make the offer to me, but Dr. Asamoah had asked him to meet me alone and make the offer.

Dr. Asamoah was, therefore, aware and endorsed his choice. I then asked Professor Mills whether he had discussed his offer with my elder brother Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu. He answered in the negative. I then told Professor Mills that there was no way I was going to accept a position Alhaji Iddrisu was contesting and for which he knew he had my full support as though I had been a traitor to his course all along.

Professor Mills continued to appeal to our friendship and family relationship over the years and repeated the fact that he had to announce his choice of running mate that evening to a NEC meeting at the Castle that evening. At this stage, I asked Professor Mills a question: “Why me?”. Instead of giving me a straight answer, Professor Mills simply repeated my question: “Why me?” And said: “You are the right person God asked me to choose. I made the right choice.” He added that it was God’s will that he runs with me as running mate for the 2000 elections and, therefore, I should not disappoint him at that last hour.

Considering the long-standing friendship between Professor Mills and his wife, my senior brother, Dr. Assibi Amidu, my mother, and myself I was in a difficult situation. Professor Mills wanted my concurrence there and then. There was no time to even consult my immediate family. I made up my mind, come what may, I could not accept the offer being made by Professor Mills without the knowledge and concurrence of Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu.

Mills Consults Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu

I told Professor Mills that the only condition upon which I could accept the offer of being his running mate was for him to consult Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu for his concurrence. Professor Mills informed me that he did not know Alhaji Iddrisu’s residence. I offered to lead the way and show him Alhaji Iddrisu’s residence.

I led the way, slowed down near the residence, and pointed to Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu’s residence near the Japanese Embassy to him and his entourage. I drove on to Lartebiokorshie as Professor Mills and his entourage branched into the gate of Alhaji Iddrisu’s residence.

I had also refused to own the luxury of a mobile phone at that time, and by the time I got to my Lartebiokorshie home, my line phone had been ringing. I picked up the phone when I reached home and Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu who was on the line, told me that Professor Mills had come to inform him about his conversation with me and my ultimate condition that the feasibility of the offer depended on his concurrence. Alhaji Iddrisu thanked me for my fidelity to our customs and traditions and added that it was right I insisted on his consent being sought.

He took the view that it made no difference whether he was the running mate or

I was the running mate as long as we were not knowingly working behind each other’s backs. He had offered his unconditional support to Professor Mills for choosing me as his running mate and I should accept the offer with his blessings. He urged me to call Professor Mills and formally accept the offer.

Alhaji Iddrisu also notified me that he had formally informed Mr. Lionel Molbila, another elder brother, who had also been making frantic attempts to reach me to support what Alhaji Iddrisu had just told me.

ACCEPTANCE AND CONFIRMATION OF NOMINATION

I called Professor Mills and formally accepted to be his running mate for the 2000 elections.

He asked me to be at his office at the Osu Castle at 3:00 pm in the evening for the introduction ceremony to the NDC meeting. He repeated his assurances that if my candidature was not accepted at the meeting he would not run as the presidential candidate for the NDC for the 2000 elections.

I had managed to recall my official driver to duty and was at Professor Mills’ office at the Osu Castle at the appointed time. I was ushered into the meeting which was supposed to be the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the NDC, but to my surprise, all the service commanders were also in attendance.

A noticeable absence from the meeting was Dr. Obed Asamoah. I also noticed that President Rawlings had one of his hands in a Plaster of Paris cast which he was not in on Friday, 1 September 2000.

I was introduced by Professor Mills as his choice for running mate after he had said so many kind things about his personal knowledge of me, my character, and commitment to the course of the NDC. I was then given to the NEC meeting to answer questions to assuage any concerns they had.

President Rawlings led the charge. The most memorable question was when he alleged that I was Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu’s walking stick and asked whether I was not going to be his poodle as the running mate. I answered the allegation and pointed to the fact that President Rawlings knew several moments of disagreements between Alhaji Iddrisu and me.

I underscored the fact that like it or not, I could not disown Alhaji Iddrisu as my senior brother. Alhaji Iddrisu was visibly upset by the allegations and intervened to deny them. At the end of the day, Professor Mills’ choice unanimously was approved.

After the meeting, I met Kwamena Ahwoi in front of Professor Mills’ office and he heartily congratulated me on my choice as the running mate and said Professor Mills had made a good choice. He added that this choice showed that the system works no matter how long it took to recognize one’s contributions.

His words stuck in my memory because I had never throughout my career as a socialist revolutionary considered the position, I held of any importance to the struggle to emancipate my compatriots from exploitation by the neocolonialist political elite and deep state actors. It never once crossed my mind to lobby for any position.

President Rawlings had in his own way raised me above some of my colleagues by making me the Chairman of the Public Agreements Board with a personal right to attend all PNDC meetings, which I did. PNDC Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries could only attend PNDC meetings upon invitation. I was a PNDC Deputy Secretary and Deputy Attorney-General but the personal right to attend PNDC meetings in my other capacity as Chairman of the PAB never inflated my ego.

It never changed my behaviour and relationship with other comrades. I saw my choice as a running mate as a burden for which I was ill-prepared. I doubted and still doubt whether any other person would have managed to convince me to accept to be the running mate other than Professor Mills and for the sake of our long-standing relationship of mutual respect and trust.

AFTER NOMINATION CONFIRMATION

Before I left the Castle meeting on the night of 3 September 2000, I do not remember whom, but I was advised to go straight to Dr. Obed Asamoah’s residence to acquaint him with the conclusions of the NEC meeting. I was driven to Dr. Asamoah’s residence that night only to be informed by his police orderlies who tried to wake him up that he had for the first time put on his air conditioners and could not hear their calls or knocks on the window.

It was suspected that the advice for me to go to his residence that night had been leaked to him by a female member of the NEC. I returned to Dr. Asamoah’s residence by 5:30 am the next day but he had already left for the office. I followed him to the office.

Dr. Asamoah confirmed that he had been told I came to his residence the previous night. He also confirmed that he was supposed to have met me with Professor Mills to solicit my consent to accept to be Professor Mills’ running mate but he had asked Professor Mills to meet me alone.

He told me that he did not have any objection to me being Professor Mills’ running mate except his worry that there was a thinking that I was going to be Professor Mills’ messenger and not his Vice President should we win the elections.

Dr. Asamoah told me that Professor Mills had said that he, Dr. Asamoah, could not be his running mate because he had been Professor Mills’ lecturer at the University of Ghana and he could not fathom giving instructions to him as his vice-president. Dr. Asamoah assured me of his support.

In the interim, in anticipation of securing my freedom from public office after the retirement of President Rawlings my family and I had decided that they move from the Government bungalow I occupied at No. 1 Kwame Nkrumah Estates, Lartebiokorshie to my house at Plot No. 355 North Legon Residential Area which Dr. Asamoah had nick-named my hencoop.

My family moved on 30 August 2000 to North Legon to enable us to get the house into proper shape for our eventual relocation and left me alone in the Lartebiokorshie residence. Then came the early morning 3 September 2000 invitation, and the rushed nomination of me as the running mate to Professor Mills. The pressure on my Lartebiokorshie residence by visitors suddenly surged. My family had to relocate back to Lartebiokorshie in order to handle the volume of visitors.

Nana Ato Dadzie, who was then the Chief of Staff to President Rawlings assigned a Toyota Landcruiser and driver, Joseph Akonai, from the Castle, to become my main driver for my campaign as the running mate. Later, two Nissan pick-ups were also assigned to my campaign team which served as backup vehicles. I did not agree to the decision to assign military escorts to me as a running mate over the police when I had been a Member of the Police Council since 1989.

Consequently, I was assigned two police officers from the armoured squadron of the Ghana Police Service as escorts and security detail to add to Mr. Francis Dogbe, my official police orderly since February 1982.

The objectors to the confirmed nomination

A few days after my nomination and acceptance to be Professor Mills’ running mate, information reached me from the Kumasi Zongo community that one Jamatutu of the Egle Party and others were in Kumasi persuading the Zongo community to express their opposition and rejection of my nomination as Professor Mills’ running mate.

They argued that, though I am a full-blooded Ghanaian northerner with both parents hailing from that part of the former Northern Territories of the British Protectorate of the Gold Coast called the Upper East Region of Ghana, I am not a Muslim.

I was further informed that Jamatutu and his cohorts told the Kumasi Zongo Community that they were in Kumasi at the behest of the National Treasurer of the NDC and Dr. Obed Asamoah, who was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and also the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the NDC at the time.

The National Treasurer of the NDC worked with Dr. Asamoah as Chairman of its Finance Committee. As the Deputy Attorney General and Deputy Minister of Justice, I had a particularly respectful and cordial relationship with Dr. Asamoah. My nomination as Professor Mills’ running mate had not changed my public office status as Dr. Asamoah’s deputy.

I, therefore, went to Dr. Asamoah’s office the next morning and asked him when he became a Muslim such that my nomination as the running mate which was with his concurrence became objectionable on the grounds of my being a Christian.

I told Dr. Asamoah that I found it difficult to understand how the National Treasurer who was his close associate could send emissaries to the Zongo communities in Kumasi to object my nomination on the grounds of my being a non-Muslim when Dr. Asamoah himself whom they claimed to be working for was not a Muslim.

Dr. Asamoah denied any knowledge of what I told him about the happenings in Kumasi and said if they did such a thing in his name, it was done without his knowledge and concurrence. Truth be told, Dr. Asamoah appeared genuinely disturbed by the news I passed on to him and assured me that he was going to investigate the allegation.

The next day, the National Treasurer of the NDC was in my office after meeting Dr. Asamoah to apologize and to feebly explain what had happened. Jamatutu and his cohort followed suit later to render their apologies. The Christian versus Muslim genie invented after my nomination appeared to have disappeared.

But as conflict studies and resolution theory have demonstrated over and over again, conflict issues leave behind residues even when they appear to have been resolved or compromised which remerge to escalate future conflicts within the same group.

Fast forward, after Dr. Obed Asamoah was narrowly elected the chairman of the NDC on or about 29 April 2002 at the Accra NDC Congress, he subsequently chaired a meeting in Kumasi at which a resolution was passed stating that the NDC running mate for the 2004 presidential elections shall be a northerner and a Muslim.

Proposal to relocate office of nominated running mate to the Osu Castle

Dr. Asamoah may remember what I told him on Thursday, 14 September 2000 when I came to his office to discuss a proposal, he had made to Professor Mills the previous day Wednesday, 13 September 2000 at a meeting between them, which Professor Mills had conveyed to me the same day. Dr. Asamoah had proposed that I took up office at the Castle, Osu, as the running mate for the presidential elections.

I reminded Dr. Asamoah that I was still substantively the Deputy Attorney General, handling a number of major constitutional cases pending before the Supreme Court which I had to conclude. I also asked Dr. Asamoah whether he had considered the fact that if I relocated to the Castle, Osu, it would send a wrong signal to the public as to his reaction to my nomination as the running mate.

I further asked Dr. Asamoah whether my nomination as the running mate automatically translates into victory for the NDC at the 2000 presidential elections. I informed Dr. Asamoah that pragmatically, I was just to play a crucial role, and until that role successfully translated into victory for the NDC at the elections, I was still the Deputy Attorney General with no need to relocate to the Castle, Osu on a mere potentiality.

But I have run ahead of myself. My nomination as the running mate of Professor Mills did not calm the waters with the National Reform Party which had already been established as a political party, according to one open source on 1 January 1999 with Mr. Peter Kpordugbe, as its chairman. Some members of both the New Patriotic Party and the National Reform Party defected to support the candidature of Professor Mills after my nomination as his running mate.

The NDC tried and made maximum use of some of these defectors from the opposition, particularly my bosom friend, Mr. Kwame Gyemfi, (the first National Coordinator of the Ghana Police’s Peoples’ Defence Committees/Workers Defence Committees (PDC/WDC)) who had become the NPP’s constituency chairman for Okaikwei North.

ALHAJI IDDRISU AND THE DANGLED BAIT MARTIN AMIDU SWALLOWED

Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, by the grace of Allah, is alive and is the Chairman of the Council of Elders of the NDC as I write this critique. On 13 January 2012, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu and I met in my residence to discuss events that had taken place the previous day when I declared a breach of trust between President Mills and me at a meeting in the president’s office in the Castle, Osu, after I had submitted to the President a comprehensive memorandum on the developing infamous Alfred Agbesi Woyome scandal at his behest in my capacity as the Attorney General.

Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu’s wife who was part of the 12 January 2012 meeting with the President had apparently given him a brief of what transpired at the meeting before we met in my house on 13 January 2012. After hearing my contemporaneous recollection of what took place at the meeting, Alhaji Iddrisu recounted the events surrounding my nomination as Professor Mills’ running mate for the 2000 election to underscore the fact, he had no reason to doubt my recollection, and what his wife had told him was consistent with my narration to him of the events: that I refused to name any names before the meeting of who the Ministers involved in the commission of gargantuan crimes were.

I had insisted that the President read the memorandum he instructed me to submit to him which contained everything he needed to know on the subject.

Facts always triumph over fiction and fabrications. Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu can confirm or disconfirm whether Professor Mills came to his residence on 3 September 2000 for the first time during his Vice Presidency to seek his consent and concurrence for me to be his running mate or not.

Alhaji Iddrisu was an active participant at my behest in how I came to accept to be Professor Mills’ running mate and can vouch whether the fabricated narrative of the scholar, academic and several times failed candidate at Bar exams, Kwamena Ahwoi, in his Working with Rawlings that: “…. Martin Amidu was informed and he excitedly swallowed the bait.

So Martin Amidu became the NDC vice presidential candidate for the 2000 elections” has any iota of truth in it. The full context of the author’s fabricated narrative on pages 152 to 153 of his book in his own words, for the purpose of refreshing the reader’s memory are as follows:

“…. At the suggestion of Kofi Totobi-Quakyi, we made the following calculation: “Why not dangle the running mate bait before Martin Amidu? If he swallows it, he is likely to deflect the Reform defection or at worst to split their ranks.”

This calculation was put before Professor Mills who agreed that it should be tried. President Rawlings was informed and he reluctantly gave his blessing. Martin Amidu was informed and he excitedly swallowed the bait. So, Martin Amidu became the NDC vice presidential candidate for the 2000 elections.”

The foregoing quoted narrative by Kwamena Ahwoi does not also cohere with what Nancy, the matron to the Northern Regional Administration in Tamale told me on 17 August 2000 about Professor Mills’ decision to make me his running mate for the 2000 elections. The narrative does not also cohere with the invitation I received from Professor Mills to come for a chat on Monday, 28 August 2000.

On Friday, 1 September 2000 President Rawlings’ hand was not in any Paster of Paris cast. President Rawling as part of his usual PYOPS punched the nearest door with his fist when a meeting in which Dr. Obed Asamoah was in attendance on Saturday, 2 September 2000 was informed by Professor Mills of his decision to choose me as his running mate. It was at this meeting that Dr. Asamoah was asked to join Professor Mills to invite me and make the offer to me on the morning of 3 September 2000 which he declined.

This leaves the author’s narrative which was deliberately written without references to dates, months, and years for verification as unethical fabrications. These facts also call into question the veracity of the narrative on when the ‘The “Obed for Veep” agenda’ was discussed with Rawlings and “effectively scuttled” resulting in the Plaster of Paris cast on Rawlings’ hand.

MILLS ASSIGNS REASONS FOR NOMINATING RUNNING MATE

I have no doubt whatsoever that Professor Mills must have narrated the environment and circumstances under which I was compelled to accept to be his running mate to the author, who was his chief puppet master and his cohort of puppeteers.

The contemporaneous statements made by Professor Mills, the then Vice-President, as his reasons for choosing me as his running mate, are more dependable and contradict the attributions made by Kwamena Ahwoi twenty years after the event, and eight years after the death of Professor Mills, the principal actor in the narrative.

I was offered the position of running mate to Professor Mills on the forenoon of 3 September 2000 and became Professor Mills’ running mate the same night. Ghanaians woke up to the news on 4 September 2000. The Vice-President, John Evans Atta Mills, and flagbearer of the NDC, formally introduced me to the public as his running mate for the December 2000 presidential election at a press conference at the NDC Head Office, Accra, on Tuesday 5 September 2000. Professor Mills told the public that he chose me on merit and it was not without "much prayer and heart-searching."

GhanaWeb on Wednesday, 6 September 2000 reported under the heading “I chose Amidu on merit – Mills” that: ‘The Vice-President said given his own "newness" in Ghanaian politics one consideration was for a person whose loyalty to the party, its history, its heritage and especially its revolutionary origins and process was unquestionable.’ In the quoted words of the Vice-President: "I needed a reconciler who would not have been perceived as having identified with any of the factions supporting particular undeclared candidates."

GhanaWeb reported further that: “Prof Mills described Mr. Amidu as somebody who shared his personal values, adding that his nominee has character, integrity, experience and sound judgement. Apart from being a team player, Mr. Amidu is also bold and fearless, and a fighter, when necessary, he said. Prof Mills said he saw in his former student, "someone who will work for the ordinary people of this country, not the powerful, a person with a high sense of social justice, fairness and above all truthfulness."

Prof Mills then thanked President Jerry Rawlings, Dr. Obed Asamoah, and Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu for their support and understanding in the choice of his running mate.

KWAMENA AHWOI’S REVENGE

Professor Mills died in office as President on 24 July 2012. The author was not a member of President Mills’ Cabinet or Ministers of State but he was a public officer holding appointments on governing councils of state institutions. He was also the eyes of the President at his residence in the Osu Castle scrutinizing official records submitted to the

President.

The President had substantially lost his sight as a result of radiation therapy in South Africa for nasal phalangeal cancer and was left with only twenty-six percent (26%) sight in one eye. The author perniciously waited to write his Working with Rawlings after the death of President Mills to enable him to fabricate the data to take revenge against the author’s perceived adversaries such as President Rawlings and myself.

Unfortunately for me, I did not know until September 1993 that Kwamena Ahwoi had been unsuccessful at his first attempt at the Inns of Court exams while he was a student of the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degree at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar – Cecil Rhodes was an arch imperialist who plundered South Africa, and Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, for himself and the British Empire.

I also did not know that he had since 1980 attempted, year after year, without success to pass the exams for the Qualifying Certificate under the Legal Professions Act in Ghana at the time I wrote a letter to the Chairman of the PNDC dated 28th December 1990 innocently and without any malice. The letter had reference number L. 21/87/Vol. II and dated 28th December 1990 on the subject matter of the Local Government (Amendment) (No. 2) Law, 1990. I had stated in the concluding part of my letter under reference that:

“8. I should state that as a person duly enrolled to practice the profession of law in Ghana, I find myself in a seriously unethical position of having to conduct Government’s legislative business in this manner. I am however compelled to forward the Law to avoid any possible delays in the execution of Government policy if insisting on ethics will have this effect.”

The letter was addressed to the Chairman of the PNDC, Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, and not copied to any other person. When Kwamena Ahwoi’s fellow puppet master, Nana Ato Dadzie, who was the PNDC Secretary to the Chairman of the PNDC and might have known facts I was not privy to on the enrolment status of the author as a lawyer at the time, deliberately forwarded this letter to Kwamena Ahwoi for his comments.

It sparked a reaction against me from Kwamena Ahwoi which was still burning at the time he wrote his Working with Rawlings. This may account for the fabrications against me when he knew that Professor Mills had been silenced by his untimely death.

In my third critique of Kwamena Ahwoi’s Working with Rawlings, I dutifully disclosed the above incident and other possible circumstances to enable the reader to take them into account when assessing the objectivity of my critique of the author’s Working with Rawlings.

This is a pre-requisite for any person writing an ethical discourse based on experiential learning and other research data as part of any informed, enlightened, and objective discourse. But the Professor, academic and scholar disparaged President Rawlings, and how I became the running mate to Professor Mills without disclosing in advance his likely bias and grievances against either of us to the reading public in Working with Rawlings.

CONCLUSIONS

This segment of the concluding critique has stated in detail how I was summoned by Vice President Mills to his residence on 3 September 2000 and eventually nominated the same day as his running mate for the 2000 presidential election. The foregoing discourse has, therefore, puts the reader in a better position to assess how Martin Amidu became not only a surprise choice but also excitedly swallowed a bait laid out for him by the author and his cohort of Professor Mills’ puppet masters.

The processes culminating in finally accepting the offer to be the running mate to Professor Mills and the formal confirmation of the nomination by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC the same night, demonstrates beyond any doubt that the assertion that a cohort of puppet masters of Vice President Mills to whom the author belonged calculatingly dangled before Martin Amidu a running mate bait which he excitedly swallowed, was and is a pernicious falsehood.

The reasons assigned to Ghanaians by Professor Mills for identifying and nominating his running mate also negate the bait-dangling fabrications of the author who holds himself out as a Professor of Law.

This critique has also exposed the fact that after the confirmation of the running mate nomination by the NEC of the NDC, an aggrieved faction inexplicably mobilized to raise an objection to the nomination on grounds of religion which could not rationally be explained because the person on whose behalf the objection was being made was himself of the same religious persuasion as the nominated running mate – a non-Muslim.

The foregoing discourse leads one to the conclusion that the author waited to write his Working with Rawlings after the death of President Mills to enable him to fabricate the data to take revenge against the author’s perceived adversaries.