Leave Mr. Patrick Douglas Bani (President’s Chief of Staff) alone, Morons
The last few weeks and particularly the last had witnessed vitriolic and ad hominin attacks, mudslinging, and disparaging attacks on Mr. Patrick Douglas Bani, Chief of Staff (CoS) of President John Mahama.
These ignominious and ignoble attacks reached a crescendo last week with a planted story carried by Joyonline and other newspapers and news organizations that the President had fired his Chief of Staff. We Concerned Party Followers sat on the fence and analysed and digested these loaded stories and waited for the appropriate time to react. As if this was not enough, yesterday, the trashy papers called The Informer and Al-Haj had the impudence to join the circus to stoke the flames. Following the ideas of the Nazi propagandist, Goebbles, these thugs believe that “A lie often repeated may transform to become the truth”. They are simply wrong!
According to Al Haj “A very dependable source told this paper that whiles the president would have preferred Mr. Bani to continue on his job, the overwhelming pressures on him to replace him has compelled Mr. Mahama to be considering three others for arguably the most important position in government”. Wait a minute; does the president not have the right and privilege to select his own chief of staff? Who are these people putting pressure on the president and for what reason? We The Concerned Party Followers wonder why consider “overwhelming pressures” without regard to the competence, qualification and track record of Mr. Bani or to put it simply where the president’s vote for victory comes from? These so called pressures are coming from NDC goons who are peeved because of the structures Mr Bani has put in place to forestall the zoo like atmosphere which characterized the late President Mills tenure. We believe the president has the intellectual prowess and discernible knowledge of where his victory comes from. If Volta region does not deliver to clear the Eastern and Ashanti votes of the NPP, these NDC goons should start writing President Mahama’s concession speech for 2016. They are playing Russian roulette as Togbe, one of our paramount chiefs from the Volta Region, recently stated to the applause of many.
We the Concerned Party Followers have no choice but to respond in an appropriate manner. Others in past months made it abundantly clear in previous pronouncements that being the number one vote getter for the NDC since 1992 whether NDC won or not, for the first time Voltarians can see a value in their vote when they look at Mr. Prosper Douglas Bani, the Chief of Staff (CoS). Apart from President Rawlings being the president, Voltarians have not been part of the big time decision making at the presidency until Mr. Bani was appointed. Thus they view these attacks on him and calls for his removal as idiotic, to say the least. If you really love NDC and want NDC in power, why resort to this self-destruction of your political base. Mr Bani is strong and does his job very well. Voltarians in private conversations don’t want what happened during President Mills’ administration when three (3) weakest link ministers were appointed from the Volta region hence fulfilling the Volta quota. They had no power and no base. In Mr. Bani’s case he has the power of CoS, a confidant of the President, and the Voltarian base. It is Mr. Bani and him only, no iffs or butts, and Voltarians will reject any weakest link appointee to replace him, and damn the consequences.
According to the Informer, “Prosper Bani does not know how the NDC fought tooth and nail to win the 2012 election, and he is fast tracking the NDC into opposition come 2016”.These provocateurs should know that the president has the right to appoint anybody he wants. There are people in NDC who think they only deserved top notch positions because they were campaigning and following the President on his rounds, etc. There were others who worked behind the scenes on strategy, fund raising, selling NDC positions and counteracting NPP operatives on electronic media and elsewhere. They all contributed in diverse ways to the party’s success. To say Mr. Bani was nowhere to be seen during the electioneering campaign is too immature and must be treated with the contempt it deserves. It is not only “Choboi” “Choboi” that wins political power. There are 1001 other dynamics at play. To think that elections are won only by screaming “Choboi ” at rallies and on radio is juvenile and pedestrian. A political party requires people with high intellectual capacity and competence as well as foot soldiers. We don’t need parasites and people with this low level analysis as evidenced in the Informer and Al-Haj, to be coming out with trivial criticism devoid of any sense of maturity or critical analysis.
The Chief of Staff welcomes constructive criticism for a Better Ghana Agenda and not childish brooding or “choboism” devoid of substance. What the hell does the dubious Informer mean by saying The CoS wears the same clothing material as the president? Informer come out with constructive criticism. Idiocy and ignorance may be twin brothers. The idiotic Informer Publisher does not cross check his aspersions. But why should we be surprised? Anybody can read and write but comprehension and critical analysis can be a challenge? If it were so the Informer rag would have known that at funerals or special events, school anniversaries, etc., event organisers sew shirts for the dignitaries who are invited. That explains why the president and CoS were in the same clothing at Dr. Glover’s funeral! Dumbo, how complicated is this? Only a twerp cannot figure this out.
The Informer writes “Prosper Bani, who had no appreciable administrative experience prior to his appointment as CoS”. What impudence! If these characters are the ones recommending their fellow nonentities to replace CoS, then God Bless Ghana. Before joining president Mahama’s government Mr. Bani was a lecturer and later managed an entire UN Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery for Africa for decades. He was in East Africa, Southern Africa to mention but a few places he worked for the UN. How many of the selfish rabble rousing self-seeking opportunists’ names you are floating around can thumb their chests to rival this illustrious son of Ghana’s competence, qualification and work history?
We are aware of the role the rented Informer plays in blackmailing NDC appointees. We know how the Informer makes its money? The ilk publishing the Informer and other NDC tabloids are aggrieved because their days of “selling indulgences” at the presidency are over. What Mr Bani has refused to do is turn the office of the presidency into a Makola market for graft and corruption where the highest bidders have access. Any wonder the so called NDC shadowy characters are calling for his head because they can no longer fleece the presidential papacy. These were the same characters who never respected President Mahama as Vice
under President Mills were doing the following in the previous NDC administration:
i. they were making appointments for the late president notwithstanding the allegations of money exchanging hands
ii. the Informer publisher used to collect big time RENT !!!!
iii. the Informer publisher could use dispatch riders and motorcade escorts to parties in Akosombo with friends and engage in other unsavoury behavior not worth printing.
The presidency is now organized and the Makola atmosphere which characterized president Mills days is gone. These hangers on want a return to the status quo and it is a fight for the control of the Presidency. They could care less whether NDC would win or not as long as they filled their pockets.
These nincompoops were disgusted the CoS travels frequently with the President? Do you guys watch TV? Check US Presidents and CoS. Mr Bani does not even travel many times with the President but these political pimps would want us to believe so. Were other Chiefs of Staff not seen with their Presidents so why should Mr. Bani’s be an issue?
The president has the right to appoint and dismiss. Likewise the CoS has the right to appoint and dismiss just as any government official in a position of responsibility. And people who make this sort of uncouth and unwarranted comments should not even dare to make any comment because they have proven over and over again that they are not qualified to make a seasoned analysis but demonstrate perennially lack of intellectual acumen.
Let me ask the people who are pushing for Mr Bani’s firing a couple of questions:
1. Can you come up with possible solutions to any issue you have raised that Mr. Bani has ignored?
2. If you love Ghana; is it only seeing Mr Bani off that is the solution to our problems?
3. Why not deal with substantive issues that many people at presidency, ministries, and other departments are grappling with so that we all gird our loins to the wheels and let Ghana grow?
What the President need now in our current situation is a dedicated, loyal and trusted staff officer and that can be found in Mr. Bani. He is the Head of the presidency and must loyally see His Excellency’s agenda through. These “greedy bastards” lobbyists only want power to threaten the president’s position and prepare for their own future and maintaining their selfish interests. They should leave the president to have some peace of mind.
We are aware that having suffered a reversal of fortune, the “greedy bastards” continuously try to damage the Mahama administration. Were they not the very people who were deluded into thinking that political power is as strong and as constant as the northern star or the Rock of Gilbraltar? How many Ghanaians are not aware that they never respected president Mahama when he was the Vice President? If they were mature, they would have realized that losing sinecure is the vicissitude of politics. You suffer reversal of fortunes, you bid your time, and fortune may shine on you again. If this is difficult for the Informer, the Al Haj and their lackeys, they better keep on shouting “Choboi” at party rallies; after all they are also needed in the body politic since that is their forte.
We advise they do not delve into the deeper waters of analysis and intellectual prowess, but shout their lungs out on roof tops. You are really annoying and next time the Concerned Party Followers will descend into the gutter too and also mention names and your crass actions. Be careful because you are on the precipice of chewing more than you can bite and we would take you on pound for pound, toe to toe, gutter to gutter.
A word to a wise is enough; that is, if you have any modicum of wisdom left in you.
William K. Agbezudor
Banana Inn, Accra
