I read with distress a statement attributed to President Mills in which he
reaffirmed his interest for re-election in 2012 general election. “The way we
are performing, come 2012 Atta Mills, I will lead you to another victory.” Those
were the exact words of President Mills. Not only am I stunned by the
President’s declaration, I lament over the resounding silence of the party
hierarchy over his declaration, and the failure of the party to censure him for
speaking in a manner that is unbefitting of a gentleman and great politician.
Not too long ago the party General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, did tell us
that until nominations open, no one is allowed to openly declare his/her
candidature for any contest in the party. So the question is what has changed?
Have nominations opened? Is the president above all others? Is the party
leadership saying that the President can declare his bid but others cannot? Is
it a case of double standards or hypocrisy? Unfortunately, we are again asking
the president to explain why exactly he announced, with great fanfare, his
intention to stand for re-election when indeed according to the party scribe
nominations have not commenced? Is it a clear case of giving someone an undue
advantage over the others?
I am disconcerted by the renaissance of politics of hypocrisy in present day
politics, and the increasing attempt by President Mills to hang on to power even
though the signs on the wall are clear he is not delivering on the better Ghana
he promised. I am not yet ready for purgatory so I will simply bypass that by
telling the truth no matter whose ox is gored. Since Mills swept into office
promising better Ghana, there has been very little done yet some chroniclers of
the Mills court, in a hallowed tradition of Squealer of "Animal Farm" and
Goebbels of Hitler and the Third Reich, are loudly proclaiming that this is
indeed our finest hour! But we all know better except the lying sycophants
surrounding the President who simply cannot tell him the mood on the ground.
I would not play the ostrich by pretending that, the President has no right to
seek re-election. He has every right to seek re-election but has the party open
nominations for the leadership contest? Unlike his predecessors, John Mills
doesn't seem comfortable in his own skin and I am suspicious of his reserve.
His caution and his constant calculation make him look like a man in a mask -
the classic hypocrite with something to hide. Currently doing the rounds among
political circles is an allegation that the president is being propped up by his
policy advisors to put up a brave face and seek re-election despite the fact
that there is massive resentment of his leadership. I don't remember any of
President Mills’ predecessors who kept disturbing our ears with his desire for a
second term bid. Rawlings to the best of my knowledge never did so and Kufuor
certainly did not. What is this obsession about his second term bid in 2012?
Does he have something to fear? Less than two years in office, you have publicly
declared your intentions for a second term on more than four occasions. If you
have nothing to hide, just concentrate on the work and the work will do the
bidding for you. Confidence and reality are two different things. And this is
not a cliché. It is indeed the practical reality.
This is nothing but a clear attempt by the presidency to undermine party
structures and give undue advantage to the president. Politicians who do not
practice what they preach are an affront to democratic sensibilities, because
they seem to be setting themselves apart from the rest of us, obeying their own
private rules. The same goes for politicians who do not tell us what they really
believe (which is the classical definition of a hypocrite - someone who "masks"
the real person underneath). We want our politicians to be sincere, so that we
can know they are not hiding anything from us. In my opinion, our leaders have
let our nation down. Like criminal entrepreneurs, they have perverted the values
of good politics. They have bought the soul of the hungry public whom they
constantly perceive as an army of fools, on whose back they can ride their way
to power. Is our nation becoming another Orwellian failed state, where a few
belly-jiggling squealers in the administration would come out in public to sing
the hymns of “All is well” with the thought that the desperate public will open
their choked throats to swallow the foul-smelling droppings? Delusion is not
sanity, and President Mills’ declaration on his candidature against party rule,
is morally revolting to me.
I mourn over the lack of consciousness among some of our leaders, and our
needless justification of government policies and an elitist conduct that puts
our freedoms and dignity at risk. What has become of us? Were we not, once a
united people, under one umbrella? Was not Rawlings’ NDC the party that raised
the standard of governance in this country? For some time now, we have placed
our hopes on our nation’s infirmed leaders only to be short-changed. We have
also tolerated destructive ethics that work against the fundamental values of
our nation. When did the NDC that was blessed with competent leaders start
producing rulers with weak characters? When did hypocrisy become part of
governance? Since president Mills won power, not only have I personally
witnessed, in disbelief, the recklessness of some of our politicians, in all
fairness, I have also questioned their capabilities, as leaders. Isn’t it sad to
hear a president of the republic argue that he is above his party structures? By
openly declaring his candidature for 2012, not only did he flout party
regulations but also insulted the intelligence of the rank and file of the
party.
President Mills came to power with big promises; prominent among them was his
better Ghana agenda and a fight against corruption. To date, the better Ghana
agenda has remained a mirage. Yet the president is obsessed with winning his
party’s nomination for another term. What is wrong with our leaders if I may ask
politely? And again, what does internal democracy mean to our political leaders?
How do we tell our nation’s children to cultivate morality when, in fact, we
glamorize hypocrisy and double standard? How can a leader of a nation lecture
his citizens on morality and responsibility, yet he displays unbridled
hypocrisy? Where is transparency when a leadership that is supposed to make
structures work within a political party is condoning recklessness on the part
of the presidency? Is the president really in control? This man would go down in
history as the most inefficient and populist president this country would ever
have. Coming out in less than half way through his mandate and sounding the
drums about contesting a second term leaves room for speculation. Is he seeing
anything on the wall that the rest of us do not know? Not too long ago when a
movement emerged in the Ashanti region and started rooting for the former First
Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, all hell broke loose in this country. I
expected the likes of Asiedu Nketiah and Dr Kwabena Adjei to start making noises
by now but the hypocrisy has drowned their voices.
One thing made some of us admire the NDC right from the start. It was simply due
to its impeccable credentials. Take it or leave it, no single individual towered
above the party’s principles. Long after Africa was still caught up in promoting
personality cults, the NDC in its capacity as the bearer of Social-democratic
principles espoused by Jerry Rawlings hinged its organizing principles on
infusing a sense of loyalty based on those very same principles. I am convinced
that this is the strength of the NDC and until and unless it is broken, the
party would ride higher and higher in the politics of Ghana. The principles of
Jerry Rawlings are imbibed in the hearts and minds of the party’s adherents.
They do not rest with flag bearers.
The party leadership must sit up and show leadership. The president must also
lead by example. He must look beyond his kitchen cabinet especially those
returnees and uninspiring ministers among them who have created the "you are not
with us" syndrome to the detriment of party unity. These are the very people who
allegedly fed the powers that be with all sorts of concocted custard about the
chances of Mrs Rawlings at the NDC national delegate’s conference in Tamale. How
such people could be taken seriously in the first place beats my imagination for
the simple reason that they are the very basis upon which the otherwise dormant
party activists crawled out of the woodwork to honour Mrs Rawlings with a vice
chair position. Perhaps, their despicable acts over the past two years are in
essence a blessing in disguise.
We must eschew cynicism, hypocrisy, double standards and unpatriotic conduct and
endeavour to make internal democracy work in the party.
We shall be back!
Emmanuel Dela Coffie
www.delacoffie.wordpress.com
