Prof John Evans Atta Mills the president of The Republic Of Ghana has taken off the
mask from his face showing his real person to many who thought of him otherwise
through his choice of allieds. The beliefs, character and actions/inactions of his
trusted friends has shown what pres Mills is in reallity.
There is a popular saying that; show me your friends and I will show you your
character. This saying is so true because birds of the same feathers flock
together. The bible also confirms this ideology when it says; the light and the
darkness cannot stay together. Like-minds plan together, therefore the convictions,
behaviors and general personality traits of your friends talks a lot about who you
are.
All Ghanaians were made to believe that Pres Mills was a man who is not
tribalistic(father of all), God fearing, humble, honest and an incorruptible man.
The deeds of his appointees and favorite friends has however, shown that he is none
of the things we have been made to believe about him.
When the "non tribalistic" president was voted into power, he made appointments that
have left a lot of question marks about where he really stands when it comes to
tribal discriminations. Dont make a mistake, my problem is not the large number of
a particular tribe in his government, no far from that. He can decide to give all
his appointments to one tribe it is not a problem so long as the people are good and
do not have the tendency of destroying the bridges that links all our tribes
together as Ghanaians. The worrying thing is that the president chose to appoint a
man who personally wrote a book that sought to allienate a particular tribe(Asantes)
and virtually painted them as evil people who hate the development of Mother Ghana.
Prof Kofi Awoonor, the man Prof Mills chose as the chairman of his state counsel
wrote a book tittled "The Ghana Revolution". In this book he described the Asantes
as the enemies of the state whilst hailing the Ewe led
PNDC as the savior of Ghana from the destructive rule of these alleged evil tribes
men. Anyone who reads the book will see the acrimony he has against a particular
tribe. The extent of his(Prof Awoonor's) aversion of these people could twist
the mind of anyone reading his book to equally hate them. In short prof
Awoonor's book has the tendency of inflaming a wide animosity for the Asantes,
a situation every well meaning Ghanaian should abhore. I was therefore surprised
that among the numerous learned Ghanaians the law professor chose no one else as
his chief adviser but a man who actually spent time and wrote a book against a
particular tribe. This has made me to think that the president approve of the
believes of Prof Awoonor. Believe that a particular tribe is evil.
Just to let you know, I am not an Asante but I simply hate tribalism no matter who
is at the receiving end of the attack. In Ghana I have lived in different regions
apart from Brong Ahafo where I come from and I can tell you boldly that one of he
most hospitable, loving, tolerating and friendly people are the Asantes.
The first time I heard of Prof Awoonor was when I read his poem tittled "The
Cathederal" in my literature lessons in secondary school. He was among the few
African poets whose poems made their ways into our school syllable. I love him and
feel proud of him as one of the greatest poets Ghana has produced. But president
Mills stand as a devote Christian and his choice of Prof Awoonor as the Chairman of
Counsel of State leaves a lot to be desired. Why? Because prof Awoonor in this
poem Cathederal, condemns the Christian Religion which was brought to us by the
whites and all its related culture. He infact in the poem refers to the Christian
Religion, which is symbolised as Cathederal in the poem as a foolish religion of
doom. He wrote and I quote "a senseless cathederal of doom". I am not against his
conviction that the foreign religion is senseless and brings doom, but why will a
Christian who wholy believes in his faith as the president Mills
claims employ an adviser who detest the fundamental thing you claim to believe in?
The faith with which you want to be identified? Do you think a true Christian will
do that. If I were the president I will rather take an arch bishop as my adviser
because our thinking will always rhyme not somebody who describes what I believe in
as senseless religion of doom.
The whole NDC machinery forced Ghanains to believe that he(pres Mills) is a humble
man. But we have ministers appointed by him who have consistently been insulting
people, using all kinds of descriptions on his(pres Mills) age mates and he happily
mentain them and tap them on their shoulders. Talk about the Ablakwahs, Fiifi
Kwetteys, Allottey Jacobs, Amma Benyiwa Does, Stan Dogbes etc. Arrogance and bad
words have filled their bellies and they spew them out at his(Pres Mills) opponents
every single day ranginging from opposition members to members of his own party. I
recently heard Stan Dogbe call Hon. Teye Nyaunu a left over. Anita Desuoso
virtually trampled upon a mob under her car. Allottey told former Pres Rawlings
that they made him who he is and can break him down if he doesnt shut up. President
Mills is not arrogant but his appointees are. Is that what they want us to believe?
Its never true. If he (Mills) does not like what they are
doing he will have changed them long ago. Do you remember what Kuffour did to
Elisabeth Ohene, then presidential secretary when she called Rawlings
"Dzimakpla"(untrained child)? Kuffour removed him from that post immediately,
distancing himself from such pronouncements. President Mills and his appointees
are like minded and have the same character, very arrogant. Go and watch the video
of their congress and see how he(Pres Mills) greeted Former Pres Rawlings.
When we talk about honesty it is completely missing. People he has chosen to put in
many areas have dealt very dishonestly with the state and although his attention has
been drawn to most of the cases he has failed to take appropeiate steps to show how
he detest dishonesty. Look at a honest President. Asking journalists when his
minister is accused of using state funds to sponsor his girlfriends to travel
abroad, lodge in big hotels and spend at will. He said and I quote; "is he the
first minister to travel with his girlfriend"? Shocking, not even his (the
minister's wife). And a honest christian president defends that kind of
action. Anyway who knows maybe the pres does it himself. Okudjeto Ablakwa lied to
the whole Ghana that their government has created 1.6million jobs which turns out to
be a complete falacy. Honest people show it even in the least circumstances. If
one cant be honest about little things how can he be honest about great
things, sayeth the word of God. School projects were been done by the education
ministry at highly inflated prices, as high as 350%. The president hear of all
these rot and still mentains those people as his ministers and even tell them they
are doing good jobs. His party secretary general and a member of a board
supervising the Bui Dam project is at the same time selling blocks to the
contracters at a higher price and the case is brought even to public notice. He is
still serving on that board and still selling the blocks. Will You call such a man
a honest man? If all this actions of his preferred choices are backed by him.
I heard Baba Jamal one day on peacefm saying, the president is incorruptible. I
laughed because he cant be serious. If in two years your ministers are building
mansions all over Ghana. Their names come out, the locations of the houses are
shown. Some are buying houses abroad. They mention names; Ama Benyiwah Doe, Asiedu
Nketia, Okudjeto Ablakwah and many others and you dont even caugh about it but
rather keep on praising them and urging them on. Would you want me to call you an
incorrutible man? Your Regional Minister and the Regional spokesperson fight openly
on radio over fishy cotract allocations and you still mentain such people in office
then you turn round and say I am incorruptible? Contracts for road construction are
inflated to an unimmaginable percentage and you want me to say your hands are clean
of corruption? You promised that all your ministers willl declare their assets and
for two and half years I dont know how many have done it,
virtually none of them. President Mills has totally been exposed by the kind of
appointments he has made and mentained since he was sworn into office.
They have shown he is not the father of all he told us nor is he the God fearing man
they said he is. He is not the devote christian they told us. The humility,
honesty and incorruptibility were just cosmetics and they have all been wiped away
because of the kind of people he has called his friends. The character of the
people he has preferred has shown his real self which is a direct opposite of what
made us vote for him. He run from those who tell him the truth and turn to those
who will dance his dance as Papa J said; "he said we should allow things running and
the money will flow". His best friends are the tribalistic, ungodly, arrogant,
dishonest and corrupt people. And this has shown who he is, he is just like his
friends.
