Re: John Mahama Can Never be Trusted

Re: John Mahama Can Never be Trusted

Unbelievable…President Mahama’s Publishing Consultant is a Niece of Nana


Addo


“No lie can live forever”


--- Thomas Carlyle


“Truth crushed to the earth will rise again”


--- William C. Bryant





The writer of this article on Ghanaweb is very pitiful and pathetic with


his baseless and falsefool analysis. Just imagine, the mere fact that, the


President consulted the expertise of an international publisher for his own


private book, which he wrote even before he became the President, warrants


you guys to characterize him as some one devoid of nationalism.


As I iterated in the previous rebuttals to your myopic articles, I will


reiterate again that you guys, just like your Nana Addo, have become so


desperate and distrait for power, and because you do not have any pragmatic,


practical, smart and systematic solutions to our country’s socio-economic


malady, and your freebies campaign is not selling in the market place of the


electorate, you are resorting to character assassination, as well as


misinforming and misleading them to change their affectionate and loving attitude


toward the President to a hateful and vile one, without any persuasive


reason for them to believe you.


In fact the sort of articles the NPP communications team, both home and


abroad are writing these days, as we are getting nearer to the elections


leaves much to be desired. These guys really take Ghanaians, who are


discerning people for a ride. The title of the article seem to reveal very critical


and crucial issue of national concern, which will go a long way to place


Ghanaians private sectors operators at a great disadvantage. But lo and


behold, upon my quick perusal into this foolish and facetious article, I


realized that it was one of their daily-routine of; giving a dog a bad name into


order to hang it modus oprandi, just to please Nana Addo’s whimsical


desires.


Because the NPP communicators know that, it was the NDC first and second


regimes that had injected and infused real life into the economy, by virtue


of the ultimate and unlimited advantages that our government gave the

Ghanaian private sector, which is the engine of economic growth, this writer


decided to see fault into the President’s decision to publish his book abroad.


Take it or leave it, the President has the right to do so, because this is


his personal memoir, which has nothing to do with even his party, nor the


nation at large. But the writer should have done some research to know if


his party (NDC) has ever consulted foreign publishers to publish their


manifestoes and all other publications by the government.


Fact is that, the President, a gifted communicator (naturally and


professionally), is a journalist, aside of being an author. He is as well a


columnist in an international magazine, based in the US, called ROOT. And by


virtue of his diplomatic stature and even the subject matter itself, that


encapsulate and encompasses a broad repertoire of socio-economic, political and


historical narratives about Ghana at the micro level and Africa at large, it


is more expedient to publish abroad.


If you care to know, as an author of three books myself, the first one


entitled; “Paradise Under Mothers Feet.”, published in New York, in 2009 and


reviewed by the New York Beacon newspaper, for a book of that caliber to


get much publicity and marketability that it deserves, it has to be published


in an advanced world-where they have a full-fledge and Photo-finish


expertise in the publishing industry to subject the manuscript into a thorough


review.


The President, I think sees wisdom in the saying; “Think globally, but act


locally” to enable him showcase this historical narrative to the huge


global audience. That was why he chose to have another edition in America. I


happened to be on a business trip with two American investors to Kenya and


Central African Republic over the last weekend, and one of them, Jeremiah


sitting next to me, saw the title of the book I was reading inflight (for the


second time). He asked what was it about and I told him, it was the first


memoir written by Ghana’s current sitting President. Lo and behold, this guy


already infatuated with investing in Ghana (our next leg of the trip),


grabbed the book from me and started reading, and coincidentally, I was


sitting next to him, while he was still reading this book, (which has completely


arrested his attention) when we made a transit yesterday at the Paris


airport in France. I removed my laptop from my briefcase and log on to Ghanaweb

to read news and I saw this article, accusing the President of not using the


local publishers for his book.


I showed him this article on my laptop and he was shocked and said, “But


this is a personal initiative of the President, which has nothing to do with


nationalism, and besides I could see the exposure this book had, because


it was published abroad…” And I said to him, “you seemed to have taken


the wind out of my seal, because I just read the story and started this


rejoinder to the article and about to state these two points in it.” This


happened as we were sitting and whiling away time for our connecting flight back


to JF Kennedy Airport, in New York City.


Hardly would such a book, if published in Ghana attracts comments and


commendations from such literary luminaries and great think tanks, as Chinua


Achebe of “Things Fall Apart”, whose praise on the book partly reads, “A


much welcome work of immense relevance.” Andrew Solomon, a National Book


Award winner in the US and author of “The Noonday Demon” also wrote, “These


are stories…readers will be charmed by them. They brim with humanity.”


Ngugi Wa Thiongo, author of, “Weep Not, Child” stated that, “Mahama’s stories


lure the reader into unforgettable journey in which he interacts with


history as a living tissue.” Nuruddin Farah also wrote, “Mahama has given us


complex text. I ‘ve enjoyed reading these stories.” Aminata Forna, author of


the Commonwealth Book Prize, “The Memory of Love”, wrote “Warm and


engaging…The view of a complex world in a microcosm.” As you could see, these


catchy and captivating comments were facilitated by the publishers who have


great and good rapport with these highly distinguished authors.


One great advantage of publishing ones manuscript with Bloomsbury is that,


it is a giant global corporate publishing institution-headquartered in New


York, with branches in cosmopolitan and composite business cities like;


London in the UK, New Delhi in India, and Sydney in Australia.


It would interest you to know that, the publishing/communications


consultant, that His Excellency the President hired to work on the book is not only


an ordinary Ghanaian, but coincidentally, is a niece of the Nana Akufo


Addo, the presidential candidate of the NPP and her name is, Meri Nana Ama


Danquah, daughter of Dr. J. B Danquah, one of the founding fathers of the


nation, popular known as, “The Big Six”.

I don’t think you even saw the book, nor came to the book


launching/reading ceremony at the Schaumberg Center for Black History, a


state-of-the-art


library located opposite Harlem Hospital in New York City. Because if you


were a true Ghanaian, who thinks and acts beyond political expediency, than


our President, you would have come at least for the sake of “nationalism.”





Meri Nana Ama, one time lecturer at the school of Communication Studies of


the University of Ghana, Legon, is a niece of Nana Akufo Addo and the


publishing consultant of the President, who was the moderator of the event in


Harlem, and I believed she also moderated other book promotion tours by the


President across the United States.


It is interesting to know that, this book, “MY FIRST COUP D’TAT…AND OTHER


TRUE STORIES FROM THE LAST DECADE OF AFRICA” was first published in Ghana,


and the President came here in July to launch his “First US Edition”. In


his acknowledgment and appreciation to those who, overtly or covertly


contributed to the success of his first ever book, the President devoted the


last four paragraphs showering Meri Nana Ama with gratitude and gratefulness


for her dedication and commitment for the project to come to fruition. Part


of the acknowledgment reads as follows:


“…Meri Nana Ama Danquah, a warm and delightful person, blessed with


boundless energy and enthusiasm…She has been utterly inspirational, supportive


and instrumental in bringing this book together. It has been my privilege to


collaborate with her.”


So now tell me Mr. Spanash, is Meri Nana Ama, a daughter of our freedom


fighter, Dr. J. B. Danquah not a Ghanaian, even if she lives and works in the


US as you do, what difference does this make. If anything at all this is a


pointer to the fact that, His Excellency President Mahama, walked his talk


about utilizing the expertise of Ghanaian publishers, even before he


became the President. And it also exposed your sheer ignorance and stupidity of


wanting to score cheap political points with that fallacious and falsefool


article.


Next time you are writing on a highly sensitive topic like this, please do


your homework well, by making some indepth research, including borrowing

the book from a Ghanaian abroad in order to review especially, the


acknowledgement part if you don’t care to be “nationalistic enough” to purchase it.





This will enable you to present factual and truthful analysis to our


discerning Ghanaian readers. And I urge you and the NPP to render an apology to


His Excellency the President for this false allegation, especially having


to know that, he as a unifier went the extra mile to employ the service of a


family member of Nana Akufo Addo, (who is making thousands of dollars from


him, as she is still working on his second book) out of over hundred


Ghanaian publishers that you mentioned. And I believe Nana Addo would not hire


someone related to the President to work with him or for him.


As an educated resident or citizen of the United States (I cannot tell if


you have green card), you should know that, publishing industry in the US


is a huge business opportunity-Publishers enter into business deals with


authors based on percentages, and they draft agreements with their legal


consultants to cover themselves, and thereby make more money than the authors of


books they work on. They capitalize on the media publicity they render to


the authors’ books-with reviews from giant newspapers, such as; the New


York Times, Washington Post, etc. As well as radio and TV appearance, book


reading and signing ceremonies and above all, comments from such award winning


prolific authors mentioned above, who have blazed the trail and curved


enviable niche for themselves in the publishing field.


So please do not accuse the President of rejecting the Ghanaian


publishers, if you fail to do your homework well. This is a great shame and an


intellectual dishonesty to misinform and manipulate the mentality of our


electorate, who have vowed not to ‘hire’ Mr. “All die be die” with his “Yen


Akanfuo” ethnocentric mantra, since they resolved to renew the mandate of His


Excellency President Mahama come next week Friday to proceed with the ever


enviable and indelible socio-economic legacy left by the late President


Mills.


Husseini Y. Baba AlWaiz, Press Secretary, NDC New York