"You will find in politics that you are much exposed to the attribution of false motives. Never complain and never explain. " --- Astor N. Viscoutess(1879-1864)
The story with the above title, attributed to Atik Muhammed dwells more on triviality and gross exaggeration. It is only a non discerning politician who would blame His Excellency President Mahama for posing with CNN logo, after an interview at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
We challenge Atik to rather critique the President's terrific interview constructively, if he dares. But not childishly lament that President Mahama was 'modeling' at CNN, forgetting the plight of poor Ghanaians. If Atik would care to know, this was the first time ever, those of us living in the United States saw a Ghanaian President utilized his trip for the UN Annual General Assembly Summit to showcase Ghana's investment potentials and to strike dozens of investment deals with American investors in New York, Washington D.C., Atlanta, etc. And Ghanaians will soon begin to reap the benefits of these deals positively, in terms of gainful employment to be generated in the country.
And to show how he cares about Ghanaians, even in the Diaspora, the President squeezed some three to four hours out of his loaded itinerary(as he would do even as Vice-President)to meet with them. He analyzed the current state of the Ghanaian economy so expertly and excellently, with facts and figures.
There were some provocative questions from the opposition party members in the Diaspora at a Town Hall meeting for the Ghanaian community in New York City, but our patient and tolerant president answered them politely and wisely. It is about time politicians like Atik, learn to analyze issues through the lens of objectivity and to discuss policy not personality. How unfair on his part to tend to attribute poverty situation in the country to President Mahama, who assumed the mantle of leadership less than a year ago. It would interest readers to know that, currently, the population of poor people in America is more than twice the population of Ghana.
And the current US government shutdown is unprecedented in the Ghanaian history, in spite of the developing state of our economy. And we strongly believe and attest to the fact that, President Mahama is working hard and leaving no stone unturned, to transform our economy to a middle income status, and God, the Almighty is on his side to attain this objective! So if Atik has nothing positive to say, then he better keep mute than disgrace himself with this flimsy and trivial argument, playing to the gallery, just to score cheap political points. Because he ended up throwing a blow below the belt, and unsuccessfully tried to connect the dots between the President posing behind CNN logo and the plight of poor Ghanaians. We therefore agreed with the Minister of Information and Media Relations, Hon. Mahama Ayariga that, it is not a big deal. Here in America, there are many instances where President Obama would pose pictures at odd places, but Americans would not criticize him. Because they are discerning enough to know that, those things are trivialities and his duties of governance are more important than merely taking pictures at odd places.
And have Atik rendered a sober reflection about a positive advantage that could come out of this pose, that he sees only in negative light? Perhaps this 'endorsement' (if Atik would want to call it) of the global news giant, (CNN) by President Mahama will encourage them later to do a free promotional documentary, by showcasing investment and tourism potentials in Ghana to their millions of viewers worldwide and the rest would be history.
Husseini Yushau Baba AlWaiz,
Press Secretary, NDC New York
