Replace the Sick Man, Mr. Mahama!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

Dec. 6, 2015

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

He is called Emmanuel Atta-Twum. And we are told that he is the substantive District Chief Executive Officer of Atiwa, headquartered at Akyem-Kwabeng, where I started first grade at the Presbyterian Primary School in the mid-1960s. Ordinarily, this would not be deemed as any significant event or news. But when the man is 66 years old, in a country with a life-expectancy rate of just under 60 years, and is reported to have collapsed at least on four occasions while performing his official duties, then something, of course, needs to be promptly done to prevent a bad situation from getting worse and possibly beyond repair.

If he were a civil servant, and not a small-time politician, Mr. Atta-Twum would have retired or been forced to retire some 6 years ago. Why President John Dramani Mahama, the man who directly appointed Mr. Atta-Twum to his present post, has not moved to replace this obviously unhealthy local administrative operative of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), ought to worry all levelheaded and progressive Ghanaian citizens (See “Atiwa DCE Collapses on Farmers’ Day” Daily Guide / Ghanaweb.com 12/6/15).

In a real sense, the apparent ill-health of the Atiwa District Chief Executive Officer closely mirrors the sort of unacceptable ill-health into which the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress has plunged the country’s economy. It is not clear whether the preceding imagery has anything to do with either the abject failure or flat refusal of President Mahama to have Mr. Atta-Twum promptly relieved of his post. In the latest incident, the Atiwa DCE is widely reported to have collapsed at Akyem-Akropong during his proxy delivery of Mr. Mahama’s speech marking the 30th anniversary celebration of Farmer’s Day.

This year, of course, the Farmers’ Day festivities were an inexcusable flop. An epic flop, to be certain. Both President Mahama and Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur were a no-show at the national ceremony which was scheduled for Bolgatanga, capital of the Upper-East Region. The reason given the Ghanaian public was that the “Harmattan Weather” had drastically reduced atmospheric visibility, thus making it extremely difficult to fly even a paper-and-string kite, let alone risk flying a real human-ferrying plane. This is all well and good, except that the President and his vice had known for quite a long time, now, that aerial visibility at this time of the year tends to be very low and unconducive for flying.

However one pictures the situation, the fact of the matter is that Messrs. Mahama and Amissah-Arthur could have made other arrangements, such as traveling to Bolga by road. This apparent failure to think and plan ahead may be what Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the former Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Ghana, means when the 2016 Vice-Presidential Candidate of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) refers to the gross administrative incompetence of Messrs. Mahama and Amissah-Arthur as a serious drawback for the salutary development of the country.

We are also informed that this year’s Atiwa District Farmers’ Day Anniversary had to be abruptly curtailed because of the ill-health and collapse of DCE Atta-Twum. I haven’t heard of this publicly or even thought about the same, but it is nearly quite certain that every administrative district in the country with a substantive District Chief Executive also has a Deputy District Chief Executive. And so why couldn’t Mr. Atta-Twum delegate his designated deputy or one of his lieutenants to deputize for him at this year’s Farmers’ Day Anniversary Celebration at Akyem-Akropong? Was such failure and/or refusal due to either megalomania or plain stupidity? Evidently, Mr. Atta-Twum has a very high tolerance level for public humiliation and embarrassment, and one that verges on a very low sense of self-esteem. He no doubt shares these traits with the rest of the rascals and reprobates that constitute the top-echelon membership of the National Democratic Congress.

Mr. Atta-Twum is also reported to have collapsed or fainted while delivering a speech at Akyem-Tumfa Presbyterian Church’s harvest festival. And then also, during the March 6 observation of the country’s independence anniversary celebration at Akyem-Anyinam. As well, Mr. Atta-Twum is reported to have fainted at a National Democratic Congress’ meeting held at the official residence of the Eastern Regional Minister. And all these, we are informed, have happened within the temporally short space of the two years since Mr. Atta-Twum was named Atiwa District Chief Executive Officer.

If, indeed, all these patently disturbing episodes are not signal enough that it is about time the man was promptly and effectively retired, then what else is? And, by the way, in the wake of his latest reported collapse, Mr. Atta-Twum, who had been rushed to a waiting ambulance and transported to the Akyem-Enyiresi Government Hospital, claimed to have been feeling dizzy because he had forgotten to take his prescription drugs. Could this local political chieftain be taken any more seriously than the man who appointed him DCE?