Whither are we going, Baba GO slow?

There is only one president in the country. We know who is he, for there can be no other President but John Fiifi Atta Mills. He is a learned Professor of Law. We are aware that the nature of his job calls for a high level of tolerance, discipline, integrity and a high level of moral principles.

In marking his script at end of his one year as President of the country, permit me to state unequivably that his tenure his been a complete disaster. No doubt about it. He has not kept faith with the masses. Everything Professor Mills has done since he took over as Capo of the country is an anathema to the social contract he had signed with Ghanaians.

Baba Go Slow: In the early nineties, one politician became Governor of Lagos State, the moist prosperous and hub of commercial activities in Nigeria by default. Two factions within one of Babangida’s two state sponsored parties. The Social Democratic Party, (SDP) were engrossed in a bitter struggling for the soul of the party. The other party was the National Republican Congress (NRC). The SDP had won more than two thirds of the seats in the State House of Assembly. It followed that the election of the party’s Gubernatorial Candidate to oversee the affairs of Lagos State was a foregone conclusion. But that was not to be. The leader of the losing faction entered into a secret pact with the NRC Gubernatorial Candidate, Sir Michael Otedola, and urged his supporters to vote for the latter. Michael Otedola won the election and the rest of what happened is history.

Rechristening of President Mills as“Baba Go Slow”. It took Sir Otedola three months to come out with his complete cabinet, and like Mills, during the first year of his administration, he never initiated any policy to move Lagos State forward. The state therefore receded into backwardness and it was no wonder that people in the state named him “Baba Go Slow”. Ghanaians are unanimous in their assertion that the Mills Government has taken us for a ride. The political gladiators within the NDC are engaged in acts of thuggery, stealing, insults, vilification and “undercurrent” activities so much so that Ghanaians have lost faith in the party’s ability to bring back the country from the political and economic quagmire that it has plunged the country into. The inept leadership style has permeated every fabric of the Ghanaian society. To everywhere you turn, the verdict is always the same – The insensitivity of the Mills government to the woes of the Ghanaian people. There is hunger, despair, deprivation, disappointment and anguish written on the faces of every Ghanaian. Having lived in Mills’ Ghana under these austere conditions, and having watched, studied and analyzed his first year in office and his admission of failure, I feel justified, though reluctantly, to rechristen our elected President, John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills “Baba Go Slow” Marking Scheme: At the end of the first 100 days in office, the President scored himself 80%. That was an indication that he was the examiner. Now when he is asked to grade himself at the end of his one year as President, he declines with the excuse that a student cannot grade himself. How could the President “reduce” himself from an examiner to a student? Is this not an indication of failure? His assertion, that he is now a student reveals his inability to get to the crux of the problems facing the country, with the aim of finding solution to them. Thus, the foundation of his logic was flawed in the first place. Admission of Failure: Team B against Team A. I sometimes wonder why all the numerous advisors, Special Aides or Assistants at the Presidency get paid for doing nothing. Couldn’t they have “coached” the President on how to answer question off hand? Sarah Palin, when she was nominated as Vice Presidential candidate of the Republicans by Senator McKay underwent a period of “apprenticeship” on how to answer question before her first major interview. We expected something better from our President, not the woeful performance he put up on that day. How could the President acknowledge the fact that, indeed he is actually working with a Team B cabinet? What offence, what crime have Ghanaians committed to be saddled with a not too impressive Team B Cabinet? And by the way, here is a point of correction. The Team B tag was not coined by any member of the opposition, but by the one of their own, Dr. Ekow Spio Garbrah. Does the President want to tell us that because Spio Garbrah has taken a divergent view from his own, the former is no longer a member of the NDC? And so if today, President Mills is telling us that he is proud to be Captain and coach of a Team B cabinet, is that not a breach of the social contract he signed with the people of Ghana? Why should he give us Team B when he knows that a Team A exists? Is this not an admission of failure? If a Team A exists and you deliberately neglected it and go in for a Team B, have you not deviated from answering the question. I must admit that two or three of the Ministers qualify to be in Team A. I can personally vouch for Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Agriculture. (I shall personally make my views known in a later piece. How could the president be the captain and coach at the same time? Is he a player coach? And is this system in use in modern day sports? State of Insecurity: How can Ghanaians sleep without having both eyes open? This has become the norm since Mills government has so much politicized state institutions so much that anybody in mufti can accost you on the street and claim that he/she is working for so so and so security outfit and order you to surrender what legitimately belongs to you. Appointees from the Castle could go to the ports and armed with guns, order officials men at the ports to “clear away” so that they could have unfettered access to containers packed full with cars. And the fact of the matter is that the person who pulled off the gun is not even a Ghanaian, but an Ivorian. Instead of being assigned jobs at securing our streets and roads so well to enable Ghanaians go about the daily affairs without fear, Security men and operatives are having a field day doing what they know best - intimidating innocent Ghanaians by seizing their passports and vehicles and extorting monies from them. It is no wonder that the number of armed robbery and “contract killings” during the first year of the Mills administration has more than multiplied the number of such incidents which took place the entire 8 years of the Kufuor’s Presidency. If you doubt it take a walk across the streets of Ghana and ask. Ghanaians are afraid to go to sleep. They wish it would be daytime for ever. Why? Because the Mills Administration has reneged on the promise they made during the campaign period. I score the Government 30% on this area. It has been an abysmal failure. We should not overlook the fact that this is the first time in the history of international crime that an alleged murderer has been pulled out under the bed of a Deputy Minister in the ruling Government. And up till now, nothing had been done to the minister. He still keeps his ministerial portfolio! Are we safe, and can we trust this Law Professor? Prosecution of Mobila’s Killers: The disappearance of one of the three suspects has become the 8th wonder of the Ancient world. I have written something on it and so will not dwell very much on it. But suffice it to ask that since the NDC had made this a campaign issue, how was it possible for of the suspects to escape from their grips without any official connivance? And the government kept mum on the issue until the suspects were arraigned before the courts about two months ago? Why and how? There is more to it than that meets the eye. We should get to the bottom of this. The NPP government kept there suspects safely and handed them to the Mills NDC government which has a bigger interest in their prosecution. What happened? Was it an act of conspiracy or what? The public deserves to know. Government should set up a public committee to investigate why and how a suspect in a high profile murder case was able to evade all the security measures put in place to escape from the country? What were the security operatives at the exist points doing? Did they look the other way so that the alleged murderer could escape from justice? Who were in charge of his custody? Has any arrests been made? The guy could not have escaped without the connivance of some government officials and these people must be brought to justice. Parcels of cocaine disappeared from our exhibition room and we made a whole hell of noise about it. Even here, some people were arrested, prosecuted and convicted. Then an alleged murderer in a high profile murder case disappears and a whole government led by a professor of law keeps quiet over the incident. Which is worse – the disappearance of some parcels of cocaine for which some culprits are arrested, prosecuted and sentenced and the alleged disappearance of a criminal in a high profile murder case? I score Mills administration Zero percent. Cost of Living: It is an open secret that the cost of living has tripled more than what prevailed during the NPP regime. The last year’s budget has called for a further tightening of the belt. People have been asked to make further sacrifice all in the interest of the nation. Taxes have gone up four fold. In the area of vehicles, huge taxes have been deliberately imposed on imported cars so that their owners cannot pay. And when such cars are not cleared from the port within the stipulated time limit, they are confiscated to the state. What is worse is that these cars are shared among party faithfuls around the country. Is this the good Ghana Mills promised to build? So we have a situation whereby party faithful live a life of ostentation, obvious of the sufferings of the masses. Selective Justice System: Where it involves a member of the NDC it is indiscretion, but when it involves a member of the opposition, it is corruption. If NPP did it, it was wrong and that was of the reasons why the party was voted out of power. Some of use condemned the inaction on the part of the President. But that does not mean that NDC Mills should follow that same path. How many people have lost their Jobs since NDC came to power? Uncountable! And how many people were sacked from their jobs when NPP assumed the reigns of power?. Only the Heads! Kufuor did not go down to sack ordinary Ghanaians who were only trying to eke out a living. But NDC has gone down to sack ordinary workers including common labourers from their works Well, we leave everything in the hands of God Almighty. I score the Mills administration in this area 35% Initiating Policies: what concrete policy has Mills government put in place since it came to power? None! Even those it came to meet has not fared any better under this failed regime. Go to the NHIS, Capitation Grant, Metro Mass Transit, School Feeding Program, National Youth Employment and many others. The story is the same. You see the untold story of woes, poverty, destabilization, deprivation, wants, ethnicity and lack of focus staring right at your faces. Government tells you not to drink ogogoro but they are quaffing “champagne” Utterances: The President utterances have not helped matters. Today he will say this, the next day he will say that. This gives us the impression that he is not a man of principles. Was it not the President who scored himself 80% at the end of his first 100 days? Why then should he turn round to say that a pupil cannot grade himself in an examination and neither can the Prosecutor write the judgment? If he knew all these, why then did he grade himself during his first hundred days in office? Added to this are the remarks and utterances of his appointees, most of whom are “mere toddlers” who speak as if they have just emerged from outer space. Yesterday, it was one Deputy Minister calling prominent Ghanaians like ex-President Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo thieves and criminals, followed by a deputy minister who issued a fatwa on nana Ohene Ntow for using his garage as a “kenkey and shito” making factory and ordered him to pay a certain amount of money. Next was another ferocious looking bully at the seat of power threatening innocent victims who were only making views on certain sensitive issues public? Today, it was a Regional Minister who threw all caution to the wind and incited his party men to “bo obiara a onni NDC asom” because they are evil. (Slap any person who is not a member of the NDC) And what has the President done about it? That the man should be forgiven because he has apologized Why should the man apologise? He did because he know what he did was wrong. Is the President not sending wrong signal? What the President is telling us and the rest of the international community is that anyone can deliberately commit a crime and if he apologizes he must be forgiven. If that is his mind set why don’t we go to the prisons and ask the inmates/convicts if they were sorry for their “indiscretion” /misdemeanor/ crimes and if anyone is sorry, then that person should be set free. Cant’ appointees at the Presidency help the President to get the correct pronunciation of some names right? And the most pathetic aspect is that most of them are Ghanaian or African names. Mispronouncing Obama as “Ofama”, Otumfuor as “Ofumfuor” and Muntaka as “Munsaka” s the worst thing we should hear from an indigenous African President. Utter/Blatant Lies: Did the President deliberately lie to the nation or he had no sense of history when he stated that this is the first time in the history of this nation that an appointee had voluntarily resigned when allegations are made against him/her. I say this is totally untrue and a deliberate lie calculated to throw dust unto the eyes of the people. Was the President attempting to score himself high marks when he made that assertion which he knew to untrue? If the President has forgotten, let me remind him that the CPP of which he claimed to be a member had taken action against some of its members during the period Nkrumah was President. The D.C of Oda, Kwame Kwakye had embezzled some money belonging to a Nigeria resident at Takorowasi. Nkrumah did not ask him to resign. He sacked him and ordered that he be prosecuted. He was found guilty and sentenced to a term of imprisonment. I know what happened because even though I was a young boy at that time, I was resident in that area. My father was a Head teacher at Kusi Presby Primary School. And nobody is going to tell me a different story! Lean Government: I never realized that Mills could look straight at you and tell you a lie. Yes! They promised us a lean government, but see what they have given us - a bloated government? We have a National Security Advisor and a National Security Co-Coordinator. We have a Presidential Spokesperson and a Director of Communications in addition to the substantive Minister of Information and her two Deputies. We have an Office of the Second lady, which is a new innovation or is it introduction? We have the castle appointee in charge of seized vehicles and his assistant. We have this and that. And on top of all, we are likely to have the person in charge of seized toilets and lorry stations please don’t get me wrong. Is this Government not already over-bloated and they keep adding one new nomenclature to it on daily basis!

Well, I think I have to “adjourn” now to continue the next time to avoid people talking about lengthy script. But I want to assure readers that as long as the God Lord gives me strength and life, I shall definitely be back. Our God Father is not dead but alive. I wish Baba Go Slow new and innovative ideas to move this country forward. Wait for the second part of this script.

Daniel Danquah Damptey

E-Mail Address: - Daniel danquah_damptey@yahoo.com