With All Due Respect, Stop Your Double Standards - Your Excellency

With All Due Respect, Stop Your Double Standards - Your Excellency,

PRESS RELEASE

Spokesperson: Agyekum Sunday Atara

Central Regional Spokesperson

Tel: 0209052856

The Movement for Social Justice is a political organization formed to promote the fulfillment of the promise made to Ghanaians at independence that we can manage our own affairs to the benefit of all our people. The Movement offers an alternative way and solutions to looking at issues, events and the aspirations of people of Ghana. The welfare of the people and their need to overcome the challenges of where we are as a nation in sub-Sahara Africa is our guiding principle.

With all appropriate compliments, the Movement for Social Justice wishes to request President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills to come clear with the Ghanaian problem and stop the double standards. It is imperative for someone who professes at every opportunity to be a staunch Christian and wants God to rule the country to always speak nothing but the truth. The Bible famously teaches us in Romans 6:23 that the “wages of sin is death.” Given this biblical warning, His Excellency the President, should understand that the wages of profligate spending is economic death.

Upon assuming office in 2009, President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills complained about reckless and profligate expenditures by the previous government. We want to admit that this was the first time most of us heard the word ‘profligate’. In 2009, President Mills made us to believe that his government was going to reduce the budget deficit from 14.9 % to 9.4 % by the end of the year. As a result, it decided to implement cost-saving measures such as savings from foreign travels, workshops, conferences of all ministries, and departments and agencies (MDAs) to save the nation some millions of Ghana cedis and to reduce “unnecessary extravagance”.

We are however disappointed at the turn of events considering the position of President Mills on government expenditure. It is evident here that, as a result of mismanagement and poor planning, the country is spending far more than she earns. We are calling the Mills administration to question since Mr. Herbert Mensah has already professed that such expenditures are made conspicuously and profligately, on party activities. Similarly, our new found oil money according to the great founder of the NDC is being swallowed by the 'greedy bastards'. If the President wants us to believe that the use of profligate expenditure is certainly not in his books, we are challenging him to take Mr. Herbert Mensah and the founder of the NDC to court.

We are particularly shocked at the level of monecracy, and vote buying which has engulfed the presidency. President Mills, on picking just a nomination form from the Party office in Accra literally caused the Ring Road to stand at rest for more than 5 hours. Our expectation was that the self-effacing President could have simply walked into the party office for the forms without the needless display of lavishness.

We are disappointed at the way people were bussed from all over Ghana to the party office just because the President was going to pick a nomination form. As honest as the President is, we will then conclude that he did not know about the bussed people. And this, to us is a serious problem because if activities can be carried out without the President knowing, especially where he is the leader of the party, then what does that tell us?.

The question we are also asking the president is ‘Where did someone who spent a decade of his life as a lecturer at the University of Ghana get money for his campaign when he contested as a flagbearer of the NDC in 2008? We require President Mills to tell us his sources of funding. If the President is unaware, he should ask his people where the money is coming from for his campaign. During the recent NDC National Youth Organizer election, there was a constant chorus that his side sponsored people with money. Everybody in Ghana today with some good sense of judgment would agree with us that President Mills cannot play that game, because it is not honourable thing to do.

It would be recalled that the Daily Graphic of Thursday 12, May 2011 reports that the President, has directed the bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the security agencies to institute investigation into claims by Herbert Mensah, that he had picked up a security tape which suggested that an amount of GH¢90 was being transferred to boast President Mill’s chances for the flagbearership of the NDC. When questioned at the BNI office, Mr Herbert Mensah told the BNI that the tape is with the founder of the N.D.C, Flt Lt Dr J.J. Rawlings. Has BNI questioned former President Rawlings about his knowledge of the tape?

Since the Movement for Social Justice has a lot of interest in the talk about corruption and remain committed to utterly eradicating it from the social fiber of the citizenry, we, on this note, demand that the President speeds up action into this investigation in order to clear his name.

If the allegation made by Mr. Herbert Mensah and the founder of the NDC is not brought to its coherent conclusion, we will be duty-bound to believe that the allegations are true and we will never forgive President Mills for disrespecting and deceiving the good people of Ghana.

Your Excellency, with due respect, act and stop preaching!

Signed:

Agyekum Sunday Atara

Central Regional Spokesperson