By Richard Opoku
The loss of the NDC at the Atiwa
parliamentary bye-elections goes to further expose the bankruptcy and
ineptitude of the government as far managing every facet of social, political
and economic development.
Over the past couple of months
the people of Ghana have been saddled with one embarrassing goof after the
other but rather than get its act together the inept PR machinery has chosen to
blame every political fallout on either anti-Mills elements within the NDC or
the NPP.
From the ‘arrest’ of Joy FM’s
news editor, to the faux pas by the party chairman over the discharging of
Kwadwo Mpiani and Charles Wereko Brobby by the Accra High Court, the government
has been clueless and indeed hopeless as it has unsuccessfully attempted to
manage the PR fallout.
How can the party chairman take a
position, get support from some quarters of the party only for the holidaying
President to arrive and take a stance almost in opposite? Could the President
not have at least attempted to defend his party chairman by clarifying the
matter? As the absentee chairman of the political committee of the party where
is he leading us?
Sadly the current problem we have
in the NDC is down to one man – President John Atta Mills. Either the man is
simply clueless about political management or he simply does not care about the
way the country is being run.
Indeed I am convinced the
President has gone to sleep and assumes that the country can run on autopilot –
something that even the famous Flight Lieutenant did not envisage when he was
President. Having recognised the state of somnolence the country is in; his
cronies are having a field day. Some are quietly rebuilding their financial
kingdoms as the President snores while his PR machinery simply hallucinates and
churns out one goof after another.
Is it not embarrassing to note
that while the NPP Presidential candidate pitched camp at Atiwa for days to
ensure that his party’s candidate clinched a resounding victory; neither
President Mills nor Vice-President Mahama dared to enter Atiwa.
I am reliably informed that the
Veep was due in Atiwa on Saturday but chickened out at the last minute because
of a security threat. How can we elect people to manage our country and they
spend half of the time thinking about their personal safety than sacrificing
for the people who elected them into power?
What moral justification does the
sitting government have to justify its inability to manage the security
situation across the country to the extent that the two leading members of the
NDC could not travel to Atiwa?
Let no one attempt to convince us
with the crap about Atiwa being an NPP stronghold so there was no need for an
NDC effort. Then why was a candidate sponsored for the election?
Not surprisingly when the party
General Secretary went to address a rally at Anyinam he ended up eating his own
vomit as repeated announcements that the President sends his greetings elicited
no response. The opportunistic mosquito then chose to use the name of the
founder, Jerry Rawlings as the bait. They fell for it but for Mosquito the
humiliation was complete. You should see how that diminutive party scribe has
bloated in arrogance and respects no one. Today he knows how to apply Jerry
Rawlings’ name for political effect? Funny people!
We really have a government that has lost touch with
the electorate, has lost touch with its roots and at this stage has lost touch
with basic common sense. When President Mills took over he assumed that the
Presidency meant he was omnipotent and untouchable – thanks to a certain
Nigeria pastor.
So when the Founder of the party
who led this country for close to twenty years counselled him to take advantage
of the adrenalin brought about by the hard-fought victory and clean the rot it
had inherited from the inherently corrupt NPP government, he looked the other
way and in a rather dour and unconvincing manner spoke about the ideals of rule
of law and justice taking its own course, etc.
Who said justice should not take
its course? Who said the wrongs of the past should not be investigated? Who
said not taking action could be equated to maintaining the rule of law. Indeed
President Mills is guilty of one of the fundamental laws of the rule of law –
that is not taking action when you are aware a person or some persons have
perpetuated acts of fraud, committed murder and indeed stripped a country of
all its meaningful economic and social resources.
Is it not weird that today those
who helped rape Ghana through the Ghana@50 celebrations are having a good laugh
while the entire populace ridicules the government’s legal machinery for being
inept?
Our country is leaderless and
sooner than later someone needs to tell the President to put up or shut up and
quit the job.
Ghana’s credit rating has been
lowered because of the lack of confidence the international business community
has in Ghana. Government’s ability to take strong and quick decisions is
non-existent and we have sunk into a state of lethargy because the people close
to the President are afraid to tell him he is NAKED!
Unfortunately the party, which is
supposed to hold the President in check, has been checkmated by the fact that
the Chairman and the General Secretary seek first their personal interests
rather than the very future of the party. So there goes our major means of
reining in the derailed government machinery.
As for the Founder I dare not
blaspheme by saying he is a prophet but can anyone find me a better accolade?
When he referred to the President
‘Konongo Kaya’ on June 4, babies in diapers, with the full support of the
Presidency, berated him. I cringed quite a bit when the former President threw
that all-defining blow. He is not known for diplomatese when the truth has to
be told and three months down the line we recognise without any doubt that we
have a lame-duck president who is surrounded by self-seeking and incompetent
individuals who I hear have also told him he has a 70 per cent rating. Laugh
out aloud! No wonder the NPP is having a ball and has the testicles to
intimidate NDC faithful at a time when the latter’s government is in power.
When a government refuses to
listen to its faithful, when a government abhors criticism from the very people
who elected it, when a government disregards the talisman of its party and
decides it can operate in a vacuum it commits political suicide.
This government has reduced the
election victory of 2008/09 to the most humiliating experience for the men and
women who slaved, sacrificed and even died to force the NPP out of power.
Today NPP sympathisers are power
brokers in all major sectors of the economy. Last week the Daily Post published
a story about how the government had awarded Brand Ghana contracts to agencies
that have directly supported the NPP materially and financially while
apolitical organisations are not even getting an opportunity to pitch for these
contracts. The NDC is in power but the NPP is actually in charge!
The other day Kufuor was bold
enough to accuse the Mills government of corruption. What does the NDC PR
machinery do? They unleash Gizele Yajzi who runs riot exposing how Kufuor could
not keep his zip up and in the ensuing act between the two; a set of twins was
spawned. Who does not love a sex scandal? Years after it broke we nevertheless
managed to enjoy the rendition.
Sadly the NDC sin doctors did not
recognise the embarrassment behind the latest episode – they failed to
acknowledge the fact that their failure to expose the rot in Kufuor’s
government had emboldened the most corrupt president in Ghana’s history to
accuse his predecessor of a crime he Kufuor has entrenched into the political
fabric of the nation.
But what should we expect? Is it
not a fact that Mills, Kufuor and Kofi Annan have been meeting quietly and
regularly at a private location in Accra?
Interestingly some people are clamouring for a
so-called patching up between former President Rawlings and President Mills. I
think it will be political suicide if Mr Rawlings acquiesces to such infantile
logic. The former president was not seeking personal favours when he took on
the sitting president; neither was he seeking to usurp the president’s powers.
He was mirroring the pain of many of us who are stunned by the failure of the
man we sweated for, to heed our advice and lead the country in a manner
befitting of a true son of the NDC.
If today Mr Rawlings agrees to
some ‘funfool’ reconciliation he will be defending the failures of this
government and stabbing us foot soldiers in the back. Let those we elected heed
our call and do the right thing. Faking a handshake with the founder will not
put bread on our table.
And no one should convince me
that genuine reconciliation is on the cards. Mills and his goons despise the
party founder so much they engineered to ensure that he was not invited to
participate in the African Green Revolution Forum. Who is better equipped than
the man who was a co-winner of the 1993 World Hunger Award? And what was going
on when we invited Yakubu Gowon and Obasanjo to address forums as part of the
Military Academy events last week while Jerry Rawlings was invited only as a
photo opportunity for the increasingly unpopular Mills at the passing out
parade? I hope that roar of approval the former President received will take
the wool out of the eyes of our slumbering president.
Rather than hide like a coward
and seek some so-called reconciliation with the former President so he and his
little army of half wits can stab him in the back again, President Mills should
wake up to the reality that some of us will not fall into a state of somnolence
like he has fallen into. We will wake up and take back our party before he runs
us into a ditch.
