Since our President, John Evans Atta Mills left the shores of Ghana on November 12, 2011, his itinerary has become a mystery, with state-funded newspapers fabricating stories and pictures as to his whereabouts. NDC-funded radio stations have also come alive with the president’s voice, to tell Ghanaians where he has been hiding. But with the “Action year in its last month, with nothing to show for it whilst Professor Mills retreats to nobody-knows-where to “rest is bones”, the question being asked by Ghanaians is, where is our president? Hosted by Yaw Buaben Asamoa, Minority Caucus, Multi TV’s flagship current affairs programme examined the mysterious absence of the President from the political scene whilst the country moves in a clueless direction. Making his submission on the matter, John Boadu, a Deputy Director of Communication of the opposition NPP expressed his disappointment at the President’s way-bellow-average-performance in his “Action Year”. “We are in the second week of the last month in the “Action Year” and not a single target has been achieved, yet the President says he is tired and so is going t o rest his bones”. It will be recalled that in the last month of last year (2010), President Mills declared the year 2011 as his action year. According to the President, 2011 is the year in which Ghanaians will see the physical manifestations of the ‘Better Ghana’ agenda. It will be the year when Ghanaians will see the government making judicious use of the country’s resources, especially in the area of infrastructural development, to give meaning to the lives of the citizenry. Actual construction will start taking place all over the country”. But according to John Boadu, government is in total disarray with everybody doing what he or she likes without any checks. He cited the recent court ruling which directed the National Petroleum Agency (NPA) to stop imposing illegal taxes on Ghanaians and to refund the monies collected so far. The NPA has so far not heeded the directive of the court. On November 2, 2011, the Minister of Energy announced the dissolution of the ECG Board but by the afternoon of November 6, 2011, a counter directive had come for the Office of the Presidency, superseding that from the Ministry of Energy. The Deputy Director of Communication also questioned the President’s wisdom in going to rest his lazy bones abroad. For a president who is constantly calling on African countries to take their destiny into their own hands and strive to indecently develop their economies, John Boadu was of the opinion that the President could have relaxed his lazy bones in any one of the country’s tourist resorts; a move which would definitely have a positive impact on the tourism sector, a sector which the President has managed to run down to -11% growth. He described President Mills as the most expensive head of state Ghana has ever had, with his presidency overloading the country with debts at a rate, faster than Usain Bolt. Currently, the country’s debt is over $14billion, with more than $4billion before Parliament for approval; yet projects to be undertaken in the “Action Year” never materialised. He revealed, that a number of Presidential Aides do not have offices at the seat of government. “this president has so many aides that the Castle cannot accommodate them so they are scattered in a number of offices housed by Ministries, Departments and government agencies, whilst collecting fat salaries and riding in V8 Toyota Land Cruisers. In the 2012 budget, the office of the President alone was allocated a whooping GH¢236,000,000 to carry out its programmes. This compares to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture which was allocated a paltry GH¢262,239,746 to finance its core programme of ensuring food security for the whole country. The former National Youth Organiser also lambasted the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a pressure group clothed in NDC colours for being hypocritical about the legion of corruption in government. Instances he cited included the “loan given by the head of Venture Capital Fund, to his girlfriend; the struggle for contracts between Central Regional Minister Ama Benyiwa Doe and her party’s regional communications director, Allotey Jacobs and the embezzlement of NYEP funds by the Mampong-Ashanti MCE among others.
Also on the programme to offer his in-depth contribution was Justice Abeiku Newton Offei, a political analyst and columnist for the Daily Guide newspaper. He expressed worry at the President going “underground”, until the general Ghanaian population started asking questions. “Considering the general suspicion that all is not well with the president’s health, mystifying his whereabouts will not help. I heard his frail voice on Radio Gold saying that he is in on leave in the USA, but how do we know that’s true”, he quizzed.
According to him the attire won by the president as captured on the front page of the Daily Graphic of Monday November 5, 2011, was the same as the one he wore when he recently attended the UN summit, leading to speculations that the picture was meant to throw Ghanaians off. Citing the U. S. A. as an example, Justice Offei stated that the whereabouts of the U. S. president especially when he is on annual leave is never shrouded in secrecy. He criticized government’s communication machinery for being dodgy about the president’s whereabouts advising, that where the impression is given that the president is not in control of affairs, it can seriously undermine the functioning of state structures
He called for a thorough medical check-up of presidential and parliamentary candidates as part of the criteria to qualify one to stand for election, pointing out that in a society where the impression is being given, that issues concerning the health status of a politician should be shrouded in secrecy, it is important to give meaning to Article 69 of the constitution in order to avert a situation where the country will be saddled with an invalid as president.
YAW P. K. MANU Yawp.kmanu@gmail.com
