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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

President Mills' One Year In Office: The Post-Mortem


By Daily Guide - Daily Guide

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President Mills interacting with journalists
"Mills' one year in office is not impressive at all. There was no single solution to the many problems facing the country.Judging from his leadership style I do not know whether he has any solution at all and whether he can deliver anything at all"- Lord Aikins Adusei.
LIFE IS LIKE A ROUGH ROAD WITH
CURVES,IT MUST BE APPLIED WITH
ALL CAUTIOUSNESS AND
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There is this famous Fante adage that says; “se edua eburow bone a, ofifir wonan ho”, to wit, when you plant a corn field with many seeds in a hole, instead of the required 4 seeds, you will be exposed when those seeds begin to germinate.

The electioneering campaign preceding the 2008 general elections became a fertile ground for some politicians to open their mouths at un-imaginably wide angles and promised the good people of this country, heaven on earth.

The IEA-organized debate for the presidential aspirants was used by the opposition parties to attack the record of the NPP government.

The then tormentor-in-chief of the opposition onslaught was Prof. Atta-Mils. He was so eloquent in his deliveries and sounded just like someone who had all the solutions to our nation's 'economic woes', at his professorial finger tips.

We were made to believe that the NPP government was insensitive, wicked, corrupt and the entire ills one can think of. We were made to believe that if the NDC was voted into power, petroleum prices were going to be drastically reduced. Very unfortunate incidents like that of Ya Naa, Issa Mobilla and the Bawku crisis were all used as 'campaign football' by the NDC.

The NPP was continuously lambasted by the latter-day 'Champaign socialists', for doing business with IMF/World bank. Even the issue of police men having their deep freezers in corridors due to lack of proper accommodation, which has unfortunately been the case since independence, was trumpeted as an evidence of NPP government's total incompetence.

Foreign Relations:
The Ivorian President, whose visit to Ghana was trumpeted from the roof-tops, was described by the NDC as a dictator whose hunger for power had resulted in the fracturing of his nation.

People like Fifi Kwetey, Kwesi Pratt and Tony Aidoo said President Gbagbo's 'craze' for power was what led to the rebels taking up arms, resulting in the partitioning of that country. But the question is, Cote d'Ivoire, as we speak, is still divided into the rebel north and government south.

Why then, is President Mills' administration hand-in-glove with President Gbagbo to the extent that he (Prez.Mills) accepted, gleefully, a medal and a sash when he visited the Cote d'Ivoire, just after 3months in office.

President Kufuor was doing business with President Gbagbo, in the name of ECOWAS solidarity for the advancement of peace and general co-existence in the larger interest of the west African sub-region.

Eventhough the NDC was fully aware of this fact, they threw caution to the wind and for their myopic, parochial and selfish desire to win political power, decided to lie through their noses and painted President Gbagbo as a 'bubonic plaque' that must not be entertained in any way.

President Faure Gnassingbe was also subjected to this same verbal abuse by these same NDC people.

They said the Togolese presidency had been turned into a monarchy, therefore, Faure must also be declared a 'persona non grata'. In effect, the NDC wanted the Kufuor administration to completely ostracize all our immediate West African neigbours.

Why then is the Atta Mills administration virtually crawling-over-broken-bottles to continue with the cordial relations that existed between us and our neighbours during the Kufuor Administration?

The Togolese President paid a 2-day visit to Ghana in August this year and President Mills was clearly delighted to host him as it was captured on the front page of the (26/8/9) edition of the Daily Graphic.

On Gambia, the NDC was of the view that 40 of our compatriots have been callously butchered under the watch of Cpt. Yahya Jammeh, and for that reason we were even justified to go and wage war on Gambia, if Yahya Jammeh did not provide us with quick answers surrounding the series of events leading to that unfortunate incident.

Kufuor and Akufo Addo, who were President and foreign minister, respectively, came under a hail of 'fire and brimstone' for what the NDC and their politically-biased human rights advocates described as ineptitude in handling of the whole affair.

The NDC comes to power, and President Mills is captured, sporting a gigantic smile and in a hearty handshake with Yahya Jammeh, on the front page of the (3/6/9) edition of the Daily Graphic under the caption 'Murder of 44 Ghanaians in The Gambia,6 bodies to be exhumed and perpetrators to be prosecuted'.

We are in the second year of Atta-Mills' administration and only four bodies have been brought home.

So, where lies the justification of the NDC, led by the then candidate Atta-Mills, for turning this sensitive issue into a political football during the 2008 electioneering campaign?

Security, Law and Order:
On the unfortunate issue of Ya-Naa and Issa Mobilla, the NDC said the perpetrators of those crimes were being shielded by the NPP government and if they were voted into power, those criminals would be fished out with the speed of light. What has happened since the NDC took power?

Innocent Ghanaians were, recently, callously butchered in broad day light at Agbogbloshie and not even an ant has been arrested.

A plain-faced murderer was found taking cover in the house of the deputy Brong Ahafo minister but this minister is still at post!!!

Where are those political activists who hid under the cloak of human rights activism and travelled to Anloga to investigate alleged police 'brutalities' during the Awemefia Chieftaincy crisis?

When guns were blazing in Bawku in 2008, the NDC, led by candidate Atta-Mills, said the only solution for the people of Bawku to cease fire was for President Kufuor to visit the area.

The NDC is now in power and the guns have, once again, been blazing and I expected President Mills to rush to the area with the magic wand that President Kufuor 'willfully' and 'woefully' failed to use.

The Minister of the Interior, Cletus Avoka, is today saying that the solution to the crisis lies primarily with the people of Bawku.

The regional Minister, Mark Woyongo, escaping by the skin of his teeth after coming under a hail of bullets, now says the situation has gotten to the point where even a fight between two dogs can ignite a fire-fight. Again, he (Mr.Wayongo) said that the Bawku-Burkina border is so long and it is therefore difficult to patrol.

The question is, was the border short during the NPP administration and Kufuor failed to make sure it was patrolled?

What is happening in Bawku currently is what needs to occupy the precious time of the BNI which is the secret service wing of our National Security apparatus.

Personnel of this agency should have been used to infiltrate the Bawku area to live and mingle with the people, to afford them (BNI) the opportunity to gather information that will identify, isolate, arrest and prosecute the criminals who are causing the decent people of Bawku, so much grief.

This elementary step has been ignored by the BNI and their pre-occupation has rather been seizure of vehicles, 'kidnapping' NPP-government officials, engaging in scuffles with harmless women at the airport and so on.

On Vodafone And Valco :
So much noise was made about the Vodafone sale. A committee was set up to probe the whole acquisition process, only for the sector minister, Haruna Iddrisu, to come and tell us that there is neither going to be a review, nor, a re-negotiation of the deal, but rather, there is going to be a re-engagement.

Whatever that re-engagement means in the NDC lexicon, is yet to be explained.

When the government of Ghana, under the Kufuor Administration, acquired the 100% share in VALCO, the NDC, led by candidate Atta-Mills, in cahoots with people like Kwesi Pratt and Tony Aidoo shouted themselves to the point of risking epileptic fit in the studios of Radio Gold, against the whole idea for the simple reason that the price of aluminiun was low on the international market at the time.

However, a report in the (5/11/9) edition of the Chronicle newspaper has it that the Minister of Trade and Industry says “through the operation of VALCO,there would be an injection of $300million into Ghana's economy through the VRA, power purchases, income tax/VAT, Valco Fund, property rate, port charges, local purchases and indirect labour”.

So, the good people of this country, can today, attest to the line of thinking and the level of short-sightedness of those who propelled Atta Mills to the presidency.

Governance:
The NDC, led by the then candidate Atta Mills, simply made unfounded pronouncements about the NPP government during the 2008 electioneering campaign.

They promised to save us from the 'perilous economic times' we were suffering under President Kufuor.

But today, the act of governing a nation of 22million people has given President Atta Mills a rude-awakening to the realities of the day and it is therefore prudent for him to cut-out the numerous flimsy excuses and tackle, head-on, his responsilities as the chief executive of this great nation of ours and leave Kufuor's legacy to posterity.

This is because, you were voted into office, Mr. President, to deliver on your 'amazing' campaign promises but not to come and tell us about what President Kufuor did or did not do.

President Atta Mills keeps telling us to go it easy on our demands of his administration because it is unfair to compare the 8years of President Kufuor to his (Prez. Mills) 1 year in office.

Here, I would like to know from the President whether he thinks Ghanaians are going to give him a second term irrespective of his performance after 4years, just because we want to compare his 8-year rule with that of Kufuor.

And by the way, what is the guarantee that he, President Mills, will be the flagbearer of the NDC in 2012, in the light of the recent intolerable levels of animosity and factionalism within the party.


By Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei
Source: Daily Guide - Daily Guide

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