Whoever advised the President to organize a Press Conference yesterday to mark his first year in power has done Prof. Mills the greatest evil. Indeed yesterday’s Press Conference has put the nail in the coffin of the Atta Mills Presidency.
Prof. Mills would forever be remembered not only as confused and incompetent but as the worst hypocrite we have ever had as President. Even before I go on to my main points, let me state that if the President thinks the relationship between us and himself is that of the one between a King and his subjects then he is completely mistaken. I fail to understand why he gets annoyed and hot tempered even at the slightest hint of critique. Please anyone close to Prof. Mills should tell him that the relationship between us and him is the relationship between an electorate and an elected and we have very single right to hold him responsible for even right decisions. We also have every right to criticize him and even to insult him (yes to insult him) for decisions we believe are not in our interest and decisions that threaten our very livelihoods.
As President, Mills has proven to be a very intemperate, hot headed, intolerant and arrogant President whose wish it is to see all Ghanaians worship him like a Sun GOD. He is not going to get that, he is going to be held responsible for every single decision he takes and we are going to deal with him in any way the people of Ghana feel is right because ultimate sovereignty lies in us and not him. He is not our father and cannot be our father, the earlier he gets this right the better for him. For me all I see is the development of a dictator! The Hitler’s, Mobutu’s, Amin’s, Stalin’s etc. did not begin outrighly as dictators they went the same way Mills is going; the only difference is that Ghanaians are not going to allow him develop into one. The same Ghanaians who have defeated every hint of dictatorship since the Colonial era through all the brutal military heads like Rawlings would defeat any modern day dictator whether its Mills or whoever.
Now to the main issues.
As I indicated earlier, Prof. Mills was a disaster yesterday and indeed yesterday was one of the few days I felt sad as Ghanaian. Going by what happened yesterday we are not to expect any good thing from the Atta Mills Presidency; not that I expected him to perform any good personally judging from how miserable he performed as Vice-President and as flagbearer of the NDC (not politically but in terms of his leadership) but that is a topic for discussion in the next weeks (indeed I intended to discuss that and the review of the first year of the NDC administration but I had to hurriedly shelve it in light of the disaster yesterday).
To start with, I had my first shock when Prof. Mills answering a question from Moro Awudu (Citi fm) on the indiscriminate sacking of Public officials stated that the question should have been asked 8 years ago. This alone confirms Prof. Mills as ‘un-statesmanly’ and speaks volumes of his mentality. Prof. Mills by this is telling us that he as President is still living in the earlier 2000’s. He is telling us that, he has forgotten all the criticisms leveled against the NPP and that he would repeat all the so-called evils he complained against starting from March 2001. Finally, the President has told us clearly that because it has happened in the Past whether wrong or evil, he would support and continue with it. Disaster indeed!
I continue!
The President when asked about any clear policy of his government couldn’t name a single one. Instead he stated that he hadn’t had progress because there were debts! Oh my God! The worse was about to come- the President stated clearly that ‘he regrets paying debts created by some people’. Ah, am I wrong to ask if this President is truly a leader.
First of all, this President does not know that governance is about the state and not a political Party. He obviously sees everything as either Blue NPP or Green NDC and this is the same man who comes out hypocritically to call for national reconciliation? He doesn’t even realize that contracts and projects with which the so- called debts were created were used to develop Ghana, the country he is presiding over. The monies taken and contracts given were not used to develop Benin or Bolivia it was used to put up four stadia in Ghana; it was used to feed children in thousands of schools; it was used to put up health centres; it was used to purchase Metro Mass Transit Buses; it was used to construct roads including those that go to his home region and his home town from Accra; it was used to develop infrastructure in the nation’s University unprecedented since Nkrumah; it was used to purchase VALCO and then and then; so PROF. MILLS SHOULD GIVE US A BIG BREAK!
Secondly, is this the same President who was Vice-President from 1997 to 2001? Is this the same President who was in charge of a Project that dashed $22million to a cute looking African American? Is this the same man who left our country in a crisis to the extent that we had to go HIPC(not Highly Incompetent President of a Country but Highly Indebted Poor Country)? . Is this the same man? Am scandalized by this nauseating Hypocrisy or does our President suffer from Memory loss? He regrets paying other people’s debts indeed!
Lastly, this man is so contradictory that it is shocking. He regrets paying debts but he is happy commissioning Projects which were signed and built by the Previous government. He is prepared to commission the Cocoa Factory in Kumasi, he is prepared to Commission the Ministry of Defence, he is prepared to commission the Achimota Bus Terminal, he is prepared to allocate the Jubilee House to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, he is prepared to use the Jubilee Parks built during the Ghana @ 50 celebrations, he is prepared to distribute the cars bought under Kufuor to his Ministers and to himself. He is prepared to enjoy all these benefits that are as a result of the work of the NPP administration but he is unprepared to pay debts. The mark of a lazy and confused man!
Now to the Big Blue Whale-Muntaka!
Before I start please allow me to define some terms according to the MacMillan’s English Dictionary. I choose to do this because I want to understand it in the simple English language we all understand not any legal complicated language but I challenge anyone to give me a legal definition of the terms listed below that do not implicate Muntaka!
Corruption: ‘Dishonest or illegal behavior by officials or people in positions of power
Fraud: ‘the action of producing false documents or information in order to get what you want’
Bribery: ‘the crime of giving money or presents to someone so that they would help you by doing something dishonest or illegal or;
An attempt to make someone do what you want by promising that they can do or have something eventually’.
However, the President says Corruption is ‘Corruption is influencing someone with money for a favour’
Clearly he does not know the difference between Corruption and bribery.
But that is even not the real point. The President yesterday insisted that he found nothing wrong with Muntaka’s behavior and sought refuge in the use of semantics like what forgery is and what it is not.
Yet this is a case where a Minister of State presented a lady to the German Embassy as a staff of his Ministry when indeed she wasn’t. By the definitions provided that is Fraud but the honest President Mills who wants us to see him as an angel sees nothing wrong with such a disgraceful behavior.
Secondly, Muntaka admitted that it was true that his wife presented invoices and was paid monies for the Baby Diapers used on little Muntaka.
These two alone without even going into the other issues are criminal, corrupt and immoral and Muntaka should have under no circumstances been a free man. What President Mills did was to hand the case over to ‘National Security’ though people like Asa Bee and Mpiani were hurriedly handed over to the BNI, CID & SFO. The National Security in turn white washed Muntaka and all Ghanaians got was a resignation and order for him to refund monies to the coffers of the state.
In a country where people go in for 5years for stealing tubers of Yam and under an administration which promised not to even look at evidence before prosecution, a Minister of State engages in such grave acts and he is allowed to just refund the money; yet our President thinks nothing went wrong and is happy to praise Muntaka for resigning!
Then President Mills went about throwing tantrums again. I quote him
“we’ve been in this country for some time, we have reported on many cases since when have ministers given these facts had the courage to tender in their resignation?
is this the first time ministers have sent their girlfriends abroad? ”
Prof. mills is today justifying acts of corruption and immorality on the premise that it occurred in the past- which is even not true and I challenge the President to come out and give us details of Ministers who have travelled with their girlfriends or who have used state money (without being prosecuted); if he fails to do this then I would take that statement as an open falsehood!
But I do remember clearly how honourable men like Dr. Richard Anane, Dr. Charles Yves Wereko Brobbey and Mocktar Bamba resigned; maybe it did not happen when Prof. Mills was Vice-President but it certainly did happen under the NPP. Here again, the President’s memory loss is obvious.
If I were the girlfriend of a Minister I would be very annoyed if my guy failed to send me along on his official trips because the President has announced that it is completely okay to send girlfriends abroad because it would not be the first time! This man is the man who is supposed to be the honest, humble President. Married men have today been given the luxury to go on joyrides with their girlfriends but it is not wrong according to the logic of President Mills.
The President’s disaster is beyond comprehension when one looks at his background. This is a law Professor and he is even not aware that abuse of Public Office is a crime; he is not aware that fraudulent misrepresentation is a crime and calls it Indiscretion. I wonder it is deliberate forgetfulness or it is deceit of the Public or is he trying to re-write the laws of Ghana in which case I wont be surprised because this man is capable of doing anything and turning around to play an angel! Prof. Mills is indeed an artist, he sold Ghanaians an image and he has proven to be the complete opposite.
In ending I would want to know from the President, if the Ghana@50 case is the first case of over-expenditure?; I want to know if Asamoah Boateng is the only one who has awarded a contract that did not go to tender? i want to know if NPP ministers are the only public officials who have ever been culpable of causing financial loss or of corruption?
Finally finally, Prof. Mills stated that he is Proud to be the Captain and Coach of his Team B squad. This was very interesting! The President yesterday for the first time admitted that there was a Team A but he being a Team B Coach was using a Team B squad and gave hints that the Team A might come soon; this was nothing but disgraceful! He is not even ashamed to admit that his government is Team B and tells us to wait till the Team A are in. How unfortunate to have Mills as a President!
