... He did not collapse economy
... it's all NPP Propaganda
The former National Chairman of National Democratic Congress (NDC) and now the life patron of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah, has stated that it is a fallacy to suggest that Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, the former Vice President and now leader of the NDC collapsed the nation’s economy, when he chaired the economic management team.

According to him, it was a propaganda scheme engaged by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), saying “Prof. Mills did the best he could, considering the circumstances. At the time, it was a natural crisis just as we are having food crisis now. It was not true there were difficulties at the time, and it was not the making of Prof. Mills, he did his best,” he said.

In a telephone interview with this paper on the assertions of some members of the NPP to the extend that Prof. Mills collapsed the nation’s economy when he headed the Economic Management Team and that he should not be given the state award, Dr. Obed Asamoah was of the view that it was untenable that they are kicking against the award.

To him, Prof. Mills deserves the award just as Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama who is also to be bestowed with the same award. “I think that President Kufuor should give the award to Mills because he deserves it. He has served the nation to the best of his ability and if Alhaji Aliu Mahama is recognized then why not Prof. Mills,” he said, stressing that “I find nothing wrong with the award.’

The DFP Life Patron could not comprehend why some members of the NPP would like to attack Prof. Mills for collapsing the economy when the reality was that it was a national crisis. “We faced difficulties, just like the food crisis which is facing the nation now.” Dr. Obed Asamoah, who saw the recognition of Prof. Mills by President Kufour as unique, contended that the NDC failed to appreciate and recognize the then Vice President and now the flag bearer of the NDC when the party was in office.

“It is good that President Kufuor has recognized Prof. Mills. We in the NDC then could have done it but the NDC failed to recognize him. The NDC should bow its head in shame for not recognizing Mills before the NPP.” It would be recalled that barely two days after President Kufuor had announced through his Press Secretary that Prof. Mills was among five other prominent Ghanaians to be awarded, some NPP members expressed their opposition to the decision by the President. Prof. Mike Oquaye, the NPP MP for Dome-Kwabenya, and Mr. John Boadu, the National Youth Organizer for the NPP, on behalf of the party’s parliamentary caucus and youth wing of the party respectively kicked against the award.

Prof. Oquaye in a tête-à-tête with The Chronicle said the award to be conferred on the NDC leader would be tantamount to approval or an endorsement of Mills by President John Agyekum Kufuor. This, he noted, could confuse the larger membership of the NPP. Prof. Mike Aaron Oquaye, the failed NPP Presidential candidate and a former Minister of Communications, speaking to this paper in an interview on behalf of his colleague Legislators said, ‘We, the members of the NPP, the leaders of the party and Parliamentary caucus are strongly against that honour to be conferred on Prof. Mills because he does not deserve it. He has not done anything to deserve it,” he noted.

He questioned what Prof. Mills had done in terms of fighting against dictatorship and Military regimes to merit the award. To him, the parliamentary caucus that he represents shared the sentiments that the mere fact that Prof. Mills had occupied the second highest position of the land as the Vice President was not justification to warrant the award. “Our views are that Prof. Mills is a fine gentleman, an intellectual and a good academician who presided over an economic management team as Vice President, but failed to revive the economy. The economy virtually collapsed under his regime until President Kufuor came to rescue the system.’