General News of Wednesday, 9 July 2003

Source: Chronicle

"Tarzan" To Bring Gov't Down

As the River Authority (VRA) crisis continues to escalate, millions of questions are ringing in the minds of Ghanaians, especially staunch supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who want to know whether the embattled chief executive officer of the authority, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, is bent on bringing the ruling government down.

The latest to diagnose the VRA palaver is Dr. Nyaho-Nyaho Tamakloe, a founding member of the NPP. Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe, in reaction to Monday’s edition of The Chronicle, captioned “TUC joins the fray, demands copy of probe report, workers submitted enough evidentiary information,” told The Chronicle that with TUC joining the fray, the VRA saga has shifted into a different terrain.

According to him, the problems at the VRA need a more careful scanning, proper diagnosis and the right treatment to be undertaken by the government.

When asked about means of ‘scanning’ the problems, since the government has done all it can to unravel the truth, the founding member noted that the government ought to go into the matter, take right decisions and above all let the whole public know of nothing but the truth in the committee’s report.

He said he knows Dr. Wereko-Brobby as a hard-working man with immense organizational and managerial abilities, which he demonstrated wonderfully when he was in the Alliance For Change. Those were the days when “Kume Preko”, “Sieme Preko” among others, were staged to check the then government.

The medical doctor, however, regretted that Dr. Wereko-Brobby had found himself in a situation in which he cannot in all reality go back to work peacefully at the VRA and yet he had decided not to resign.

Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe said, “As a politician I don’t want to believe that Dr. Wereko-Brobby has no culture of resignation. I also do not want to believe that he thinks he is indispensable.” Buttressing his argument, he noted that as a politician he believes that the government would listen to the intelligence briefings not only on the VRA issues but others as well.

He urged the government to take a right decision that would benefit the nation in the infant democracy. It would be recalled that the Public Services Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) joined their colleagues at the VRA in their protest against the CEO of VRA.

In a press release signed and issued last Thursday by A.T.D. Okine, general secretary of the union, the workers said they found unacceptable the statement signed by the Chief of Staff, which created the impression that the issues involving the CEO had been concluded, except those on his managerial style.

The TUC demanded a full copy of probe report after the workers have submitted enough evidentiary information to the investigative committee