There was fanfare from the NDC propagandists when the president, Prof.Atta Mills announced to the effect that he would no longer receive his per diem during his travels. The ecstasy at which the Deputy Minister Of Information Samuel Ablokwa gave details on radio was as if this was news, it wasn’t. He nearly wished it had being broadcast on CNN or BBC, that the President of Ghana has henceforth forgo his per diem.

At the time it wasn’t clear as to which travels the President will forgo his per diem; does it includes local travels or exclusively foreign travels. We are aware that the disgraced former Minister of Sport Alhaji Muntaka collected his per diem when he traveled to watch a football match at Kumasi (a whooping $2000 just for a day). But one can deduce, from the way the Deputy Minister of Information castigated the former President, Mr.Kufour on his foreign travels, he was precisely referring to foreign per diem.

Per Diem is a Latin, which means “per day”. The premise of per diem was the understanding that in your travels outside your normal working jurisdiction you have incurred additional expenses while living away from ‘home’ and hence per diem to recompense or reimburse you. But the question that must be asked is; can a Minister who ministerial duty takes him away from Accra morally claims per diem? What about a President whose duties are both home and abroad (international diplomacy)? So it’s beats my imagination why a Minister will go to Kumasi Sport stadium to watch a football match, and I guess, have a glass of beer, and still claim per diem, ($2000) is troubling. Does watching a football match part of his function as a Minister? Again how can a President who travels outside the country to negotiate or have talks with other government officials’ claim per diem if that functions performed falls directly under his preview? It is a bizarre venture and it is time government abolish this per diem issue and instead any state official who genuinely incurred extra personal cost, the state can legitimately reimburse him/her, after all, their monthly salaries will be paid anyway, so why milk Ghanaians if you came to power on the slogan of ‘I care for you’. It is even alleged that some Ministers have not touch their salaries (intact in their bank accounts) and it is their per diem that they are relying on.

But the main focus of my article is on the fact that the President having announced that he would no longer receive his per diem, smartly hand over the per diem baton to Mr. Jerry Rawlings. Today, Mr.Rawlings is almost ‘everywhere’ representing the President outside the country. So was it a smart way of still keeping the State per diem in the bank accounts of the NDC? Wasn’t an issue of robbing Paul to pay Peter? I have no idea why the President keeps on delegating his international diplomacy to Mr. Rawlings. Some have argued that, it is an intelligent way to pacify Mr.Rawlings so that he will cease from unnecessarily criticizing the Mills administration. Though, reliable sources indicate that so many positions in government have been filled by Mr.Rawlings’s recommendation, so why still pacify him with per diem?

In spite of all the good overtures from the President, Mr.Rawlings still goes about preaching venom on the President and his administration. Sometimes one wonders what Mr.Rawlings want. He goes about castigating the President for his inability to arrest the murderers of the respected chief Yaa’Na and Issah Mobila but sadly Mr.Rawlings has not use the same strength and energy to call on the state security or the President to arrest the murderers of the Judges killed during his tenure, or the reported death of many Ghanaians during his AFRC cum P/NDC rule. It seems to me that Mr.Rawlings want to play on the intelligence of our brothers in the North. Mr.Rawlings wants to portray himself as so caring for the people of the North more than any Ghanaian; he thinks the people of the North will follow his tricks. As much as the state must do all what it could to bring the perpetuators of those heinous crime to book, it is certainly not the only crime committed in Ghana that justice seems to be eluding the families, has he call for the same apprehension for the Kumi preko killers? So it is incumbent on Mr.Rawlings to call for justice for all who have been sadly murdered,

It really baffles me when I see or hear intelligent people trying to applaud Mr.Rawlings on his explosiveness. I have been wondering whether these people have the same ears and brain as we do when they are defending Mr.Rawlings.This is a man who destroyed many promising families, my father was detained days by Jerry Rawlings boys-Commodos- confiscated all the family properties and that was the end of my father. Today he has the guts to speak on justice as if he is an angel. This is a man who knows about the murderers of the serial killing of women during his reign, yet he is hesitant to give names; he knows those behind the recent armed robberies, yet he won’t give names; he knows that former President Kufour is a thief, yet he won’t give any clue as where the monies are stashed; this is a man who went about in an excellent way in preaching the need for Ghanaians to planned their families to conform to their financial and state resource, yet in the same vein he castigated the NPP for preaching more births in the Ashanti region, ostensibly, according to him, for the NPP to use their strength/population on other ethnic groupings; earlier this year he was castigating the international community for withholding money from the Atta Mills Administration(the same international community he had hitherto launched a verbal attack on);Mr.Rawlings brought into the country many posh cars and when asked the source, he childishly say “I won’t say the source unless you slash my throat” who is interested in his throat? Mr.Rawlings seemed to know everything, yet when you asked him to provide clues, he warbles, “What’s wrong with this man…?” Kwasi Pratt rightly asked. A student also once asked, “Are the ghost hunting Mr.Rawlings”?

During his term as a President, what extraordinary thing did he do in Ghana that warrant him to be so vocifiourous everywhere, his disciples say he peacefully handover power, we wouldn’t have been bothered if he had refused to handover, he should eat it. It was during Mr.Rawlings reign that his counterpart in Malaysia built a complete new adminstration capital at Putrajaya (a planned city), moving the seat of government from Kuala Lumpur because of congestion and overcrowding, what did he do about filthy Accra? What did he do during his 20 years rule that serves as a benchmark for any government? Absolutely nothing. For me, the President should never succumb to the dictates of this revolutionary recalcitrant and rather focus on the nation building. It is very irritating that Mr.Rawlings has so soon forgotten the admonishment given by President Barak Obama, that Africans do not need strong men but strong institutions.

I will urge President Mills that he should instead (let’s me be sarcastic here) give his per diem to former President Kufuor, for he can do a better job for the country’s international errands than Mr.Rawlings who seems to complain about everything. Let me be candid, the NDC needs to reform the party from the cadre or revolution antecedents in order to survive in the next decade, the reformists should never kowtow to the revolutionary bigots. Both Prof.Atta Mills and John Mahama should do everything to decouple themselves from the zealot militancy, a word to a wise is enough.

MARTIN KWANING (Former TESCON President)