Opinions of Thursday, 25 February 2010

Columnist: Rahimi, Hajia Mutia

Betty Mould Iddrissu– The NPP’s Trojan Horse

One year and one month after the assuming the reins of power in Ghana, The NDC has failed to successfully prosecute a single NPP official of the past government even though the NDC campaigned tirelessly upon a platform of the corruption of the Kuffuor government. So the big question is WHY?
Why is it that as I write, the Attorney General’s department has failed to prosecute any of the criminals that manned the controls of perhaps the most corrupt and moribund regime in the history of this country? Enter Betty Mould Iddrissu, the Attorney General who was being touted as a possible vice president to the then candidate Mills. The AG has exhibited in the very least incompetence and at worst a nascent collusion with the NPP and its assigns that has ensured that the perpetrators of all sorts of crimes against the state within the Jan 2001 – Jan 2009 period are being left to thumb their noses at the Mills administration. A cursory glance at the woman behind the mask will reveal an AG who does not have any stake whatsoever in the Mills administration’s antecedents. She was not around during the formative years of the struggle that brought the advent of the new NDC government, and she has infact been heard on occasion musing that she is an “international citizen” and as such would always find her feet somewhere even if the Mills administration fails. She also wanted very badly to be vice president and is STILL gunning for that position, should Mills become incapacitated. Why else would she have treated George Yankey that way? George had begun a campaign to make himself available for selection as the next vice president. He was constantly being touted by the media as the “best minister”. That didn’t go down well with the ambitious AG. Why else would she have stuck the knife in him in the manner in which she did? Professor Mills should be aware that Betty is simply occupying a position she not only has no passion for, but is frankly not competent enough to hold. But perhaps the most serious reason why she is a Trojan horse for the NPP is the relationship she has with Nana Akuffo Addo, the erstwhile candidate of the NPP in the last elections. Those who are in the know are aware that she has a very close relationship with the failed presidential aspirant and it is indeed a surprise to some watchers that that relationship failed to pass the scrutiny of the appointing authorities. And indeed she was expected to be one of the casualties of the first reshuffle. What she successfully done though is to use a combination of bluster and her husband’s influence to keep her position. And this is very disconcerting to many within the NDC.
What the president and the NDC hierarchy should be aware of however, is that the NPP are about to elect their party officials in the run up to 2012. This would include their presidential candidate and it is in all likelihood going to be Nana Addo. This means that the barrage of nonsense under which the NDC government find themselves is only going to get worse. Indeed, the NPP’s strategy of making Ghana ungovernable is working. Case in point is the “Nana Darkwa Affair” After leading NPP members of parliament showed such disregard for the rule of law; it was Betty Mould Iddrisu who clandestinely directed them to go to a higher court and put pressure on the presidency to come out with that statement of surrender. It was the AG who helped the presidency along the line of capitulation and is preparing to enter a “nolle prosecqui” in that case on March 3rd, further giving the NPP brigands more to work with and turning that nitwit Nana Darkwa into an unlikely hero.
With an Attorney General like this, who needs an opposition? The president and his handlers should be made aware that he came to power by promising Ghanaians that he would deal with the corrupt NPP officials, but so far NOTHING.
So it begets the question. What is he going to tell an already skeptical Ghanaian public in the run up to 2012? Even worse is that there is serious apathy within the camp of the NDC. People are seriously disillusioned and the presidency should not pretend they don’t know this. The president should ask himself exactly what he expects his foot soldiers to go and tell the people of Ghana in the lead up to 2012? That he wasn’t able to prosecute the criminals who made up the NPP government because he had a Trojan horse as an attorney general? We live to see!!!

Hajia Mutia Rahimi
Wa.