Ekua Kwansema:

The President, Professor John Atta Mills nominated Mr. Fiifi Fiave Kwetey as Deputy Minister for Finance about a month ago but the NPP minority who finds this vibrant guy too hot to handle wants to stifle his confirmation. This is being done because this guy Fiifi Kwetey proved during the heat of the 2008 elections to be a thorn in the flesh of the NPP therefore the NPP is trying to pay him back.

In fact Fiifi Kwetey, who is the NDC Propaganda Secretary, is one guy who came out very often to debunk most of the pile of lies that the NPP continued to feed to Ghanaians during the 2008 electioneering campaigns. He and others in the NDC set up the Rapid Response Team which came out to tell Ghanaians the other side of stories pushed by the NPP to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians.

One famous lie that the NPP perpetrated during the closing days of the 2008 elections was the so-called 419 hit list by the NDC if they should win power. Fiifi Kwetey came out strongly to denounce the deceptive campaign being run by the NPP to win the elections at all cost. Fiifi was very good at what he did and this seems to have ticked the NPP guys off hence their decision to play the “slow game” on his confirmation.

Mr. Atta Kyea, the Member of Parliament for Akim Abuakwa South who kicked against the confirmation stated in an interview with the Ghanaian Chronicle that Fiifi Kwetey is unfit for the Deputy Finance Minister position because of his allegation that the NPP government had sold Ghana’s gold reserve. And because of this allegation he contended that Fiifi Kwetey was unfit for the position. This is such a cheap argument and lame excuse from the minority in parliament.

I am saying this because when Dr. Richard Anane, a medical doctor, as the substantive Minister of Health in the NPP government attended an HIV/AIDS conference and engaged in illicit unprotected sex which eventually produced twins he lied about it. He even lied about how he raised the $90,000 to pay off the lady in the scandal. But when such a national disgrace came to the limelight, even ex-president Kufour jumped to his defense and re-nominated Anane for the Roads Minister position that he previously resigned to contest the case in court.

If the NPP folks did not see anything wrong with what Anane did and lied about, why would they make such a big deal of what Fiifi Kwetey said about the gold reserve? I am not saying that it is right to lie. But can Mr. Kyea tell the whole world that he has never lied in his life? Can Kyea inform the whole world that during his campaign for the parliamentary seat he never, ever uttered a single untrue statement about his opponent or opponents? Can Atta Kyea who is a lawyer and had somebody in his chamber defend the notorious armed robber Atta Ayi, stick his neck out and say he has never falsely defended any of his clients even though he knew they were guilty right from day one that he decided to represent them?

I know somebody would come out swinging that everybody is assumed innocent until proven guilty. I know that already, but I have a Christian lawyer friend who has vowed never to represent any client who he can interview and sense as guilty.

Fiifi Kwetey is qualified for the position. He has the experience and qualification for the Deputy Finance Minister position. When the NPP initially tried to use the nationality issue against him but failed now they are using this issue about Fiifi lying about the gold reserves.

If Ghanaians are going to use one-time or multiple lies as a yardstick against office holders, I don’t think there would be any NPP member left in parliament. President Mills needs to get his team of technocrats ready to run the country. Ghana cannot wait for some few elements in parliament to use dubious means to stifle the confirmations of good people who have the capacity to contribute to national growth and overall development of the country.

If the disgraced Richard Anane was confirmed by the NPP after the disgrace he brought to the whole country following his illicit sex during an AIDS conference, I do not see why Fiifi Kwetey cannot also be confirmed by making a political allegation against the NPP government. In politics people say things and recant them all the time, otherwise during the heat of the U.S. Republican nomination campaign in 2000 Karl Rove would not have circulated that John McCain had fathered a black child when in fact McCain and his wife Cindy had adopted a child from Asia.

I am urging the NDC parliamentarians to step up and defend Fiifi Kwetey. The NDC members in that august house have been too quiet to my liking. They need to step up and not only defend their colleagues but also sell the programs of the NDC government. They should not feel too comfortable and keep mute. The onus is on them to sell Mills to the Ghanaian public. They must not cede ground to the NPP who are bent on seeing the NDC fail.

ekwansema@yahoo.com