*Learning from experience, Is Amissah Arthur a good bargain?*

I begin this article with a quote from Victor Smith. Quote, “I’m not
comfortable, I can tell you clearly. I have made that point to leadership.
Amissah-Arthur for the longer time is a weakness. It will not help us the
way I see politics has been done in this country. We need somebody who will
bring us a lot of votes, a person to complement the president, John Mahama
has a lot of ground support but you need to partner him with another strong
person who can excite people,”

“If you ask this guy to go, I can tell you then we are gambling, then we
have reached the gambling stage”

In an article I wrote on Wednesday doubting the viability of Amissah Arthur
(read
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=246482), I
was lampooned by NDC fanatics with all manner of uncharitable words.
Typical of them, they neither look at the merit or otherwise of the
argument being raised but are so convinced in their ignorant bigotry stands.

In 2008 when Nana Akufo Addo chose Bawumia as his running mate, many were
those who raised issues about Nana’s judgment. The coercive power of the
NPP caged every dissenting view into submission. In the end, Nana Addo lost
the election to the late President John Evans Atta Mills who had a popular
candidate as his running mate.

When John McCain chose Serah Palin as his running mate for the US general
election, Republicans felt he could have gone for a more experienced and
popular candidate. *Dick Cheney, **former vice president contributing to
McCain’s choice recently said *that it was a “mistake” to put Palin on the
Republican ticket in 2008 when she’d governed Alaska for less than two
years.

McCain’s reaction: “I’m always glad to get comments four years later,”
McCain told Fox News, laughing. “Look, I respect the vice president. He and
I had strong disagreements as to whether we should torture people or not. I
don’t think we should have.”

“But,” McCain added, “the fact is that I’m proud of Sarah Palin, I’m proud
of the job she did, I’m proud of the job she continues to do, and so
everybody has their own views and I respect those views, but I’m proud of
what we did.”



In the final analysis, McCain lost to the Republican candidate, Barrack
Obama.



Back to the thrust of my views. Can we say Arthur’s nomination is not
tearing the NDC apart? Can we deny the dissenting views emanating from all
quarters of the NDC? Can we?



Latest to this twist is that, Arthur might not be a running mate to John
Mahama but only holding the fort temporarily. Here I’d gladly quote Yaw
Boateng Gyan. “It is not yet time for him to select his running mate for
the upcoming election, that will be done at congress on 1st September;
after he (Mahama) has been endorsed by popular acclamation as the
flagbearer. Then he, in consultation with the party, will decide if the
same person (Amissah-Arthur) should be as his running mate or whether a
different person should be nominated. Right now, we are not certain that
Amissah-Arthur is going to be the running mate of John Mahama. He has just
been selected as the Vice President but not the running mate for the 2012
election. Even for the flagbearership, it is not a done deal procedurally,
until September 1st. He has to be endorsed before he can nominate a running
mate. For now, the state has done its part through President Mahama
deciding who should be his Vice-President, when the time comes, the party
will also take a decision with the majority of the party executives (on who
should partner Mahama)…”.



I trust he’s a fine gentleman for the job. However, he comes into the job
with a huge deficit. He superintended the
dollarization
of the economy and the crude devaluation of the cedis. This caused the
nosedive of purchasing powers of businessmen in the country.



He cannot also be exhumed from the Woyomegate scandal. As Governor of GOG,
he was the custodian of the Consolidated fund. He failed to apply the
Financial Agreement Act which resulted in the fraudulent payment of the
Woyome judgment debt. He sat aloof for this gargantuan fraud to be
perpetrated on Ghanaians.



His record as a deputy finance minister in the Rawlings regime in my candid
opinion isn’t satisfactory.

To conclude, I have some advice for President Mahama. Don’t choose another
Bawumia as a running mate. Learn from the mistake of others. We are not yet
certain whether Arthur will be your running mate but…, a word to the wise,
is enough.



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