JULY 29, 2011

Alex Amoako-Attah

President John Atta Mills on Thursday appealed to the Clergy to lead the crusade to halt politics of insults and the growing incidence of false prophets that has plagued the society in recent times. Ghanaweb.com. July 28, 2011.

Soon after the NDC was declared winner of the 2008 Elections, the Party’s supporters went on rampage and killed 5 supporters of the NPP at Agbogbloshie, a suborb of Accra. The newly sworn-in –President who had promised to be father to all Ghanaians irrespective of our political affiliations woefully failed to even invite the bereaving families to the Castle for consolation. Three years after the murders, nobody has been arrested for such a gruesome crime which occurred in front of a police station in broad daylight. To make matters worse, the minority leader of Parliament, Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu has given the names of the suspects to the Speaker of Parliament yet the perpetrators are still walking the streets because they are the foot soldiers of the ruling Party, the NDC of which President Mills, the Asomedwehene and the man of God is its leader.

Elsewhere in the nation, the rampaging wolves of the NDC Party, who call themselves the foot-soldiers go unchallenged by the Police Service of Ghana and the other Security Agencies whose salaries are paid by Ghanaians because orders have not come from “above.” In the Northern Regions in particular, these lawlessness have been a worrying situation but the President look the other way whiles NPP supporters have been at the mercy of these rogues because their Party is in Government. These social misfits who were deceived with job promises by the then candidate Mills and the NDC Party during the electioneering campaign have now turned their sights on their own Regional Ministers and District Executive Officers chasing some out of their offices and their homes yet nothing happens to them. Government offices have been forcibly shut down or occupied and public toilets and Toll bridges have been commandeered by these anarchists but the Asomedwehene and the man of God looks the other way as if all is well.

Since assuming office, some of President Mills’ appointees have been using intemperate and abusive language at various fora particularly, the airwaves. At one event, Bishop Emmanuel Asante advised the president and the rest of the political Parties to put a stop to this unfortunate situation before it becomes a social cancer. Thus this is the second time Bishop Asante of the Ghana Methodist Church has had the occasion to advise the political leaders about the dangers of insults and character assassinations in a democracy. Soon after this, Koby Achampong and Hannah Bissiw went after Nana Akufo Addo in an unprintable tirade. The president kept mute and never acted because the insults were directed at his arch-rival so it was all well and good. Earlier, his communication director at the presidency, Koku Anyidoho, had told BBC and the whole world that he did not like to see President Kuffour’s face because it was such an ugly thing to see. Koku is still at his post directing and choreographing the insults from the Castle. Is this the man of peace who would unite the country?

Recently, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye and Alhaji Halidu Haruna all presidential aides at the Castle, have subjected Nana Addo to severe verbal assaults and character assassinations but they are still at their post. After all, who is Nana Addo for the President of Ghana to waste his precious time to call his men to order? Kwadwo Twum-Boafo another appointee of the President will use Government’s time to jump from one radio station to another to pour raw, unadulterated sewage and unsubstantiated allegations on Nana Addo but not a word of caution from the President, the Asomedwehene and the man of God.

Koby Fiagbe, editor/publisher of the Lens a pro-Government tabloid is one of the most dangerous media men in Ghana today. As Rwanda was plunged into total darkness by the media, this rabid attack dog of the NDC will surely plunge Ghana in similar darkness if the president remains characteristically aloof. Baba Jamal the man who declared Jihad and subjected the people of Akwatia to assaults and mayhem was soon rewarded with a deputy ministerial appointment by the Prince of Peace. Okudzeto Ablakwa, James Agyenim Boateng and Peter Otukonor will never be outdone by his colleagues. All these incompetent, inefficient and “team B” appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president have managed to hold on to their jobs because they all serve a purpose. They are Mills’ attack dogs. If they don’t serve the wish of the President, they would have been fired long time ago if he is really a man of God whose name is Jar Jehovah. Is Mills a man of peace or a charlatan who is using religion to hide his true nature?

After relentless assaults on the person of Nana Addo, the standard bearer of the New Patriotic Party, the Young Patriot, the youth wing of the NPP, came out with all guns blazing. One of their leaders, John Kumah is reported to have insulted the president as a homosexual in a radio panel discussion where Peter Otukonor is alleged to have insulted Nana Addo. Why is the President showing concern now? Doesn’t he like the taste of his own medicine? If Mills wants to protect the sanctity of the presidency, he could have done so by uniting the entire nation as one family by firing these errand boys. But he apparently never heard any of his wayward appointees’ acidic tongues until John Kumah gave him a dose of his own potion. How did Mills know of John Kumah’s arrest? Does it mean he listens to the radios and reads the newspapers and therefore aware of his wards behavior but refused to stop them?

The president does not need the services of the Clergy to put a stop to the politics of insults that has the potential of destroying our democracy as we know it now. As the leader of the NDC and the president of the republic, he can re-shuffle these goons out of his administration thereby assuring Ghanaians his willingness to preserve the nation’s unity as one family regardless of our socio-economic and ethno-political differences. He cannot keep mute and play deaf when insults and political violence serve his purpose but runs to the clergy when the opposition returns fire at his person and his family. That will be the height of hypocrisy. The spot light is on him and not the opposition. If he wants justice and true peace to prevail in Ghana, he must act and fast. He should show leadership and assures Ghanaians he is in charge and that he will leave the political scene with a united Ghana still intact. Is Ghana on a slippery slope?

Long live Ghana.

Alex Amoako-Attah.

New York.