Opinions of Sunday, 10 July 2011

Columnist: Agyemang, Katakyie Kwame Opoku

Let’s be Bold and Question President Mills’ “Religious Integrity”

Since Prof. Mills became the leader of this nation, the public ear has been disturbed by the cacophony of sermons of his personal attributes such as; “Prof. Mills is an accomplished lawyer”, “Prof. Mills is humble”, “Prof. Mills is God-fearing” and so on and so forth. Our president himself has conferred the Almighty God as the ‘president’ of this nation and brags that he owes no apologies to anybody for his proclamation. The frequent adoration of Prof. Mills by his party’s communicators is creating the impression that the law professor is the newest “Angel” of our time. But the crux of the matter is that Prof. Mills was voted into power to turn the economy around and make life better for Ghanaians and not to be adored as the only Christian of our generation. However, the inability of Koku Anyidohu and his ilk to recognise the disastrous consequences of their action should be a matter of concern to all, because the more they worship President Mills on the radio and other fora, the more they make people upset, especially the followers of the three major religions in Ghana. Besides, it makes other political actors see the NDC’s communicators as political comedians on the political field.
According to Ronald Knox; “a good sermon should be like a woman’s skirt, short enough to arouse interest but long enough to cover the essentials”. Ronald’s statement strongly pushes Ghanaians to bring into question President Mills’ personal attributes, with respect to his actions, inactions and of course his commitment to fighting political violence in our current democratic dispensation. Sometimes one cannot hide his amusement when the Ablakwas, Batures, Pratts, Benyiwa- Does etc tickle one another and burst into laughter but no matter how they equate Mills to “Angel Gabriel” he still remains the “Konongo Kaya”, the “Mortuary man” and the clueless and weakest president that we all know.
It is no secret that the office of the presidency has been brought under disrepute by President Mills and no wonder the nation’s fisher folk, women, teachers, Muslims, farmers, students, nurses, doctors and NDC foot soldiers are upset with President Mills’ leadership style. Not even his party’s founder, J.J. Rawlings who plucked him from obscurity could contain his frustration. Who in his right mind doesn’t know that President Mills has been a total failure? I hope Sekou Nkrumah, Teye Nyaunu, Spio Garbrah and members of OLONKAR & FONKAR will take time to educate the rest of us as to why President Mills does not deserve to lead their own party from July 11, 2011.
I am by this write-up urging Ghanaians to scrutinize Prof. Mills’ “Akwasi Amankwaa Kristosom”, because I cannot comprehend why a ‘holier-than- thou’ Mills, the ‘I care for you’ president should set up a special fund to award electioneering thieves and criminals who would die or maim themselves by causing mayhem to political opponents. Is Prof. Mills telling the Ghanaian youth that the only legacy he could bequeath to them is to set up a ‘Heroes Fund’ with the sole purpose of motivating NDC members to snatch ballot boxes, do multiple registrations, prevent their political opponents from voting, take machetes, clubs and guns to the electoral commission to demand electoral victory? Is that all that Ghanaians could get from your so-called academic prowess and religious beliefs, Mr. President? If so, how do you justify the ‘Asomdwee3 hene’ accolade you pride yourself with?
In 2008, Fiifi Kweetey, one of NDC’s finest propagandists posited that; “Prof. Mills was not desperate for power, but he was only looking for an opportunity to serve the people of Ghana”. If that was true, why is Prof. Mills seeking re-election when he knows he had already been given the opportunity to serve as a vice president and a president? Ghanaians are aware of how Prof. Mills left the classroom and the Internal Revenue Service to accept the challenge to run for the vice presidency in 1996 against the backdrop of his own tribesman, Mr. Kow Nkensen Arkaah having been severely beaten and kicked out from the NDC. As a man of peace, no official statement of condemnation came from Prof. Mills on this barbaric act committed by his boss - J.J. Rawlings. Why didn’t Prof. Mills quit politics after his miserable defeat in the 2000 presidential polls and why did he even contest the flag-bearership slot of the NDC in 2004 and 2008 when Spio Garbrah and Teye Nyaunu had declared Prof Mills a ‘living dead’? Is it not a case of his lust for political power and the desire to amass wealth and promote corruption among his party members?
There is no doubt that Prof. Mills is power-drunk. If not, why would he seek spiritual help from T.B. Joshua and wear ‘juju’ ring to aid his presidential ambition? We throw a challenge to the president to come out and deny the story about the ‘juju’ ring which appeared in the print and electronic media. Again, why would Prof. Mills threaten to burn Ghana like Kenya in 2008? This weekend the same Prof. Mills who turns 70 years in 2012 is seeking to lead his party for the 2012 general elections. Already, a whopping GHC90million of the tax payers’ money is said to have been spent on his presidential primaries when he knows for sure that he would be spending the maximum 8 years (4 years as vice and 4 years as president) at the same slave Castle by 2012. The questions that come to mind are; what ‘something new’ does Prof. Mills want to bring on the lives of Ghanaians, when in spite of our oil money, big loans, mineral wealth, agricultural wealth and astronomical increases in all forms of taxes, over 70% of the Ghanaian populace are still walloping in abject poverty? Why has Prof. Mills contested every single presidential election since 2000 and again wants to contest the 2012 polls? How different is our president from Ivoirian’s Laurent Bagbo and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe?
The atrocities against NDC’s political opponents that have gone unnoticed under Mills-Mahama administration justify the need to treat the adoration of President Mills with contempt that it deserves. The broad day light killings of four NPP members at Agogbloshie, the assassination of the Gushiegu paramount chief, the driving of a car through NPP supporters at Akwatia by Anita de Sousa – NDC’s Women’s organiser, and currently the silence of Prof. Mills on the assassination attempt on the Ashanti Regional chairman of the NDC, are clear manifestations of what Prof. Mills and his NDC will be capable of doing in the 2012 general elections. How could Ghanaians therefore survive under another four-year rule of Mills-Mahama when the safety of Ghanaians cannot be guaranteed? We cannot be bitten by a snake when we are surrounded by many sticks and cutlasses. John Mills is not a repository of knowledge because Ghana is blessed with many capable men and women whom we can entrust our destiny into their hands and deepen our young democracy.
We cannot be hoodwinked into believing any false Prophets - a ‘Prophet’ who would leave his wedded wife at home, have an affair with another woman, bring forth a child from such immoral relationship and fail to take responsibility of his own biological child whilst the same person continues to spend substantial amount of money on the upkeep of his dogs. Well, if such behaviour was a visa to gain access to Heaven, then there wouldn’t be a need for anybody to go to church because Heaven would have been already occupied by Bob Marley, Michael Jackson and the rest. May we also know from Baba ‘JIHAD’ Jamal and his ministry if Prof. Mills was among the pioneers of the Christian missionaries who brought Christianity to Gold Coast or was he the one who built all the mosques and churches/temples in this country? I think it’s time to put a stop to this noise-making coming from the NDC’s propaganda machinery in order to protect the public peace, because Joe Mullally had long advised that; “religion should be judged as being good or bad based on whether its adherents become better people as a result of practising it”. President Mills is simply one of the many hypocrites of our time as he encourages wrong-doing in our society.
On this note, I would appeal to Ghanaians to listen to Nana Akufo-Addo’s clarion call of giving hope to all Ghanaians. Nana Addo, a classmate of Prof. Mills, believes in giving every Ghanaian child an “intellectual property” through quality education. His political experience as one of Ghana’s distinguished law makers, a human rights activist, his vision vis `a vis Mills’ incompetence and lack of concern of issues concerning the youth, make him stand tall among his compatriots. Ghanaians will make an unpardonable mistake of making Nana Addo’s political prowess go waste. Let’s support him in his bid to win the presidency in 2012 so that his quest to building a new society of opportunities becomes a reality.
God bless Ghana! God bless the NPP!! God bless Kufuor!!!

Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang, Hull. UK.
You can visit the author’s official blog on (www.katakyie.com)
katakyienpp@yahoo.co.uk 07944309859
“Vision, coupled with persistency, results in true success”