AND MINISTER DESIGNATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY - HONOURABLE NII LARYEA AFOTEY AGBO

Dear Sir,

Congratulations. I have been out of the Jurisdiction in search of a Job and therefore nearly missed the big news by the skin of the teeth. Fortunately, when I made a stop in Accra yesterday to check on the health status of my folks, I had a wonderful bird whisper to me that you have finally gotten your heart desires. Your nomination as the Minister of State at the Presidency should give you orgasm.

Like a reserve player religiously prays for his playing colleagues to either sustain an injury or be shown the red card, so that he can also be substituted to demonstrate his talent, the fallouts of the Mabey and Johnson trails by the United Kingdom (UK) Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which saw the resignation of. Mr Seidu Amadu, Minister of State at the Presidency, to mend his shattered reputation, has inured to your benefit. You have stepped in his shoes.

Your God is alive. Only that teach many more of your ‘team A players’, currently warming the reserve benches, how to pray. This will guarantee that the next time there is Mabey and Johnson or Muntaka, it happens in a wider proportion, so that there can be as many resignations of ‘team B players’ as substitutions of team A players. The saying is true, every misfortune is a blessing in disguise.

Nonetheless, this calls for celebrations. The kind one engages in after winning an unmerited favour. Such as buying a priceless, assert like Ghana Telecom for a toothpick or being made the chairman of Ghana @ 50 anniversary celebrations without an appointment letter yet having an unimpeded access to spend millions of dollars. Or being a beneficiary of the sale of government cars and houses between 2001-2008.

Above all, you must celebrate because this nomination officially ends a long but sustained campaigned of lobbying, including the use of all manner of political theatrics that perhaps stampeded the appointing authority into looking in your direction. Because beyond your luck and special skills in drawing attention to yourself, one wonders the basis of your appointment. Which special qualities do you bring to the table and how does it help the better Ghana agenda? May be the president prefers you in ‘pissing out’ than having you out ‘pissing in’. The last time I heard of you, you were screaming yourself to shreds on the rooftops of media houses and calling the president names. You questioned his judgement in making Hon. Zita a Minister. You argued rather angrily that this anomaly by the president has hugely embarrassed the NDC. It was your contention that had the president made a better judgement on who the head of the information ministry was; criticism against the government will not have risen to such a fever pitch. You wanted the president to dismiss the Information Minister since she lacks what it takes to be a minister of state.

Surprisingly, shortly after that bitter and emotionally inspired criticism, you have been nominated as a Minister designate for the Presidency and have since gone quite like a crying baby does when given a toffee. Barking dogs seldom bite.

What has become of your campaign for Zita’s dismissal or that can wait since you have been busy lobbying for Ministerial appointment? I thought that whilst you were attacking Zita on Joy Fm, you said inter alia that you were not ‘a post post man’ and that you were “in the bush working”, why did you not tell the president that you were not a post post man? If this is not hypocrisy, please tell me what it is Mr Kpone Katamanso MP? Again, why did you not request of the president to make you the Information Minister since you hold the magic wand that will erase the mirage of problems bedevilling that sector ? Or why did you not boycott your appointment until the president has perfected his communication team since in your estimation once that is addressed the government will be as white as snow?

Additionally, now that you are a minister of state, how will you prefer your colleagues to handle your short comings emanating from your duties, should they start screaming in the media and calling for your heard or they should come to you, draw your attention to the said anomaly and offer alternative solutions to them?

Moving forward, I read in the papers that your constituency was on fire, and that young people in the constituency are threatening fire and brimstone if their miserable states of affairs were not improved. I thought you would have resigned, after all is it not your crusade that opines that anytime complaints are made about a sector Ministry, the only logical way forward is for the sector Minister to resign? As you make your bed so shall you really on it.

Now that you are going to be busy at the castle, how do you propose to make time to quench the fire in your constituency and measure up to the challenging and time consuming job at the castle? May be the work at the presidency has no job description and was only meant to silent you or massage your ego, or bring you to the kitchen so that you can know how hot it is? This one ‘Odikro wants to know’!

On the Friday, 2 October 2009, I responded to your criticism against Zita on http://news.myjoyonline.com/features/200910/35876.asp. Present events have vindicated my claims then. Those accusations against the president and Zita were simply motivated by hate, sour grapes and stampeding the president into appointing you as a minister. I opined that your action was the symptoms of a turf war, disguised as accountability crusade. A fierce battle between the later day’s saints of the party and people like you who think you have patented rights to ministerial appointment in the NDC or it is your birthright. And until your ego’s were romanced adequately with ministerial appointments, name calling like mediocre, team B, and government being slow and all that, will persist.

In conclusion, I will like to say shame on you for such dirty under hand tactics and congratulations on your new appointment. I pray that you are not treated the way you have treated your fellow NDC members. I think you must also improve your style of politics-destroying great men is not the best way to become great. Also, remember that pride goes before a fall and when you avoid evil, it avoids you.

Regards,

Akyena Brantuo Benjamin. Former President- Commonwealth Hall, University of Ghana, Legon benakyena@yahoo.com +233244825187/+233262199700