I write this rejoinder in reaction to the article (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=161806) by the NPP The Statesman.

This is the irony of all ironies; I could not believe my eyes reading such cheap journalistic gymnastics from no other source than the NPP The Statesman. I hope the writer was in Ghana, where Ex President Kuffour ruled for 8 globe trotting years.

In the first instance, we all know the trip is at the invitation of Her Majesty’s Government, and it is no rocket science to know who foots the bill. So what is the fuss all about?

To quote the Statesman “The Presidents entire entourage at over 40 and the cost of the trip conservatively estimated at £160,000.00 (US$233,000.00).” As a Ghanaian I would, like the Statesman to provide us with the list of the President’s entourage, how they came by their so called conservative estimate. We all know that the NPP-Statesman hated NDC and would do anything within their means to discredit The President and NDC.

There is no need for NPP-The Statesman to write all these distortions. The NPP who were rejected by Ghanaians should have gone to the British Government and request that, President Evans Atta Mills be accommodated in a 2 star hotel at Perkham or Brixton instead of this Ali Baba story of; (The first couple is chilling in the profligately luxurious £1,380.00 per night Royal Suite, with a violet and gold Tudor bed.) Where do you expect His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana to be accommodated by the British Government?

I don’t think that the NPP statesman wants to compare trips by President Atta Mills government to that of former President J. A. Kuffour.

The irony of all ironies is that, NPP-statesman never told us the cost of Kuffours Global trips, where he slept or numbers of his entourages.

These are some of Ex President Kuffour’s foreign trips; Nigeria 13 times; Togo 11 times; USA 10 times; and the United Kingdom 9 times, amongst other countries including China, Japan, Germany, France, Jamaica, Italy, Brazil, Burkina Faso, South Africa, La Cote d'Ivoire, and The Gambia.

The NPP-Statesman should also tell us about the numerous travels by Nana Akufo Addo and other NPP officials, when NPP was in power.

Ghanaians know how well oiled NPP communication wheels are and how they’ve been churning out twisted facts, in their efforts to discredit The President. But they should also know that this is new Ghana where the interest of the Republic is above that of any individual or group.

The President has the right to choose who travels with him and the MP for Okere Dan Botwe, can not question who is in the Presidents team, since he was and will not be sincere on matters concerning the NDC.

As the saying goes “One man’s meat is another man’s poison”. We all know the NPP are very economical with the truth, they seldom use it. When the government requested for state properties including cars to be returned to the state, they refused to budge, when the government tried to retrieve the cars they coined their phrases; witch hunting and car snatching. But Ghanaians know the difference between retrieve and snatch, they also know what is state and private property.

Since the NPP Statesman could setup such an elaborate network of spies from; The Castle through the airport to Ghana Embassy in London, just to discredit The President then, the government needs to be more focused on its policies and not allow itself to be distracted by nation wreckers.

The next election would be judged by the government’s achievements not by the distortions and lies of distracters.

Source Awudu Sannie (Van Bell) London (UK) awudu2000@hotmail.com