Opinions of Friday, 4 December 2009

Columnist: Biakoye, Nana

Why President Mills Will Be President In 2012!

When the likes of Akilu Sayibu, sit behind their PC and hit the keypads, I am sure they think that what is in their head, is what is in the head of others. When they make very judgmental statements, they must really be thinking very highly of themselves.

Of course, even mental patients think highly of themselves that is why they live in their own world and walk around talking to themselves.

Reading Akilu’s article on his take as to why President Mills will not be the candidate for the NDC in 2012, it exposes the writer’s myopia in support of the Spio Garbrah agenda when it as clear as daylight that Spio does not have a dog’s chance of leading the NDC, let alone becoming President of Nkrumah’s Ghana. This is a judgmental statement but it is based on empirical evidence at least from the NDC’s congress in 2006 and the way Spio messed himself up when he visited Ghana recently and held that useless press conference and insulted everybody except himself.

Does Akilu really know what he is talking about when he writes that Jerry Rawlings campaigned more than President Mills and that it is Rawlings who won the election for the President?

Honestly, I am convinced that this Akilu guy is not living in the real world. When President Mills hit the road and started his house-to-house campaign and was walking in the streets of, Chorkor, Sukura, Latebiorkorshi, Mamprobi, Dansoman, Teshie, Tema, etc, was it Jerry Rawlings who held the hands of the learned Professor and moved him around the communities?

When President Mills was visiting the, Makola Market, Kaneshie Market, Mamprobi Market, Kwadaso Market, etc, was it Jerry Rawlings who was holding the legs of the learned Professor and moving him around?

When President Mills was visiting the lorry parks at, Kaneshie, Kejetia, Asafo, Circle, 37, Labadi, etc, was it President Rawlings who was leading the walk? When President Mills was spending long hours interacting with fisherfolk on the beaches of, Moree, Komenda, Chorkor, Sekondi, Busua, etc, was it Jerry Rawlings who was holding the hands of the learned Professor and telling him what to do and what to say? When President Mills was flooring Akufo-Addo during the IEA sponsored debates amongst Presidential Candidates; was it Rawlings who put the words and thoughts in the mouth and head of the learned Professor? When President Mills met the AGI to present his master plan for Industry, was it Jerry Rawlings who prepared the document for the learned Professor to present? I am more than convinced that Akilu is a political upstart considering his dead analysis as regards the 2008 election numbers.

If Akilu is as smart as he claims to be, his brain cells should be telling him that President Mills did not win by only 40,000.

Akilu must have been asleep during the election that is why he does not know how the NPP managed to get the figures that it got.

In 2012, who is going to allow the NPP to change figures the way it happened in 2008?

Who is going to allow Arhin and co to be at the EC supporting the NPP to doctor figures?

Akilu, singing his master’s tune, says that President Mills is slow. Ha! Ha! Ha! Slow indeed!!!

Does Akilu think that governance is a circus act where you just play to the gallery?

Does Akilu think that we are in the military days where you can bullshit the constitution and govern according to the dictates of a few people? Nobody should get me wrong; I supported the revolution and will never move away from that position. But the truth of the matter is that, the governance style of today cannot be the same as the governance style of 1979 and 1981.

Times have changed and the likes of Akilu ought to know that President Mills cannot just wake up and be throwing people into jail without following due process.

If Akilu is saying that Spio, as President, would have been throwing NPP people into jail without following due process, then we thank God that Spio is not the President of Ghana because that “gidi gidi” and “patapaa” style of governance would have thrown the country into a state of anarchy because the NPP people would certainly not sit idly by and watch Spio and Akilu throw them into jail waa waa waa.

If Akilu is really a serious mind, is he saying that he is not aware of the extent to which the so-called slow President and his Team have stabilized the economy?

Is it not surprising that two weeks after the reading of the budget, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu and his noisy minority group in Parliament have not held a senseless press conference to try and throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians about the budget? What it means is that, the budget is a very solid one that cannot be torn apart by the bellicose, whimsical and capricious lies of Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu and his noisy Minority.

When for the first time, a Government is paying serious attention to the disabled in Ghana; giving them a Council and providing free tuition for them, is that slowness?

And the likes of Akilu and his master Spio think that the Mills Administration is slow?

When a President, in order to fight the drugs war headlong, decides to subject himself to body search at the airport, is that slowness?

And indeed, Ghana, in the last 11 months, has become an unfriendly place for the drug barons and their illicit drug trade. Is that slowness?

Look at the manner in which the IGP and his men are dealing ruthlessly with armed robbers; is that slowness?

Go to Ejura Farms in the Ashanti Region and see whether the massive cultivation going on there under the Youth In Agric Programme, amounts to slowness. For sure, there is more to be done but does that mean that nothing is happening? Whether Akilu and his master Spio Garbrah like it or not, the Better Ghana agenda is firmly on course. President Mills is committed to building a Better Ghana and both home and abroad, discerning minds are recognizing the sturdy change that is encircling Ghana. The image of Ghana is being rebuilt at a very fast rate and today, Ghana is once again respected amongst the comity of nations. At the just-ended Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad, Ghana, for the first time, has been elected to Chair the Ministerial Action Group. Let Akilu and his master Spio go and find out the function of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, and they will know that something good is happening to Mother Ghana.

If Akilu is really solid on the politics of the NDC, he will realize that all over the country, the people who supported the Mills agenda, are the ones who are being retained by the NDC as Branch, Constituency, and Regional Executives. What it means is that Team Mills is solidly in place.

The same people who gave President Mills an overwhelming 81.4% and gave Spio a miserly 5% during the 2006 Congress which elected Mills as flagbearer, are the same people who will decide whether to retain Mills or not.

And if the sentiments of the executives are anything to go by, then Spio will not get even 2% the next time around.

Thank God that by 2012, the myopic views of the likes of Akilu will be extremely insignificant because of the Better Ghana that would have been built. Akilu Sayibu better look for some shock absorbers lest he dies out of shock when President Atta Mills is reelected in 2012 to serve a second term and continue with his Better Ghana agenda. Ghana does not, and will never belong to an individual and his/her surrogates. Ghana belongs to Ghanaians and come 2012, the good people of Ghana will decide, in their collective wisdom, who their next President will be.

And I have no doubt that the mandate of President Atta Mills will be overwhelmingly renewed.

There is no denying the fact that Jerry Rawlings, as Founder of the NDC, did his bit as far as the 2008 campaign was concerned but for goodness sake, let the likes of Akilu get it into their heads that President Mills also worked hard for the victory of the NDC and no one person can sit somewhere and claim that the collective victory belongs to him/her.

For the records, and for the education of the likes of Akilu, I am not a clairvoyant but I am stating here and now that Spio Garbra, will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ,become the Leader of the NDC and he will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, become President of Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana.

And a word of advice for Akilu; please when you are doing your propaganda work for your master Spio, please leave out Vice President John Mahama because I don’t think he appreciates your adding his name to that of Spio’s and saying that they are more energetic than President Mills. Besides, being energetic does not necessarily mean that you have what it takes to build a Better Ghana. Whether the likes of Akilu and his master Spio Garbrah like it or not, there is the Mills factor in the NDC and nobody can run away from it.

There is no denying the fact that there is also the Rawlings factor.

Let us not overplay or downplay either the Mills factor or the Rawlings factor. What we must do, is to recognize the importance of the two factors and harness them towards a common goal rather than engage in the destructive and senseless attempt at making it seem as if, minus A, B would never have become President. The question is; the floating voters who came on board the NDC train, can Akilu and co put their hand in fire and say it was Rawlings who convinced the floating voters to vote for Change?

Let us respect the President’s importance and let us respect the Founder’s importance.

Who Jah bless, no man curse!!! Nana Biakoye