Intense lobbying begins

…as Mills selects his cabinet

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Posted: The Chronicle Thursday, January 15, 2009

Intense lobbying has begun for various positions in the new government, as President John Evans Atta Mills gets set to name members of his cabinet in the next couple of weeks.
Party members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some Executives of other smaller political parties which joined forces with the NDC to wrestle power from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the just-ended Presidential elections, have started serious lobbying of members of the nominations committee of the transitional team.
Some of the people who were seen parading on the corridors of the International Conference Centre, where the transitional team has been sitting included newly elected Members of Parliament (MPs) and some leaders and National Executives of the Reform Democratic Party (RDP) and United Renaissance Party (URP).
They were seen making frantic efforts to catch the eyes and attention of members of the nominations committee, some of who they followed closely at a time when business of the day had not begun, and during the lunch break.
Even though the faces and names of some of these individuals jockeying for positions were not familiar to members of the nominations committee, they forced to make friendly overtures with them.
In instances where members of the committee were finding it difficult to make such individuals out, some of them were compelled not to only mention their names, but the constituencies they came from and their titles.
Others had also travelled from their bases in Europe to lobby for Ambassadorial and other positions in government. This reporter overhead one of such persons who had travelled all the way from his base in Switzerland to Ghana, to lobby for political appointment, asking another person to help him secure a position as an Ambassador.
The Executive Director of Gospel Evangelical Crusade and Providence Foundation (GOEVAC), Reverend Kwarteng Amaning, received probably the worst shock of his life, after making one of such friendly overtures to Vice President John Dramani Mahama.
Just as the Vice President stepped out of his vehicle, he was approached by the founder and leader of the URP, Kofi Wayo who after friendly exchanges introduced the man of God to him, asking the Veep to grant him audience since according to him, he had some interesting information he could share with him.
The Vice President obliged in good faith and asked the man of God to see him at his office. Minutes after the Vice President left the scene to his office, a member of the NDC who was present sought to expose Rev. Amaning by calling him a traitor and an opportunist, since according to him the man of God had at a point in time gone to a radio station to shower praises on former President Kufuor and the NPP government, whilst condemning the NDC.
This resulted in heated verbal exchanges between the party member and the pastor who was in his pastoral attire. The Pastor tried to defend himself by saying that the gentleman was telling lies, stressing that he (the party supporter) does not know what he (the pastor) has done for the party.
Seeing the turn of events, some of party members around decided to calm the nerves of the two individuals, stressing that the venue was not the appropriate place to settle such scores.