Tony Aidoo bashes Kufuor

… For increasing salaries without Atta Mills` consent
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Posted: The Chronicle Friday, January 09, 2009


Just one day after handing over the reigns of government, former President Kufuor has come under stern criticism from some members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), for certain last minute decisions he took before going into retirement. Key among the former President’s critics is Dr. Tony Aidoo.
Dr. Aidoo, who was speaking on Joy Fm Super Morning Show, in Accra yesterday, did not understand why the former President decided to increase salaries of workers a day before he left office, without consulting the incoming government who is going to feel the effect of the action.
He also did not understand why the ex President granted pardon to Tsatsu Tsikata, the former Chief Executive officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
“Those are the things that the new government has not had time to study and then you overburden us with such a populist rule, it is nothing but a populist rule”, he said.
He wondered how such a decision could be taken, especially when the NDC administration does not have a fair idea of the capacity of the budget of the government to carry out these increases, stressing that “you cannot abandon it without becoming unpopular, so far as the beneficiaries are concerned.”
Whilst affirming Prof. Mills and his NDC government’s commitment to do whatever it takes to fulfil the numerous promises it made to the teeming Ghanaian populace, the NDC firebrand noted, “whatever years it will take, it still imposes a burden, simply because the incoming government doesn’t know what the conditions on the ground are.”
He described the former President’s action as treacherous because it sought to undermine the new administration.
Nana Akomea, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Okaikoi South, who was on the same programme disagreed with Dr. Aidoo’s comments, stressing that the decisions were not taken out of any malice, as the NDC had sought to label it.
Instead, he noted that the implementation of the decision was long overdue. Whilst admitting that the timing of the decision might not be convenient for the new administration, he noted that there was nothing wrong with it since it emanated from the recommendations of a commissioned report by government.
The CPP’s David Ampofo, who also featured on the programme, expressed similar sentiments to that of Dr. Tony Aidoo, questioning what necessitated the long delay in the implementation of the decision, until a time that the NPP government was relinquishing power to the NDC.
This, he said, raises a lot of suspicion on the intention of the former President in taking such decision at a time when he was about to hand over power to an incoming administration.
Dr. Aidoo also raised questions about the former President’s decision to extend his prerogative of mercy to Tsatsu Tsikata, with some strings attached to it, since according to him Mr. Kufuor knew very well that the man was innocent of the charges levelled against him.
On the strength of evidence, Dr. Tony Aidoo noted that he did not expect any reasonable judge to convict Tsatsu, since he had done nothing wrong.