Posted: Daily Guide | www.dailyguideghana.com
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The outspoken youth activist of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mohammed Abdulai Mubarak aka Ras Mubarak who is cooling off in Oslo, Norway has turned the heat on the communications team of the Mills administration, describing it as useless.
He believes that the communications team has done little or virtually nothing to safeguard the image and reputation of the Mills administration since it assumed office, noting that “the communications team has been next to useless.”
In interview with DAILY GUIDE over weekend, Ras Mubarak, who has criticized the Mills administration for committing fundamental flaws said, “I am appalled because President Mills has refused to put down his political ‘baggage-ministers’ who have brought nothing but pillory to the party and government.”
Admitting that things have not been smooth for the Mills administration, he noted that the NDC government and party are suffering from sustained pressure from the opposition, resulting in a series of ‘very bad press.’
He also admitted that the past week has been a bad one and tested the government and party’s strategies for limiting damage, which began with the discharge of two officials of the Kufour administration, Kwadwo Mpiani and Charles Wereko-Brobbey by a High Court and the tirade of a church leader who condemned the incumbent government.
“And just as I thought the government had the chance to capture the news agenda and turn the heat on the opposition following Reverend Asante Antwi’s comments, the NDC’s National Chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei spoke in what the opposition again describes as ‘spoken out of turn,” he said.
He noted that he has been speaking about this supposedly ‘unacceptable deficiency’ since July 2009 and the inability of the Attorney-General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu to get her courtroom shenanigans right and deliver justice to the nation in cases of suspected economic crimes committed by members of the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
“I am disheartened because the ruling government has had the NPP by the scruff of its neck and instead of squeezing its corrupt leaders so decisively that their feet would not touch the ground, the government is succumbing to unrealistic political niceties, forgetting that we are in a political contest and that millions of our compatriots who were let down by the NPP are praying that we restore their trust in politics,” he noted.
He was of the firm belief that when state resources are squandered by officials, they must not be left off the hook.
As result of the poor performance of the government communications team and government’s inability to exploit its earlier opportunities, the NPP is beginning to take the moral high ground, he said.
“As a card-bearing member of the NDC, I am duty bound to give President Mills every help and encouragement, but I get frustrated because the President has refused my calls since last year. He needs razor-sharp spokespersons who can articulate the government’s successes and develop an early warning system – a media firewall around the government that would detect and repel potential hostile coverage,” Ras Mubarak said.
He believes that protection against unsavoury publicity does not come cheap, adding that there are professionals out there, including sympathizers whose expertise could be tapped, noting, “Good things are happening and the nation must be informed on how much savings we have made thanks to the prudent management of the economy; how much of the deficit we have reduced and what we have done in order to avoid leaving a huge deficit for tomorrow’s generation.”
For this reason, the NDC firebrand noted that “the sooner we are able to engage political communicators who know how to capture the news agenda, the sooner Ghanaians would support us in not just holding corrupt NPP officials by their scruff, but support us to make sure their feet do not touch the ground.”
“The sooner we are able to make changes at the communications outfit, the sooner the people would see the future.”