JJ Lands In Kumasi With NDP Gurus

Published in Daily Guide on August 30, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

Jerry John Rawlings

Barring any unforeseen hitch, former President Jerry John Rawlings is expected to arrive in the Ashanti regional capital Kumasi this morning to participate in today’s special national delegates’ congress of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Spokesman for the former president and NDC founder, Kofi Adams confirmed this to DAILY GUIDE yesterday but fell short of saying whether Mrs. Rawlings and other persons would accompany him to the event which is expected to acclaim and endorse President John Dramani Mahama as the NDC’s flagbearer for the December 7 general elections.
The congress, which would take place at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, became necessary following the demise of President Atta Mills who until his death was the presidential candidate of the party.
But DAILY GUIDE sources hinted that Mr. Rawlings, who is not just the founder of the NDC but also the Chairman of the Council of Elders of the party, would be accompanied by persons including former NDC General Secretary Dr Nii Armah Josiah Aryeh and Dr Joseph Mamboa Rockson as well as his aide, Kofi Adams.
It was not clear whether he would be accompanied by other people since an invitation purported to have been extended to Mr. Rawlings and signed by party General Secretary Johnson Asiedu-Nketia was reported to have asked the NDC founder to attend the event as an observer, with not more than 20 people.
Apart from his observer status, the NDC founder, noted for his long and boom speeches, would be allowed to speak for not more than 10 minutes.
Party General Secretary Asiedu-Nketia was reported to have served notice that since he would be the time keeper at the event, he would not allow anybody to speak beyond the allotted time.

Dr Josiah Aryeh

It was therefore not clear whether he issued this caveat because of Mr. Rawlings who is fond of making long and controversial speeches.
Ben Ephson, editor of the Daily Dispatch, had said that Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was influencing her husband not to attend the congress.
Ben Ephson, who spoke on Joy FM, claimed that he had picked up information that Mrs Rawlings, who challenged ex-president Mills for the flag-bearership of the party, did not want Mr Rawlings to attend the congress and was scheming to stop him from going to Kumasi.
But Mr. Adams, who also spoke on Joy FM last night, said, “Nobody… will attempt to put a wedge between our former President and founder, His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings and her Excellency Konadu.”
This, he said, was because “they are one; they may agree and disagree on issues. That is how they have always been but they will continue to be one and we’ll move on.”
According to him, Mr. Rawlings’ decision to attend the congress was in view of the fact that he was the founder of the NDC, insisting that “the issues he’s had with the executives are still there and must be dealt with hereafter for whatever that it is to follow to follow.”
If those issues were not dealt with, Mr. Adams said, “we would find a way of moving forward”.
Kofi Adams said Mr Rawlings would as usual raise his concerns to the party leaders and hope they address them.
If they fail to address those concerns, he said, the founder would take any decision he deemed appropriate.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

NPP Fired Up – Launches Critical Manifesto

Published in Daily Guide on August 30, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo displays the 90-page manifesto

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rolled up its sleeves to do battle for the December 2012 general elections with the launch of its manifesto yesterday, promising to tackle the fundamental problems that have retarded the progress of the nation.
The document titled, ‘Transforming Lives, Transforming Ghana’, made audacious projections and policy proposals that promised to move the country forward when the NPP was voted into power.
The manifesto entailed six thematic areas, namely, building the foundations of a free and fair society; economic transformation for prosperity and job creation; public investment to provide basic amenities to support job creation; a disciplined and safe society; creating opportunities and promoting enterprise and Ghana in a wider world.
The various themes were presented by leading members of the party who explained how those aims would be achieved.
Speaking at the well-attended manifesto launch at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra, NPP Presidential Candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stressed the belief that once these structures were put in place, the country would be ready for a massive take-off.
Present were key and influential members of the party including running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, national executives, former ministers of state, Members of Parliament and members and supporters of the party.
With the unveiling of the policy statement, Nana Addo was optimistic the argument would now move from whether the country should have free and compulsory education from kindergarten to senior high school, since “this nation has no other choice if we are to make meaningful progress”.
He believed education held the key to the achievement of all these targets and for which reason the NPP would channel much of its efforts in the area of education. This decision, he said, would mean “we will have a competitive workforce, we will have a confident and dynamic population and nothing will stand in our way in the pursuit of progress.”
Commitment
Whilst admitting that the figures might look expensive for the party’s ability to achieve its goals in education, Nana Addo said, “I am the chairman and we cannot shirk the responsibility; we cannot postpone taking this decision one more year.”
He pledged a personal commitment to lead the campaign for society to accord the teaching profession the prestige it deserved since, in his own words, “teachers will play a critical role in what we hope to do”.
He said, “The success of an Akufo-Addo administration would depend on teachers and I promise to make the lot of teachers a happy one.”
Apart from that, the NPP Presidential Candidate indicated that an NPP administration would restructure Ghana’s economy for the private sector to play a central role, with the belief that “a strong private sector holds the key to prosperity. If we want different results, we have to do things differently”.
With a team of people he described as “enthusiastic, dynamic and competent” in place, Nana Addo was confident of achieving his vision for the country when voted into power since he had no illusions about the task ahead.
“I give you my pledge; I will fight corruption and I will want you all to be in this fight,” he noted.
He was of the firm conviction that Ghana had a brighter future than what the Mills-Mahama administration bequeathed to Ghanaians and what was now being offered by Mahama-Amissah-Arthur government.
For him, the ruling NDC administration had nothing good to offer the good people of Ghana and therefore urged Ghanaians to “vote them out and move Ghana forward”.
Nana Akufo-Addo said he would champion the fight against corruption by engaging in leadership by example.
Professor George Gyan Baffour, a former deputy Finance Minister who presented the NPP’s policy on education, said, “The goal of our educational policy is to transform education so that it will produce a capable, confident, skilled, educated human resource base to feed and support an expanding economy.”
He also touched on the much-talked-about Free SHS Policy, saying government would bear the cost of boarding, SRC dues, admission fees, exam fees, dining fees, utilities, and other costs in addition to the tuition, which was already free, to relieve the burden on parents.
Prof. Gyan-Baffour said an Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government would rather finance the Free SHS policy than pay dubious liability debts.
MP for Bimbilla Dominic Nitiwul spoke on infrastructure, while Adwoa Safo, NPP parliamentary candidate for Dome Kwabenya, spoke on the youth, with Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh taking Health, Isaac Osei Trade and Industry and Agriculture, and Cecilia Abena Dapaah speaking on Housing.
Former Deputy Attorney General Gloria Akuffo spoke on NPP agenda for Governance, with MP for Weija Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey explaining the party’s policy on Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic Relations.
Age Card
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia rubbished the NDC’s claim that President John Mahama’s youthfulness would give him an advantage over Nana Akufo-Addo.
“What matters is policy, vision and integrity in this year’s elections, not age. I am honoured to be partnering Nana Akufo-Addo because he is full of vision and brilliant ideas for Ghana.
Nana has the energy and vision to deliver for Ghanaians so whether someone is aged or young, it doesn’t matter because Ghanaians will surely vote for the one with ideas,” he told Asempa FM in a follow-up interview.
According to Dr Bawumia, NDC’s argument about age was flawed because Ghanaians would not vote for a young candidate who had driven the economy into an abyss.
Dr. Bawumia urged Ghanaians to vote massively for Nana Addo and the NPP to transform their lives.

JJ Storms NDC Congress

Published in Daily Guide on August 29, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu & I.F Joe Awuah 

Jerry John Rawlings

General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, yesterday dropped hints of the possibility of the party’s founder and former President Jerry Rawlings attending the national delegates congress scheduled for tomorrow.
At a programme to receive the nominations of President John Mahama as NDC flagbearer for the December polls at the party’s Kokomlemle headquarters in Accra yesterday, he said, “We expect the arrival of His Excellency Flt. Lt Jerry John Rawlings, the founder of the party.”
Mr. Mahama is expected to be acclaimed and endorsed as flagbearer of the NDC at the congress scheduled for the Kumasi Sports Stadium.
In spite of the frosty relations between Mr. Rawlings and the current leadership of the party including Asiedu-Nketia himself, the general secretary claimed the former president would address the delegates and therefore expected all delegates to be seated by 8:50am tomorrow.
He said the NDC founder would have 10 minutes to address the delegates if he so desired, warning that if the former president exceeded the time, he would stop him.
However, information picked up by DAILY GUIDE indicated that Mr. Rawlings would likely not turn up for the event.
This, according to sources, was partly due to his strained relations with the leadership of the party and the fact that he had virtually been left out of all decision-making processes in the NDC, especially after the death of President Mills.
In spite of the fact that Mr. Rawlings was the founder and Chairman of Council of elders of the NDC, sources close to the party said he was not consulted over the decision to make Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur the Vice President and possible running mate for President John Dramani Mahama.
Apart from that, he was said to have been left out of the decision to make President Mahama the automatic presidential candidate of the party following the demise of President Mills.
The old man, according to DAILY GUIDE’s source, was also not too happy with the contents of an invitation letter extended to him for participation in Thursday’s congress, since it sort of placed some restrictions on him and the tone of the letter addressed to him by Asiedu Nketia was not the best.
Sources also said the question of Mr. Rawlings attending the event would largely depend on whether or not he had any scheduled appointments outside the country this week, especially in Somalia, where he is the Special Envoy.
DAILY GUIDE learnt he had an intended trip to that country this week, a situation that might coincide with the NDC congress.

Rawlings Fever
Supporters of the NDC in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, were said to have gone into wild jubilation over news that Mr Rawlings would be attending the congress.
There had been concerns among NDC supporters as to whether the NDC founder and his wife Nana Konadu, would be attending the event.
But information got to the region that Mr. Rawlings had agreed to attend the event where President Mahama is expected to be endorsed by party delegates as the NDC flagbearer.
Ashanti Regional Secretary of the party Joseph Yammin said, “So far it is 95% sure that that he will be coming for the congress.”
Yammin disclosed that they had even arranged for accommodation for the party founder, insisting that a befitting welcome had been arranged for Mr. Rawlings.
He said the NDC founder’s decision to attend the big event was an indication that the NDC was united and poised to inflict a painful defeat on the other political parties, especially the NPP.

New Constituencies Are Time Bomb – Kufuor

Published in Daily Guide on August 27, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

Ex-President John Kufuor

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor over the weekend waded into the controversial decision of the country’s Electoral Commission (EC) to create 45 new constituencies to be created before the December elections.
In spite of the several calls for peace in the upcoming elections, he said he feared the nation could be plunged into chaos if the EC did not shelve its intention to create the additional constituencies because the general elections were barely three months away.
For him, the decision was not sensible.
Speaking at the highly patronized NPP rally at the Mantse Agbonaa in Accra, Mr Kufuor said: “I sense only one hitch so far and that is the persistence of the Electoral Commission on creating 45 new constituencies when the register has been compiled for the upcoming elections.”
He asked, “So why does the Commission insist on creating 45 new constituencies on the eve of the elections?”
The occasion saw the introduction of all the 230 parliamentary candidates of the party across the country, with each of the 10 regional chairmen of the NPP given an opportunity to make a comment on the need to vote for the party in the upcoming elections.
In view of the numbers that thronged the venue, the police had to divert certain roads in Accra central.
Mr. Kufuor also asked the Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan-led EC and the various political parties to “be careful that nobody plants a time-bomb between now and the elections”.
“That would not make for peace,” he stated, whilst praying the Commission to desist from anything that could lead to chaos.
Constitutional Backing
A lawyer by profession, the former president insisted, “There is nothing in the Constitution that enjoins the Electoral Commission to create a constituency just because the Ministry of Local Government has decided to create a district.”
“There is nothing like that; so I don’t think the Commission is bound by law to do this thing that is in all respect not sensible. It may make for trouble. So we want to appeal to the Electoral Commission not to do it; so we all go through this election peacefully,” he counseled.
Mr. Kufuor said he attended the programme to see whether the party he once led was ready for the elections, adding that he would leave the event grounds convinced that the NPP was indeed ready to battle and come out victorious on December 7 when the country went to the polls to elect a president and Members of Parliament.
“The whole nation is charged by the election fever; the people of Ghana, I believe are very ready this year to decide it right,” he said.
Ghana At The Crossroads
This, he said, was in view of the fact that “the nation has come to the crossroads on whether the wealth that nature has endowed the nation with is going to be husbanded and managed fruitfully for the people of Ghana.”
For him, this depended on leadership and that not all leaders could husband the resources of the nation for wealth creation, insisting that the NPP had what it took to deliver needed development.
In spite of the fact that Ghana was blessed with rich natural resources including gold, oil and cocoa, the former president indicated that the ruling NDC administration had nothing to show since the government had not been able to harness them for the country’s development.
“This is why Ghana is going to bring back NPP this year so Akufo-Addo and his team will continue from where Kufuor left off in 2008,” he said to a rapturous applause from the crowd.
According to Mr Kufuor, the “NDC divided the country, NPP will reunite the nation to move it forward; NPP is not going to make fetish of ideology… we are coming to manage the resources of Ghana, so that we create equality of opportunity for everybody.”
“Let us go back and convince our entire citizens of Ghana that we want to turn the right road at the crossroads, we want to go the right path and the leadership to take us there is the Akufo-Addo leadership,” he said.

Konadu Hits Road: Campaign Cars Ready

Published in Daily Guide on August 24, 2012
By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

Some of the newly acquired NDP campaign vehicles

The presentation of a provisional certificate to the leadership of the National Democratic Party (NDP) by the Electoral Commission (EC) last week has triggered a flurry of activities within the ranks of the new party, and raised the adrenaline level of the grouping.
Hitherto, there had been questions as to whether the party was indeed ready to join others on the political plane for the December 2012 polls.
The flurry of activities, according to a source in the party, had been fueled by the burning need to meet the EC deadline for presenting the party’s presidential and parliamentary candidates to contest the forthcoming polls.
With ‘Our nation our future’ as the slogan of the party in the currently running jingles blaring on the airwaves, the new political party seems ready to take the political plane by storm.
Among a host of activities that are being undertaken is the branding of its campaign vehicles, including newly acquired pick-ups, in NDP colours, and the acquisition of what has been described by sources as a modern edifice at a location in the heart of the capital city of Accra, as its national headquarters.
DAILY GUIDE photo lenses last week captured car sprayers and designers busily branding newly acquired 4×4 vehicles in NDP colours.
Additional information gathered indicated that measures had already been put in place to select likely parliamentary candidates across the length and breadth of the country in all 230 constituencies.
What was still not clear was who would lead the party as its presidential candidate into the 2012 general elections, which is only four months away.
The name of former First Lady and President of the 31^st December Women’s Movement (DWM), Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has come up as the likely flagbearer of the new party, though she has not responded to speculations of being the brain behind the party’s formation.
She once told her supporters during the biometric registration exercise that they should not be surprised if they saw her face on the ballot paper and therefore they should all pour out to register.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that one of the items on the agenda of the leadership of the party in the face of the EC’s green light was how to organize what the party preferred to call a conference to elect a presidential candidate.
Also being undertaken was the training of a crop of communication team to spread the word of the party across the country.
Membership of the team was said to have been drawn from the various regions.
DAILY GUIDE also gathered that efforts were underway to confirm the positions of the national and regional officers of the party who were currently in acting capacities.
Doubts as to whether the NDP was real or an entity only on paper, would now give way to the reality of being the youngest party about to debut on the political plane.
With their jingles, slogans and anthems already being aired on radio and a fleet of vehicles waiting to hit the streets of the country, skeptics would now have to review their impressions.
Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa was reported to have described the party as stillborn, in reference to the survivability of the political grouping.
The party’s acting chairman, Dr Nii Armah Josiah-Aryeh, soon after receipt of the party’s EC certificate, told a radio station that they would soon organize themselves for a conference, adding that his party would contest all the parliamentary seats in the country.
What remained elusive to Ghanaians was whether former President Jerry John Rawlings and his spouse Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings were indeed the brains behind the party.
With the death of the late President Mills, political observers had expected the young party to fold up, given the perception that the project was all about decapitating the second term ambitions of the deceased president.
The ongoing activities however suggest that the new party is ready to stake a strong claim in the 2012 political activities.

Konadu Party Born With NDC Colours

Published in Daily Guide on August 16, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

 

The much talked-about National Democratic Party (NDP), a breakaway group from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), was finally issued a provisional certificate to operate as a political party in the country yesterday.
The new party shares similar colours with the NDC— green, red, black and white, but arranged differently. It has a rising dove with the ‘gye nyame’ symbol in the flag with justice, unity, peace and progress as its motto, while ‘our nation, our future’ is its slogan.
It is believed that former president Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu, are behind the new party, with speculations that the former first lady will be the flagbearer of the party.
This was after several discussions with officials of the Electoral Commission (EC), the body mandated by law to certify and regulate the activities and operations of political parties in Ghana.
Members of the party could not hide their happiness for crossing the first hurdle in establishing itself in order to contest the December polls.
Present were interim executives of the party. They were National Chairman Dr Nii Armah Josiah Aryeh, General Secretary Dr Jospeh Mamboa Rockson, Robert Quaye Tetteh, interim treasurer and other leading members like Dr Kwasi Ofei Agyemang, Joseph Bediako and Mathias Johnson.
Several members of the party who thronged the Ridge headquarters of the EC had travelled from various parts of the country to witness the occasion.
At a short ceremony, Deputy Commissioner of the EC in charge of Finance and Administration, Alhaji Amadu Sulley, who issued the provisional certificate on behalf of the Chairman of the commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, admonished the leadership of the NDP to work towards completing the provisions of the EC for the final certificate.
“Let us conform our activities to be consistent with the legal framework,” he said with reference to the Political Parties Act which mandates the Electoral Commission to conduct and supervise elections of all political parties.
Mr. Sulley urged officials of the NDP to start putting in place adequate structures including the setting up of functional party offices and officers (executives) at national, regional and constituency levels.
The Interim Chairman, Dr Nii Armah Josiah Aryeh, who received the certificate, described the occasion as a ‘giant step’ for Ghana’s democracy.
Vision
The NDP, according to him, had been founded to “answer and to stop those things; we take deep inspiration from the directive principles of state policy” with specific reference to Articles 35 and 36 of the country’s Constitution, which talks about participatory democracy.
Dr Aryeh indicated that the party would “ensure that democracy is meaningful to everybody and we are also bringing a green agenda to this country that we are primarily an agricultural country and we think that agriculture and a green agenda can push ourselves forward”.
“We are telling every Ghanaian that look closely, look scrupulously and realise that what leadership is doing does not necessarily conform to what you believe in.
“We have come to a situation where our very economic development process has led to a situation where there is practically a gambling for the cloth of the toiling masses and where there is a situation where once people are elected into power, you see an alliance between what I call political princes and their merchant friends in which every contract and every procurement is to advance that interest.”
“We are not simply here to replicate what somebody else is doing; we are not here to reinvent the wheel but we are here to ensure that every Ghanaian, wherever he is today, stands tall and proud because ultimately now we have a political apparatus through which we can realise our vision collectively.
“It may be inauspicious but in the long run, it would become most momentous,” he indicated, whilst dedicating the provisional certificate to the anonymous Ghanaian whose efforts, he said, “are never appreciated”.
“Now, let these words reverberate across our country; from golden coast to sprawling savannah, from boarder to distant boarder, in every town and every village; let these words reverberate that a party has been born and that party is symbolised by the iconic dove with its rising and soaring…that every Ghanaian belongs to, and that’s what we’re going to strive for.
“The politics of this country has seen a situation where the very act of voting has only lived to the empowerment of a few and we are presently on the brink of a situation where cabals and cliques are rising; which cabals take power through electoral process.
Once they take power, they totally disconnect from the people,” said the law lecturer who once served as the NDC’s general secretary.
“A lot of us are seasoned; we’ve seen it all before and we are telling you from the inner sanctum that what goes on there does not reflect us.
Our democracy must develop incrementally and qualitatively,” he added.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

NPP Strikes Mahama

- Cites Corrupt Deals

Published in Daily Guide on August 15, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

Johnson Asiedu-Nketia with Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey at the NPP Headquarters before the press conference

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) yesterday welcomed President John Mahama into the hot seat of the presidency, raising a number of probing questions about his credibility.
The chairman of the party, Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, who fired the first shot, discredited the now Mahama-Amissah-Arthur led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government since, in his opinion, they had nothing new to offer Ghanaians; insisting that with the two in the driving seat, “‘the value is the same”.
Within the relatively short period of his Presidency, the NPP Chairman said, “we in the NPP have cause to worry about the incompetence shown by President John Mahama,” citing him for complicity in issues of corruption, economic mismanagement, mismanagement of the cedi and a host of others.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Jake indicated that “the President’s own active involvement in some of the most scandalous contracts and loan agreements over the last few years mean that Ghanaians have more reasons now to worry about corruption than before.”
The press conference was held minutes after a delegation from the NDC, led by Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, general secretary of the party, had paid a surprise visit to the Asylum Down headquarters of the NPP, to thank them for their show of support during the funeral of the President John Evans Atta Mills.
 Complicity
Jake said, “President John Mahama was the same man who, against all competent advice, signed us up to the allegedly most corrupt loan agreement ever contracted by any government of Ghana, the $10billion STX housing deal” in which Ghanaians were to be fleeced of $1.5billion for the construction of 30,000 flats, half of them single bedrooms.
The said deal, which was brokered by Mr. Mahama who was then Vice President, allowed the Korean company (Messrs STX) to walk away with a staggering $264million in the supposed ‘political risk insurance.’
The NPP said, “We still do not know where our sovereign guarantee is and the Korean partners are demanding $17million in court for no work done.”
The NPP Chairman added, “Mahama is also responsible for the acquisition of the Embraer 190 presidential jet, disguised as a military jet.”
A deal, he said, included what he described as ‘a ridiculously inflated price’ of $1million for a staircase, $1million for entertainment package and $17million for a hangar to park the plane.
Similarly, the NPP accused the President of being the face of the NDC broken promises, having championed the supposed SADA project whose fate remained unknown.
What seemed to annoy the NPP Chairman and his lieutenants the most was not the fact that the concept was borrowed from the NPP’s plan to set up the Northern Development Authority but the fact that the promise of an initial start-up capital of GH¢200 million and a further GH¢100 million every year was neglected, just like the affordable housing project started by previous Kufuor-NPP administration.
The NPP, as an alternative government, strongly believed that “SADA and STX clearly epitomize headline projects championed by President John Mahama, which have failed,” insisting that “his presidency does not inspire any confidence that public funds are safe.”
Mismanagement
Furthermore, Jake said the fact that President Mahama, who was then the Vice President, led the Economic Management team that the late President Mills put in place to manage Ghana’s economy for more than three-and-a-half years, together with now Vice President Amissah-Arthur, who was then Governor of the Bank of Ghana, in charge of Monetary Policy, “shows that the same team that failed to deliver on the most important thing in our lives, the economy, are the same team who are in charge now”.
For this reason, the NPP chairman insisted that “President John Mahama and Vice President Amissah-Arthur are most responsible for the economic hardships that Ghanaians are suffering now” not because they only failed to manage the economy or deliver on the trust that President Mills had in them but also in view of the fact that “they failed the people of Ghana and cannot be trusted or expected to offer anything new”.
For the NPP, “nothing has changed with the coming into office of Mahama-Amissah Arthur’s uninspiring caretaker team”.
The main opposition has on behalf of Ghanaians appealed to the duo (President Mahama and his Vice) to “drive the nation gently, like a spare tyre, to the December general election for Ghanaians to hold their own referendum on the performance of this NDC government”.
 Judgment Debt
The NPP accused the President of having a hand in dissipating the country’s already scanty resources into the payment of not only gargantuan but also fraudulent judgment debts to individuals and corporate institutions under strange and bizarre circumstances.
That, according to the Chairman of the party, was evident in the fact that “the President has also been part of an administration and indeed had oversight of the Ministry of Finance that doled out GH¢642 million in the payment of so-called judgment debts, with records showing that a majority of these payment were procured by fraudulent means and also through arbitrary settlements”.
He asked “Ghanaians want to know what President John Mahama is going to do differently about corruption to show he is committed to fighting corruption”.
Perhaps, the NPP said, “he can show his commitment by taking action against the likes of former Attorney General Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Deputy Attorney General Ebow Barton-Odro, Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor and other NDC functionaries implicated in this saga” whilst ensuring that the nation retrieved the GH¢51.2million ‘fraudulently’ paid to Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
For this and other reasons, the NPP said, “this election (2012) is about our future. It is about the performance of this third NDC government, and the incompetent, corrupt and uninspiring leadership they have provided; the gross mismanagement of the economy; the falling cedi with its inherent impact on trade, from big business to the street hawker; the rising cost of living; and the hypocrisy, lies, propaganda and broken promises”.
That, Jake said, was because “Ghana cannot afford to live under four more years of failure”, insisting that “what Ghana needs is leadership genuinely concerned for the people with the will and the capacity to increase the prosperity of its people”.
“Ours will not be a government of lies and propaganda, but of real action.
“Ghanaians are not expecting anything new from President John Mahama in the last few months of the NDC. He represents no real hope for the youth of this country in addressing things that matter to them most: education, skills, jobs and accommodation.
He has no new ideas for the struggling businessmen and women of Ghana. He gives the country anxiety rather than hope on the big issue of responsible management of public resources.
Ghanaians are worried because the economy is being handled in a manner reminiscent of the NDC’s mishandling of the economy in 2000. We do not need to return to HIPC status,” he concluded.

Mills Signed Death Letter

Published in Daily Guide on August 14, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

 

Prof John Evans Atta Mills

It has now emerged that the late President John Evans Atta Mills possibly knew he was going to die even though he had told Ghanaians his doctors had given him a clean bill of health to contest the December 2012 elections.
This was captured in a note he is reported to have written before his demise on July 24, 2012 which bears his name and signature.
On page 2 of the ‘Tributes’ booklet distributed at his final funeral last Friday at the Independence Square in Accra, captioned ‘Everlasting message,’ the late President Mills was quoted to have written ,“I came to serve; I have finished my time here on earth and have moved on to everlasting rest and celestial duties with my heavenly Father.
“As you leaf through these pages of my life’s story, I pray to God that it touches you in many positive ways.”
“Weep not; for I am not dead. I am alive and awake in the Lord. Ghana will not die; Ghana will live to declare the works of the Lord,” he was quoted to have written.
“As I rest in the perfect peace in the celestial realms with my Maker, I pledge to always uphold and defend the good name of Ghana. Remember the Lord in all your ways, and He will protect you. Stay well, my brothers and sisters, for I will always be with you.”
It is however not clear whether he indeed wrote it or he dictated any such thing to his handlers, when and for what reason he might have done so.
It has generated a huge controversy in social media circles, with Presidential Aide Stanislav Xoexe Dogbe having to accuse the state-run Daily Graphic and Joy FM for creating the buzz, raising concerns that the supposed ‘everlasting message’ could be the creation of somebody and not the late President Mills himself as it sought to portray.
Mills was said to have died of massive stroke he suffered a few minutes before his departure.
That in itself is generating controversy because the autopsy report rather said he died of cancer.
More Issues Over Mills’s Death
Individuals and civil society organisations have started asking questions about the circumstances leading to the death of the late President Mills, with some pushing for a coroner’s inquest.
It follows conflicting accounts and disclosures by some members of Mills’s immediate family, individuals and institutions as to what could have caused his death.
Sister of the deceased president, Mercy Araba Quarshie, had earlier suggested that her brother died sometime around 1:45pm on that fateful day on July 24, 2012.
But the official statement which announced the death claimed he died at exactly 2:15pm.
These and others including claims that he died of throat cancer, as the international media and former President Rawlings suggested, and suffering a massive stroke as the late president’s brother, Dr Cadman Mills, told Ghanaians on Friday, have created doubts.
The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), a pro New Patriotic Party group and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) have made similar calls.
AFAG raised a number of questions such as, when the late president was taken to the 37 Military Hospital and his condition when he arrived at the hospital, the mode of transportation to the 37 Military Hospital and whether the transportation was under the guidance of a police escort, which would have helped get the president to the hospital faster.
Concerns
AFAG is also seeking to know the role, if any, the medical staff at the Castle Clinic played in the entire tragedy and why the president was not taken to any health facility closer to the Castle, the seat of government.
“Was the 37 Military Hospital informed that the Commander in-Chief was in distress and was being rushed to the hospital before the president was taken there? If the hospital was informed, what was the response to the president’s arrival, and what was the treatment?
The group asked, “Was it because of stroke, as advanced by the president’s brother, Dr. Cadman Atta Mills or was it because he had a burst blood vessel in the throat, which caused him to bleed from the mouth and nose, and which subsequently choked him to death?”
It also wondered whether an attempt was made to resuscitate the president at all, which would enable him to make a comment to the hearing of his brother, and if he was resuscitated to the point of lucidity and able to talk, why he degenerated so rapidly and died.
Among the several questions being raised is “If the president fell down from a massive stroke, how come he was able to lift his arms and to talk clearly to the hearing of his brother?
Did the president fall down and start bleeding on 24th June, 20012, before he fell down, did he complain of any pain, and if he complained, what, exactly, were the modes of treatment meted out to him?
“Is it true that a relative of the president, who is a civilian with no medical background, was allowed to give treatment to the late president by procuring a medical neck aide for the president, where was the aide de camp of the late president during his last hours, where were his personal assistants and aides at all times of his last hours?”
Procedures
Some Ghanaians have also sought to know whether there were any installed procedures in place to get medical and other assistance to him in times of distress and the exact medical assistance given to the late president when he collapsed at the Castle.
Coroner’s Inquest
AFAG and the GMA are therefore pushing for a coroner’s inquest into the late president’s death.
The GMA equally believed the outcome of any such investigation would help shape policies on the health management of the country’s political leaders.
President of the association, Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei, who spoke on various networks, stated, “We requested that because there have been so many rumours about how the president was taken ill on the morning of the 24th of July, how he got to 37 [Military Hospital] and so many others.”
“We need to know as a medical association so that if there are any lapses, it will help us inform policies so that we can do things better and to also tell Ghanaians the medical cause of death to abate the rumours,” he said.
Family Angle
However, the late president’s family on Monday said it was satisfied with the autopsy report from those with the expertise and competence to carry out such an exercise and make a judgment.
A statement signed by Nana Ato Brew, Abusuapanyin Nkuma-Kyereba Twidan (Abusua of Cape Coast for and on behalf of the Mills and Allied Families of Cape Coast, Ekumfi and Prampram), copied to the GNA in Accra, however, did not give details.
It said the family had been overwhelmed by the spontaneous and deep expressions of sympathy extended to it by so many within the borders of Ghana and beyond, since his death, through the period of mourning and burial.

Tears Flow For Mills

Published in Daily Guide on August 9, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

Sam Kofi Atta Mills is accompanied by his mother Portia Awuku

Thousands of Ghanaians including high-profile personalities could not hold back their tears yesterday at the State House as they paid their last respects to President John Evans Atta Mills, who died two weeks ago.
As early as 6:00am, people had started trooping to the event venue from all walks of life in anticipation of being allowed to enter the forecourt of the State House.
But a police-cum-military team that had been dispatched to the location would not allow them entry in view of the fact that the programme had been designed for members of the public to take turns to view the mortal remains of the late President after midday.
It was a sorrowful sight when the hearse carrying the casket of the late President arrived at the State House in a motorcade with military horse riders.
Many, including Ministers of State and parliamentarians who were clad in mourning clothes, could not hold back their tears as they burst into uncontrollable wailing.
Among the people who went to the Banquet Hall of the State House where the body of the late President had been laid in state for public viewing were President John Mahama, his Vice Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, and their wives and former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor with their wives.
Former First Lady and wife of the departed President, Ernestina Naadu Mills, was seen in a sombre mood.
She accompanied President Mahama to the Banquet Hall to pay her last respect to her late lover.
Dressed in a black suit, the fallen President was lying in a closed-glass casket in a garden of flowers in the national colours.
As mourners filed past the body, dirges were sung to herald the final journey of the Ghanaian leader who would be buried on Friday.
A giant portrait of the 68-year-old late President, which had the inscription, ‘Peace I leave with my Nation’, was standing by the casket.
Presidential candidates of the various political parties including those of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his wife Becky, Hassan Ayariga of the People’s National Congress (PNC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP)’s Dr Abu Sakara, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP)’s, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom and Henry Lartey of the Great Consolidation Popular Party (GCPP) were all there to pay their last respects.
 GTV Blackouts Nana Addo
Even though Nana Akufo-Addo was part of the NPP delegation which included his running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and his wife, Samira and the NPP National Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the state broadcaster, Ghana Television failed to capture the main opposition leader when he paid his last respect to his one-time friend at the University of Ghana, Legon.
According to sources, a member of the NDC communication team allegedly instructed the GTV crew not to capture Nana Addo.
Some family members who went in turns to view the body had to be aided out of the Banquet Hall as they broke down.
One of them had to be rushed into a waiting ambulance after collapsing.
Mills Leaves 37 Military Hospital
Around 6:00am yesterday, the mortal remains of the late President were taken from the 37 Military Hospital to his private residence at the Regimanuel Estates along the Spintex Road for family rituals.
The family of the late President performed some customary rites including the identification of the body after which it was conveyed in a hearse which had the inscription ‘His Excellency’ to the Osu Castle.
About 8:45 am, the hearse entered the Castle led by Military bodyguards, followed by the late President’s son, Samuel Atta Mills; Chief of Staff, Henry Martey Newman; Kofi Totobi Quakyi, Chairman of the Funeral Planning Committee and other high profile dignitaries.
Minutes later, the dignitaries gathered around the hearse at the Castle, where Mr Martey Newman and others offered prayers with a recital of ‘the Lord’s Prayer’ as captured in Psalms 24.
But the gathering went out of control as members of the deceased’s family, clergy, Ministers of State and other dignitaries jointly sang the hymn ‘Till we meet again’ amidst sobs, wailing and shouting.
Samuel Atta Mills, spotting a black suit, paid his last respect to his father by touching the casket where his mortal remains lay amidst sobbing.
The casket was draped in the national colours- red, yellow and green.
Botched Protocol
The security agencies had a tough time controlling the crowd in view of the breach of protocol by both members of the public and organisers of the event.
What surprised most including security men was the fact that President Mahama arrived at the location almost 10 minutes before his Vice, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, and therefore had to wait for the latter’s arrival.
Equally mindboggling was the attitude of the General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketia.
In the midst of the stampede and confusion at the entrance of the Banquet Hall, the NDC capo, clad in a black mourning cloth, grabbed the microphone from Nana Ato Dadzie, a member of the Mills Funeral Planning Committee who was coordinating affairs and ordered members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC to follow him to go and file past the mortal remains of the late President, thereby defying protocol.
Members of Parliament (MP) were equally not left out of the embarrassment, with most of them having to stand in a long queue for almost an hour before being made to go and pay their last respects to the late President.
Some of them were seen complaining bitterly at the treatment they were subjected to.
Naadu Dodges Rawlings
Strangely enough, Mrs. Naadu Mills, the widow, left the Banquet Hall where she was receiving greetings from well wishers when former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and Kufuor were making their way to console her.
Even before the two could enter the hall, she had been whisked away to an unknown destination.
It was rumoured that it was a deliberate ploy to avoid exchanging any pleasantries with Mr. Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu.
Sources said the target cannot be former President Kufuor and his wife Madam Theresa since they had earlier paid her a visit at the Regimanuel residence.
Public viewing of the body would resume today at the Banquet Hall whilst the evening has been reserved for reading of tributes and an all-night prayer service at the forecourt of the State House.
Tomorrow, the family of the late President is expected to perform the final rites after which the military would convey the casket to a final resting place at the Geese Park Garden in between the Marine and Castle drive behind the Independence Square for the burial service.
Prior to that, President Mahama and visiting Heads of State would be made to pay their final respects to the late President with President Mahama also lighting the perpetual flame before the late President is eventually laid to rest.
Geese Park Resting Place
Geese Park, located along the castle drive leading to the Osu Castle in Accra, the burial place of President John Evans Atta Mills, is near completion.
The tomb, cement works and lighting system were expected to be completed by the close of yesterday, according a GNA report.
The tomb, which has been tiled, was designed by the Chinese.
The park, said to have been developed by Lt Colonel Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, National Security Coordinator, was inhabited by geese, peacocks, pigeons, doves and ducks.
The birds live in a clean environment with a well maintained big pond and under tight security.
“The National Security Coordinator did not intend to make this place a tourist site, but rather to serve as a scene or view for those who ply the road,” Alhaji Baaba Agbah, Caretaker of the Park said.
Security at the Park is tight to prevent intruders from entering the area, which has been fenced.
The mortal remains of the departed president were earlier planned to be interred at the Flagstaff House but there was outcry from a cross section of Ghanaians against the decision.
However, a powerful foreign diplomat in the country, according to DAILY GUIDE sources, prevailed on the Mahama administration before that decision was dropped for the Geese Park.

Chinese Dig 9 Graves At Flagstaff House

Published in Daily Guide on August 2, 2012

 By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Construction of a number of graves has begun at the Flagstaff House, the presidential palace located along the Independence Avenue in Accra, for the burial of President John Evans Atta Mills who passed away a little over a week ago.
Yesterday, a number of Ghanaian workers and their Chinese supervisors were seen busily working on the graves at the forecourt of the facility, with a bulldozer excavator and a tipper truck on site.
The graves are nine in number, raising questions about the other bodies to be interred in them apart from that of President Atta Mills.
The graves are about 50 metres away from the main gate of the presidential palace.
There was heavy police presence at the place, making it absolutely impossible for our roving reporters to have access to the place, considering the fact that it is already a high security zone.
But DAILY GUIDE sources have hinted that as many as nine graves are being constructed at the Flagstaff House in defiance of suggestions by a number of Ghanaians including the Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Accra, Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle.
Others have also condemned the decision of virtually turning the presidential palace, which President Mills declined to use when alive, into a cemetery.
The family of the departed president stated that it wanted the former president to be buried in his hometown, Ekumfi Otuam.
However, a statement issued in Accra yesterday evening by the Funeral Planning Committee (FPC), chaired by Kofi Totobi Kwakye, a former National Security Minister, and signed by Deputy Information Minister James Agyenim-Boateng, spokesperson of the committee, said, “After a series of consultations, the proposed burial sites have been narrowed down to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and a location within the old Flagstaff House.”
However, attempts to speak to Mr. Agyenim-Boateng to ascertain why a number of graves were being dug at the Flagstaff House, when the committee was yet to take a final decision on the burial place, proved unsuccessful since he did not answer several calls to his mobile phone.
What is also not clear is whether some other bodies would be buried alongside that of the late President Mills in view of the number of graves being dug.

Confusion
A member of the committee and former Chief of Staff under the Rawlings regime, Nana Ato Dadzie, who spoke on the issue earlier in the day, said the place was an ideal location for the burial of the late president.
That, he said, was because there was enough space at the presidential palace to serve as a burial ground for the late president, insisting that it would not affect the sensitivity of any president who intended to operate from the premises.
Nana Ato Dadzie, who spoke on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, said, “A portion of that land has President Nkrumah’s residence, there is a portion which used to have a whole zoo and President [John] Kufuor rightly thought that we needed an edifice so he put up a house, popularly known as Jubilee House, and it’s only one facility on a portion of that land so there is a lot of space out there where it could be developed.”
The committee was reported to have visited and held discussions with the leadership of Parliament, the National Chief Imam, the Chief Justice and the Council of State as part of ongoing consultations to build a national consensus on the funeral and burial arrangements for the late president.
“The FPC briefed them on the proposed funeral arrangements and used the discussions to seek their opinions on an appropriate resting place for President Atta Mills,” the statement said.
But Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle appealed to the Mills funeral committee to consider the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum for the burial of the late President John Mills.
That, according to him, was because the mausoleum held such an important historical significance that it could only be the best burial grounds for the late president.
“We were there and there is enough space and the place is historical for the dear country Ghana because that is where Kwame Nkrumah declared independence for the country and so if it becomes a place where all our future heads of state would be buried that would be great,” he told Joy FM yesterday.
He even suggested exhuming the bodies of all former heads of state to be buried there.
Former Chief of Staff under the erstwhile Kufuor administration that constructed the facility, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, has equally spoken against any attempt to convert the presidential palace into burial grounds for former heads of state.
He said the committee ought to build a consensus among Ghanaians before finally settling on the venue since another president could decide not to allow the place to be turned into a cemetery.

How Mills Died: Sister Tells All

Published in Daily Guide on July 31, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Information available to DAILY GUIDE indicates that President John Evans Atta Mills might have died before arriving at the 37 Military Hospital where he was rushed to after he slumped at the Castle a week ago.
Sources said the late president got to the health facility at around 1:35pm unannounced, looking pale and cold when he was examined in the ambulance van that took him to the hospital.
The sudden death of President Mills is generating issues, with some calling for an autopsy report.
The sister of the president, Mercy Araba Quarshie, said she and other siblings were with the president just a few minutes before his departure.
According to Madam Quarshie, the family members had visited the Castle on the morning of last Tuesday and dined with him before he told them that he was having a neck pain.
 President Siblings
The president’s sister told Oman FM yesterday that they prayed with President Mills and later sang gospel songs with him while sending their last brother, Samuel Atta Mills, who lived at the Castle with the departed president, to buy cervical collar (neck brace) to support his neck.
By that time, according to Madam Quarshie, his doctors had attended to him and left.
She said after that, they left for Cape Coast around 1pm only to be told 15 minutes later by Dr Cadman Mills that the president had been rushed to the hospital.
By that time, they were already at Kasoa and within a short distance of reaching Awutu Senya, they were told that President Mills was gone.
President Mills died a week ago and the one-week gathering will be marked today with a minute’s silence across the country.
Some, including former President Jerry John Rawlings, have a strong belief that if a true disclosure of Mills’s health had been made, he could have survived a little longer.
The issue of the president’s health had been the subject of considerable speculation and concern but his handlers constantly assured Ghanaians of his sound health whilst skeptics insisted there was more to the deteriorating health of the president.
Sources at the Castle have started revealing details about events leading to his sudden death to DAILY GUIDE.
Information has it that on the evening of Monday, July 23, 2012, a day before his untimely death, President Mills complained of severe pains, hence calling in his doctors the following day.
By 10am, the doctors were called in immediately to assess the situation.
On the same day, Tuesday, July 24, 2012, sources said, he was handed a bunch of documents believed to be from the oil and gas sector, which he was asked to examine and endorse.
By that time, Mills, who was said to be showing signs of weakness, became agitated and declined to look at the documents.
He was said to have summoned an aide to take the documents to his secretary, J.K. Bebaako Mensah and that within seconds that the aide left the office of the president, he heard a loud scream from there.
The aide rushed back to the office to find the president lying on the floor with blood oozing from his mouth and nose.
Unnecessary Delays
In the heat of the confusion and the panic that ensued, President Mills was said to have been bundled onto a stretcher and into a stationary ambulance at the Osu Castle and sent to 37 Military Hospital with no notice to the medical officials there.
But, according to the source, the outriders (police dispatch riders) were nowhere to be found to lead the ambulance to the hospital.
This was said to have caused a delay in the decision-making process as to whether to take the former president to the 37 Military Hospital or what to do, a situation that was said to have been compounded by the non-availability of the outriders when needed.
Unconfirmed reports said the outriders were accompanying the Prof’s sisters to Cape Coast.
Not long after reaching the hospital, the president was pronounced dead.
Indications are that adequate measures had not been put in place to give special treatment to the president since authorities at the facility had not been given any prior information of him being sent there.
According to a source at the hospital, when they got there at 1:35pm, they went to the Emergency and Medical ward where they were turned away apparently because they did not know that it was the president.
He was then taken to the Maternity Block where they were sent back to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where a certain female nurse, a Lieutenant Colonel, identified the body as that of the president and asked them to do the right thing.
Coroner’s Inquest
Apparently, the officials following the body told the health officials that it was the body of a senior government official who was involved in an accident.
But with no health record of the president at the hospital, the Lt. Col. insisted that the right thing should be done.
With that development, health officials said they needed the coroner’s report to ascertain the cause of death since he was taken there dead or he was there less than 24 hours before his death.
After that, Mrs. Naadu Mills and other ministers were spotted at the facility wailing.
Later in the afternoon, Chief of Staff Henry Martey Newman called former Presidents Rawlings and J.A. Kufuor to inform them of the death of President Mills.
Hidden Secrets
Two weeks before his demise, President Mills had a private meeting with former President Rawlings at the seat of government at which they were said to have, among other things, discussed his health and the strains he was going through with his work schedule, as well as concerns about colleagues in the NDC.
That was said to be due to the fact that he was having difficulties in the day-to-day administration of the country in view of his failing health.
But handlers of the former president were said to have often propped him to continue keeping up appearances, contrary to expert advice from his medical doctors both at home and abroad who wanted him to take time off his busy schedule to rest.
Meanwhile, his doctors in the United States were said to have wanted to put him on admission for an extra two months to enable him to recover and have enough rest but the old man’s handlers would not listen.
Instead, they rushed him back home.
When the president arrived in the country from the United States, he was made to jog under the hot weather at the Kotoka International Airport to prove to his critics that he was stronger than ever.
Even though it was obvious from his nasal voice and frailty that the man was not well, the president told Ghanaians his doctors had given him a clean bill of health.
Reports have it that the medical records of the former president had been altered and changed over a period to misrepresent the state of his health before he passed away.
As the nation mourns because it has lost a president, Ghanaians are calling for the transparency needed when it comes to matters concerning public of figures.
It would be recalled that the body of one of America’s most venerable presidents, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, underwent two autopsies to ascertain what really caused his death despite the fact that it was public knowledge that he was assassinated.