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.