Minority Nails Mills

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 27 April 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu & Shiella Sackey
The Minority group in Parliament has accused President John Evans Atta Mills and his ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration of multiple complicity in the recent developments in the Yendi municipality.

They believe the pronouncements, actions and inactions of the President and some members of the NDC have led to the simmering tension in the area.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, Deputy Minority Leader and New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Lawra-Nandom, Ambrose Dery, said President Mills has demonstrated his bias in the ensuing Yendi crisis which he described as ‘a politically and socially sensitive matter’, by deliberately choosing to call on the Andani Gate and shunning the Abudu Gate during his recent visit to the Northern region.

He wondered why the NDC government has without any justification whatsoever ‘willfully’ failed to implement the findings and recommendations of the Wuaku Commission, which was paid with the taxpayer’s money to conduct extensive investigations into events that led to the murder of the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani and 40 others.

Though the Commission’s report named 42 persons from both sides of the two Gates for their involvement in the March 2002 events which led to the death of the Ya-Na and some of his subjects, Mr. Dery could not fathom why only members of the Abudu Gate and especially those known to be NPP members, were arrested and are being prosecuted.

Meanwhile, the Commission’s report has neither been reversed, reviewed nor set aside by any competent authority.

This is what seems to be making the Minority MPs jittery about the NDC and the Mills administration’s decision to not only renege on its promise, but also show a sense of bias in the entire process.

Aside that, the Deputy Minority Leader noted with emphasis that the NDC government has equally failed to keep faith with its pre-election promise, as contained in its manifesto in which the party promised to set up a “non-partisan, professionally competent and independent Presidential Commission to re-open investigations into the murder of the Ya-Na and the others who perished together with him”.

“Instead, the NDC government has ostensibly elected the path of politically discriminatory arrests and prosecution of the Yendi Abudu Gate,” Derry said, insisting that “the NDC government has once again deceived the people of Ghana”.

The Minority strongly believes that the effect of this action can only deepen the crisis in the area and not resolve it.

The Deputy Minority Leader thus believes that “the action of the NDC government is a clear illustration of its haste to satisfy the outbursts, whims and caprices of former President Jerry Rawlings and a demonstration of its desperation to purportedly consolidate its electoral support in Dagbon irrespective of the social, political and security implications and consequences”.

The Minority group in Parliament says this “therefore demonstrates beyond every shred of doubt that the NDC government is not interested in peace and stability in the Dagbon area as well as the survival and growth of our democracy”.

Rather, it believes the NDC as a party and a government is only interested in its survival and clinging to power, in spite of the economic consequences, describing it as a selfish political agenda.

Whilst appreciating the fact that the recent clash in Gushiegu involved members of both sides of the political divide, NPP and NDC, Mr. Derry said it is however “incredible and unfairly discriminatory for the NDC government to arrest only NPP supporters”, emphasizing that there are clear indications that the NDC government is only determined to promote discriminatory practice in the country’s criminal justice system by its conduct and also to institutionalize the culture of impunity.

NPP Girl Fights Mills Boy

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 27 April 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ursula Owusu, and Presidential Aide, Nii Lante Vanderpuije, are at each other’s throats over allegations that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was determined to rig the 2010 polls.

Ursula, a regular TV and radio panelist, exposed what she described as the rigging machinery being put in place by the NDC ahead of the 2012 general elections.

This was after a face-off encounter with Nii Lante Vanderpuye on Metro TV’s ‘Good Morning Ghana’ programme yesterday.

On their way out of the studio after the programme, Ursula narrated that she was taunting Nii Lante that the NDC and for that matter President Mills (if he will be maintained as their candidate) would lose not less than 5 percent of the votes they bagged in the 2008 general elections in 2012, when Ghana goes back to the polls to elect a President.

This, she said, was because the trend has been the same, indicating that incumbent candidates had always lost 5 percent votes, citing Rawlings’ votes in 1996 as well as Kufuor’s in the 2004 elections.

Following this trend, Ursula stressed the belief that history is set to repeat itself in 2012 and that Mills will lose 5 percent of the little over 50 percent votes he secured in the last elections, thereby making the NPP emerge victorious.

She therefore asked the NDC to start preparing since Ghanaians would show them the exit in 2012.

This analysis brought a heated argument between the two individuals right from the studios of Metro TV, spilling over to radio station programmes, and compelling the obviously jittery Nii Lante to say in the presence of the show host, Shamimah Muslim and the production team that the NDC will not sit in laxity for the NPP to win the 2012 election and that they will use whatever means possible through ‘fair or foul’ means to win the election and retain power.

This comment compelled Ursula to raise an alarm about the NDC’s alleged plan to rig the 2012 polls.

She noted: “We will be kidding ourselves if we think they are merely going to hand over without a fight if the NPP wins, as is likely to happen, judging by the abysmal performance of the NDC administration.

“Mind you, Nii Lante is the Special Aide to President Mills, operating from the office of the President.”

Later in an interview on Citi FM’s Eye Witness News last night, Nii Lante could not deny Ursula’s claims, but only offered an explanation that the NDC would do exactly what former President Kufuor and the NPP did to retain power in 2004.

Asked what he claims the NPP did in 2004, Nii Lantey was not forthcoming.

However, Ursula Owusu denied knowing anything unusual apart from the normal voting that enabled the NPP to retain power in 2004.

Coming on the heels of supposed Commando training at various locations in the country, and the violence that characterized the Chereponi and Akwatia bye- election and run-off respectively, the NPP strong woman believes “this is a sign of things to come and we should not sit down for them to subvert the will of the people of Ghana by foul means”, asking rhetorically: “Is this also not further justification for the use of a biometric voters register and E-voting for the 2012 election?”

Nana Fires Mills

Posted: Daily Guide | Thursday, April 22, 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Nima residence of 2008 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, shook to its very foundation yesterday when hordes of people including journalists, party faithful and bigwigs in the party as well as Members of Parliament (MPs) thronged the place to see and listen to him, as he launched his bid to run for the party's flagbearership position.

Packaged to be a media-only affair, the organisers eventually had to deal with not only members of the inky fraternity, but hordes of party faithful from all walks of life.

In what could be described as his state of the nation address, Nana Akufo-Addo lambasted the Mills Administration's penchant for persecution and witch-hunting of political opponents, elevating it to a national policy status.

“The control of public toilets these days has become the ultimate symbol of power and authority under the reign of the Asomdwehene-the King of Peace. Law and order has broken down,” he charged at the Mills Administration.

The 2008 presidential candidate of the NPP said the twin canker has been the dominant menu on NDC's agenda at every function including cabinet meetings.

In a concise and robust delivery, Nana Akufo-Addo fired salvos at President Mills, jabbed at the NDC and poked fun at his physique as sarcasm to his opponents' description of him as a short old man.

The crowd became charged when he asked them the multi-million dollar rhetorical question: “Ghanaians are broke. Ghana is breaking. Who must fix it?”

Then the crowd responded 'you'. He asked again: “Who can fix it?” and the response was an expected, 'you' and “Who will fix it?” attracting a chorus “it's only you”.

When he mounted the podium to speak, Nana Addo said the numbers that had gathered there gave him more than enough reason to believe that the good people of the NPP would elect him the flagbearer to lead the party to liberate Ghanaians from the incompetence of President Atta Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

He took a swipe at what for him is the hypocrisy of the Mills Administration.

Nana did not forget to touch on the activities of the NDC foot-soldiers whose acts of indiscipline all over the place he described as lawlessness.

Nana Addo said having reflected over the party's defeat in 2008 and a critical examination of himself and the strategies that he used in that election, he noted with emphasis that “I assure you that I have come out stronger for future leadership.”

Nana Addo made a joke of the campaign about his age and personality in sections of the media including flying text messages, saying “after nearly 35 years of being in the frontline of Ghanaian politics, this 66-year-old, short and not-so-handsome young man still has the energy and passion to lead Ghana to a new and exciting future.”

According to the flagbearer aspirant, the very challenges, hardships and oppressive environment that motivated him at the age of 33 years to help organise and lead the PMFJ's mobilisation of the people against the obnoxious Union Government concept of the Acheampong regime in 1977/8 were the same ills that motivated him when he was 51 years old to help lead the 'Kume Preko' demonstrations of 1995.

For him, it is this same motivation that is driving him to lead the battle to recapture power for the NPP and Ghana in 2012.

“My soundings in the party tell me that there is broad support for my candidature from all sections within the party, young and old, men and women, from the established figures of the party, emerging figures, through the polling stations and constituencies across the country,” he stressed.

Despite the systematic attempt to denigrate President John Agyekum Kufuor's eight-year record, Nana Addo said, he and his colleague NPP members are satisfied that Kufuor laid a solid record of achievement in virtually all aspects of national life.

Under the current situation and the government that Ghanaians find themselves, he said, “we are hamstrung with a government that appears to be incompetent even at managing and maintaining the economy the NPP bequeathed to them.

“Instead of focusing on the economy which is shrinking,” Nana Addo stated, “when they (NDC) meet at the top level, they only plan persecution.”

He described the NDC government as one of witch-hunting, since according to him, “there are clear signs that the Mills government is embarking on a series of politically motivated prosecutions. Their intention is to dismember the NPP.”
No matter the length they will go with the persecutions, he said, “they will not succeed!”

Ghanaians, he maintained, are living in fear and therefore looking up to the NPP to rescue them.

For Nana Addo, this is why he is still in the race to lead the NPP and subsequently lead Ghana, saying “Insha Allah, it shall come to pass.”

As he hits the road today to begin his national tour of all the 230 constituencies, beginning with the Central Region, the flagbearer aspirant said apart from appealing to the 115,000 delegates of the National Congress for their votes on August 7, he also intends to use this national tour to listen to the party people, especially the five polling station executives in each of the more than 21,000 polling station areas nationwide.

“We are one party, one family with one goal: Victory 2012! NPP, Ghana ani da mo so!”

At this stage, Nana Addo could not but give his word to his anxious audience: “If by the grace of God I have the chance, I will bring back hope and restore the kind of confidence that we need to move our nation forward.”

The resonating response following said it all about how far his speech had sunk in. What followed was a session of merrymaking and exchange of pleasantries.