"The Northern Regional Secretariat of the New Patriotic Party on Monday January 17, 2011 gave the Inspector General of Police, Paul Tawiah Quaye a 48 hour ultimatum to arrest persons believed to be NDC foot soldiers who allegedly wounded a policeman during their obstruction of an exercise which was embarked upon to clamp down on motor traffic offences in the Tamale metropolis.
Personnel of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the northern regional police command on Saturday January 15, 2011 embarked upon an exercise to clamp down on motor traffic offences at the instance of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye.
The exercise was resisted by some suspected NDC foot soldiers whose violent reaction led to the severe beating of two policemen, one of whom is still on admission at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
Four suspects were later arrested, but were released when a mob attempted to attack the Tamale police charge office.
Addressing the media in Tamale, Dr. Clifford Braimah, Northern Regional Secretary of the NPP expressed disappointment in the police failure to arrest the culprits and challenged the IGP to order their arrest within 48 hours.
“Reports on the incident received by the Regional Secretariat are that the Police officer in question was performing his duty as a peace officer by trying to rescue one of the community police guys who was under attack by the same group of foot soldiers. The Regional Secretariat of NPP is therefore calling on the IGP to take serious action in this “Action year” without fear or favour.”
He threatened that the party will embark on a massive demonstration in the Tamale metropolis if the IGP fails to apprehend the perpetrators seeing that nobody is above the law.
Dr. Clifford Braimah questioned the morality behind the arrest and detention of NPP youth activists in Tamale, Gushegu and Yendi over what he referred to as “baseless and unsubstantiated allegations” whereas NDC foot soldiers according to him commit serious crimes in broad day light and get away with it.
The NPP northern regional secretary further called on President John Evans Atta Mills to command security operatives in Ghana to sanction NDC foot soldiers whose activities are endangering national security.
“The activities of the NDC foot soldiers have the potential of dragging Ghana into a state of insecurity. In the Northern Region, the foot soldiers started with the violent removal from office of the Scheme Manager of National Health Insurance for Central Gonja District, this was followed by attacks on NPP supporters with the burning and destruction of houses and other properties in the Tamale Metropolis, unfortunately leading to the arrest of only NPP supporters, five of whom have been in prison remand since February 2009,” he warned."
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=201436
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lundi 17 janvier 2011
"Mills is not a total failure - PNC"
"General Secretary for the People’s National Congress (PNC), Mr. Bernard Mornah, has rounded on New Patriotic Party (NPP) for scoring the Mills’ led administration an ‘F’ and posits that though the NPP or any other opposition party has the right to critique the ruling government, it should be done with the objective of analyzing situations for the better understanding of Ghanaians.
The PNC Chief Scribe believes that giving the NDC a ‘C’ or average mark would have sufficed.
His comment follows the grading of the Mills’ administration by the NPP last Wednesday. The Minority in Parliament, at a press conference, examined President John Evans Atta Mills’ two years in office, and awarded him an ‘F’ (Failure) for his performance in government. They also catalogued a litany issues they say point to the fact that the Mills government had mismanaged the economy.
The Minority averred that the President had not only failed in his promises, but has also brought untold economic hardships on Ghanaians.
“In 2010, the government targeted a real GDP growth of 6.5 per cent, the actual attained growth was 5.9 per cent – a missed target. With respect to sectoral growth rates, agricultural sector was targeted to grow at 6%, industry at 6.6% and the services sector at 6.8%. The provisional growth rates achieved are reported to be 4.8%, 7% and 6.1% for agriculture, industry and services sector respectively. In other words, for the sectoral targeted growth rates, two out of three targets were missed,” Prof. George Gyan Baffour, former Deputy Finance Minister who addressed the press conference said.
He accused the government of under-declaring its expenditure citing the case in which “the budget did not account for over GH¢300 million in payments on arrears including judgement debt that were made in 2010.”
The Minority also claimed the government accumulated significant arrears in 2010.
“The government has accumulated domestic payment (that is payment for work done) to the tune of some GH¢3.2 billion or over 12% of GDP, including arrears on single spine salary structure of between GH¢600 million and GH¢1.1 billion), new commitments of some GH¢1 billion, GETFund, District Assembly Common Fund, NHIS, SSNIT pensions, etc.”
But contributing to a panel discussion on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji programme, Bernard Mornah stated that though “…the NPP had a responsibility to critique the government ….I think as a nation and for people to be taken serious, let’s not go to the extremes of making such pronouncements, the NDC cannot be considered as a total failure, just as we will not consider the NPP as a total failure...,” he said.
According to him, it would have been proper to score the NDC a ‘C’, adding that it will be the height of irresponsibility if the respect and dignity that politicians should have is watered down.
“Let us be true. Let us speak what is right and what is appropriate. If you give the NDC a ‘C’, it is average mark and I’m not sure that it will be too bad for anybody to say that your grading of the NDC as average is to say that they’ve performed very well or poorly…it will give some modicum of respect to the kind of politics we’re engaged in…We can have our pluses and minuses…but we are not total failures,” he stated."
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=201419
The PNC Chief Scribe believes that giving the NDC a ‘C’ or average mark would have sufficed.
His comment follows the grading of the Mills’ administration by the NPP last Wednesday. The Minority in Parliament, at a press conference, examined President John Evans Atta Mills’ two years in office, and awarded him an ‘F’ (Failure) for his performance in government. They also catalogued a litany issues they say point to the fact that the Mills government had mismanaged the economy.
The Minority averred that the President had not only failed in his promises, but has also brought untold economic hardships on Ghanaians.
“In 2010, the government targeted a real GDP growth of 6.5 per cent, the actual attained growth was 5.9 per cent – a missed target. With respect to sectoral growth rates, agricultural sector was targeted to grow at 6%, industry at 6.6% and the services sector at 6.8%. The provisional growth rates achieved are reported to be 4.8%, 7% and 6.1% for agriculture, industry and services sector respectively. In other words, for the sectoral targeted growth rates, two out of three targets were missed,” Prof. George Gyan Baffour, former Deputy Finance Minister who addressed the press conference said.
He accused the government of under-declaring its expenditure citing the case in which “the budget did not account for over GH¢300 million in payments on arrears including judgement debt that were made in 2010.”
The Minority also claimed the government accumulated significant arrears in 2010.
“The government has accumulated domestic payment (that is payment for work done) to the tune of some GH¢3.2 billion or over 12% of GDP, including arrears on single spine salary structure of between GH¢600 million and GH¢1.1 billion), new commitments of some GH¢1 billion, GETFund, District Assembly Common Fund, NHIS, SSNIT pensions, etc.”
But contributing to a panel discussion on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji programme, Bernard Mornah stated that though “…the NPP had a responsibility to critique the government ….I think as a nation and for people to be taken serious, let’s not go to the extremes of making such pronouncements, the NDC cannot be considered as a total failure, just as we will not consider the NPP as a total failure...,” he said.
According to him, it would have been proper to score the NDC a ‘C’, adding that it will be the height of irresponsibility if the respect and dignity that politicians should have is watered down.
“Let us be true. Let us speak what is right and what is appropriate. If you give the NDC a ‘C’, it is average mark and I’m not sure that it will be too bad for anybody to say that your grading of the NDC as average is to say that they’ve performed very well or poorly…it will give some modicum of respect to the kind of politics we’re engaged in…We can have our pluses and minuses…but we are not total failures,” he stated."
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=201419
"I Did Not Kill My Lover: Benyiwa Doe"
"Lawyers of the Central Regional Minister, Ama Benyiwa Doe, have written to the National Media Commission, denying reports that the honourable minister once upon a time poisoned her husband to death in Nigeria several years ago.
The apparently vexed lawyers are challenging the allegation of murder leveled against Benyiwa Doe by one Dennis Doe-Vormavor, who claims to be a nephew of the late Mr. Doe, Benyiwa Doe’s former husband. Dennis Doe-Vormavor, believed to be currently residing in Glasgow UK, had alleged that his uncle and the Central Regional Minister got married in Ghana but moved to Nigeria where he got killed by Auntie Ama because of jealousy emanating from her inability to give birth. Auntie Ama, through her lawyers, has denied the allegation in its entirety but has not explained the circumstances that led to the death of Mr. Doe.
Dennis, in an article had stated: “Ama Benyiwa used to work at the University of Ghana, Legon administration as a typist and got married to my uncle who was also a lecturer at the University…Eventually, Mr. and Mrs. Doe moved to settle in Nigeria in the 1980s. “In Nigeria, because Mr and Mrs Doe tried tirelessly for a child but could not produce one, Mr. Doe, the husband seemingly lost interest, and Mrs. Ama Benyiwa Doe resorted to accusing her husband, Mr. Doe, of womanizing and cheating on her.
The situation became worse when Mr. Doe befriended a Nigerian woman (Ms Tolou) in Lagos. “Mr. Doe’s girlfriend had a child for him and as a result, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa Doe could not hold her anger and therefore decided to eliminate the husband with poisonous substances which created a debilitating effect on the man and which eventually led to his death.
The Nigerian authorities suspected foul play in Mr. Doe’s death and opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding it. “To cover up the shame from her accusers, she quickly camouflaged the security and the investigation team in Nigeria at the time by adopting the child from her dead husband and the beautiful girlfriend.
It actually took the effort of the then Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria and the Ghana Foreign Affairs department under President Rawlings to help Mrs. Benyiwa Doe to flee to Ghana under diplomatic immunity,” Dennis Doe-Vomavor noted in his article."
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=201425
The apparently vexed lawyers are challenging the allegation of murder leveled against Benyiwa Doe by one Dennis Doe-Vormavor, who claims to be a nephew of the late Mr. Doe, Benyiwa Doe’s former husband. Dennis Doe-Vormavor, believed to be currently residing in Glasgow UK, had alleged that his uncle and the Central Regional Minister got married in Ghana but moved to Nigeria where he got killed by Auntie Ama because of jealousy emanating from her inability to give birth. Auntie Ama, through her lawyers, has denied the allegation in its entirety but has not explained the circumstances that led to the death of Mr. Doe.
Dennis, in an article had stated: “Ama Benyiwa used to work at the University of Ghana, Legon administration as a typist and got married to my uncle who was also a lecturer at the University…Eventually, Mr. and Mrs. Doe moved to settle in Nigeria in the 1980s. “In Nigeria, because Mr and Mrs Doe tried tirelessly for a child but could not produce one, Mr. Doe, the husband seemingly lost interest, and Mrs. Ama Benyiwa Doe resorted to accusing her husband, Mr. Doe, of womanizing and cheating on her.
The situation became worse when Mr. Doe befriended a Nigerian woman (Ms Tolou) in Lagos. “Mr. Doe’s girlfriend had a child for him and as a result, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa Doe could not hold her anger and therefore decided to eliminate the husband with poisonous substances which created a debilitating effect on the man and which eventually led to his death.
The Nigerian authorities suspected foul play in Mr. Doe’s death and opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding it. “To cover up the shame from her accusers, she quickly camouflaged the security and the investigation team in Nigeria at the time by adopting the child from her dead husband and the beautiful girlfriend.
It actually took the effort of the then Ghana High Commissioner to Nigeria and the Ghana Foreign Affairs department under President Rawlings to help Mrs. Benyiwa Doe to flee to Ghana under diplomatic immunity,” Dennis Doe-Vomavor noted in his article."
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=201425
dimanche 16 janvier 2011
"Govt To Return Ga Dangbe Lands In March"
"The Lands Commission is expected to start the release of unutilized Ga Lands acquired by the State, to their rightful owners by the end of March 2011.
There is growing discontent among the Ga Damgbe Youth over the supposed release of some seventy-seven plots of land to their rightful owners.
Out of the seventy-seven plots that were supposed to have been earmarked for return to owners in areas like Madina and Adenta in Accra, the Ga Damgbe Youth Association say only eleven have been shown to them with the whereabouts of the remaining sixty-six plots still unknown.
They are therefore up in arms against President Mills and his administration for reneging on its promise But Government has assured the Ga Damgbe Youth that it is committed to returning all unused lands.
Deputy Information Minister James Agyenim Boateng told Citi News that Lands Commission is working around the clock to ensure that the process is successful.
"The point is that lands are very valuable so the Lands Commission is working to ensure that it thoroughly investigates the ownerships to make sure that the lands do not fall into wrong hands because in some cases there are competing claims. Indeed by the end of March, the Lands Commission plans to hand over many parcels of these lands to their rightful owners” he said.
However the Ga Damgbe Youth Association says Government does not appear to be giving heed to its exact demands.
Spokesperson for the Association, Nii Yemo, told Citi News the Association wants Government to stop people from developing plots of lands in areas such as Cantonments, and also present to them documents for the eleven plots that have been returned to them.
"
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=201361
There is growing discontent among the Ga Damgbe Youth over the supposed release of some seventy-seven plots of land to their rightful owners.
Out of the seventy-seven plots that were supposed to have been earmarked for return to owners in areas like Madina and Adenta in Accra, the Ga Damgbe Youth Association say only eleven have been shown to them with the whereabouts of the remaining sixty-six plots still unknown.
They are therefore up in arms against President Mills and his administration for reneging on its promise But Government has assured the Ga Damgbe Youth that it is committed to returning all unused lands.
Deputy Information Minister James Agyenim Boateng told Citi News that Lands Commission is working around the clock to ensure that the process is successful.
"The point is that lands are very valuable so the Lands Commission is working to ensure that it thoroughly investigates the ownerships to make sure that the lands do not fall into wrong hands because in some cases there are competing claims. Indeed by the end of March, the Lands Commission plans to hand over many parcels of these lands to their rightful owners” he said.
However the Ga Damgbe Youth Association says Government does not appear to be giving heed to its exact demands.
Spokesperson for the Association, Nii Yemo, told Citi News the Association wants Government to stop people from developing plots of lands in areas such as Cantonments, and also present to them documents for the eleven plots that have been returned to them.
"
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=201361
samedi 15 janvier 2011
"NPP: Mills is a talented, malignant hypocrite"
"The opposition New Patriotic Party have once again attacked the credibility and leadership style of President Mills, this time asking him to show real leadership qualities.
In a strongly worded statement signed by the party’s General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie popularly known as Sir John, the NPP described President Mills as a “talented, malignant hypocrite.” According to the NPP, President Mills has reneged on his many promises he made Ghanaians prior to election 2008.
The NPP said President Mills, who rode to power on a “President you can Trust” campaign slogan has rather inflicted more hardships on Ghanaians.
“President Mills, who styled himself in opposition as the epitome of humility, ‘a President you can trust’ was his campaign slogan, has now been exposed by his own deeds as dishonest. That is why the perception is growing that Mills is a talented hypocrite; a malignant hypocrite”.
Discussing the NPP statement on the Citi Eyewitness News on Friday January 14, Sir John reiterated the NPP’s position that Ghana is suffering from leadership paralysis and one cannot actually tell who is in charge of running the country.
NPP also accused President Mills of reducing Ghana to international ridicule and had devaluing Ghana’s sovereign name.
The NPP said President Mills’ comment on the Ivorian crisis and his stance against that of ECOWAS is a clear indication of his ploy to protect under fire Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo.
The NPP charged President Mills to focus on his governance and stop blaming the NPP for his “growing incompetence, which is eating into his administration like a malignant cancer.”
Below is the Full Statement by the NPP
A leadership Paralysis in Ghana
The New Patriotic Party joins the majority of Ghanaians in expressing our increasing worry over the country’s leadership paralysis under President John Evans Atta Mills.
In the face of mounting problems, from carnage on our roads, through increasing economic hardships, to political violence and crisis in Cote d’Ivoire whenever Ghanaians approach their leader for answers all that he can offer them is either to urge them to pray or blame the NPP for his own inaction, indecision or incompetence. President Mills has chosen to live in “la la” land, cut off from the realities on the ground and cocooned from the concerns of ordinary Ghanaians.
Prayers are, of course, very necessary, but we are also praying that our Head of State can begin showing real leadership. If God has empowered you to lead his people, you cannot choose to disappoint him by folding your arms behind your back, minding your own business. Act like a leader!
Carnage on our roads
When BBC correspondent David Amanor asked the President last Friday to comment on the disturbing carnage on our roads our President could only preach on, lecture on. He could only urge drivers to be careful on the roads. Whatever happened to the responsibility of a president to introduce policies to solve problems? The President showed that he has no clue about how to make our roads safer. He has no idea about how to lead a nation. He believes his responsibility as President is to preach a sermon to road users. Unfortunately, it is difficult to believe a man who does not even practise what he preaches. Rather than addressing the concerns of Ghanaians with honest and constructive changes, Professor Mills would only lecture to us.
Just this week, there have been several reports of fatal road accidents across the country, like the Takoradi tragedy, which claimed the lives of four children. Yet, the President, who admits ‘There is no doubt there is increasing lawlessness, not only on our roads”, is yet to introduce a single measure to make our roads safer. Not even the law about the wearing of seatbelts, introduced by the NPP, has been enforced two into the Mills-Mahama administration. We are calling on the President to act with urgency to help bring some sanity on our roads and save Ghanaian lives. His leadership paralysis is killing people.
This week’s banning of Ghana from the International Olympic Committee is just the latest in a string of hopeless and incompetent decisions from the Mills-Mahama administration that has led to Ghana’s international image sinking and sinking. Some of the faux pas, like the moves to impose his own people at local committees of international organisations like IOC and FIFA, are driven by little more than the kind of political vindictiveness that has led to the sacking of the female head of the Ghana Immigration Service.
In Mills, Ghanaians have a President who promised to be ‘father for all’ and yet believes that anybody who was not appointed by him (or the others making appointments on his blind side but in his ‘devalued’ name) and was appointed before him is with the NPP and, therefore, does not deserve his or her job.
Dzi Wo Fie Asem Foreign Policy
We wish to draw the President’s attention to the fact that he is reducing Ghana to international ridicule. Within one week, the President of Ghana has been able to undermine a crucial ECOWAS decision to which he was a signatory, and redefined over fifty years of Ghana’s foreign policy from one of proactive leadership on our continent to a new provincial foreign policy, which he has termed, Dzi Wo Fie Asem (Mind your own business).
It should be placed on record that the President is using the Dzi Wo Fie Asem policy not for the benefit of Ghana and Ghanaians but for the benefit of his personal relationship with Laurent Gbagbo and whatever personal or partisan benefits he has had from that relationship. He cannot put his personal or party-political interest above the national and regional interest. It is a betrayal of his oath of office.
The answer that President Mills gave to journalists last Friday did not only exposed his lack of understanding of international politics, it also isolated Ghana from the international community with the potential consequence of putting at risk the lives of the many Ghanaians in la Cote d’Ivoire.
Who is in charge?
The kind of confusion exhibited by the President last Friday underlines the leadership crisis that Ghana is facing under him. Ghanaians just don’t know who is in charge. The one who is supposed to be in charge is suffering from a huge weight of indecision.
For example, after saying that he agreed and signed up to the two ECOWAS communiqués supporting Alassane Ouattara as the legitimately elected leader of la Cote d’Ivoire and that Gbagbo should hand over or be compelled to go even if by the use of ‘legitimate force’, President Mills tells the public that "It is not for Ghana to choose a leader for Cote d'Ivoire. As a person I don’t think this military option is going to bring peace to the nation. I don’t want to be saddled with a problem we can’t settle.”
Confused Disciple of Nkrumah
He went on to say that we should mind our own business as Ghanaians and, in other words, leave our neighbours to burn. These were the words of the Asomdwehene. This is the thinking of but a confused disciple of the avowed Pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah.
We are happy that none of his last two predecessors decided to mind their own business when trouble brewed in Liberia, Sierra Leone and La Cote d’Ivoire. They chose to build and enhance Ghana’s international reputation as a peacemaker and peacekeeper.
To us, the fundamental faux pas of the President is in his decision publicly to undermine the collective decision of ECOWAS on the question of ruling in the option of legitimate force to get the legitimate will of the majority of the Ivorian people respected by former President Laurent Gbagbo.
While we are not in a position to argue against the claim by Ghana’s Commander-in-Chief that Ghana’s military, which recently saw the return home of more than 500 troops from the UN mission in Chad, “is already over stretched,” we are, nonetheless, not convinced about the legitimacy and relevance of this public claim. It appeared more designed to undermine the efforts of the international community to persuade Prof Gbagbo to quit than to state the capacity of our armed forces.
Nobody is praying for a war in Cote d’Ivoire, but we also know that the threat of force can itself facilitate the process of peaceful negotiations.
Our message to Professor Mills is that he should not use his one term in office to devalue decades of excellent international reputation that Ghana has built for herself in international peacekeeping.
His Friday statement which contradicted his earlier decision to append his signature to the December 24 ECOWAS communiqué was most unfortunate. It was a dishounarable act by the leader of a nation that has a life-time reputation of leading the African cause. It is a pity that Ghana, by the actions of its leader, a self-proclaimed devotee of Nkrumah, is being isolated and condemned in Africa.
Devaluation of Ghana’s name
When the President lamented that his name had been devalued he should have been bold enough to admit who was responsible. Worse still, is the ultimate devaluation of Ghana’s sovereign name. President Mills, we beg of you, please stop devaluing Ghana’s leadership role in our region, on our continent and across the world. Millions of people in la Cote d’Ivoire are looking up to us and the other ECOWAS states to act together to bring a peaceful end to the crisis. It can be done but let us not seek to achieve that by discrediting ourselves and undermining collective responsibility and leadership in the process.
The Ivorian people are not asking Ghanaians to choose their leader for them. No, Mr President! They are only asking us to help them put into office the leader that they themselves have democratically chosen, a choice that the international community has wholeheartedly welcomed.
Let us be bold and responsible in showing that we are fully behind the democratic choice of the people of la Cote d’Ivoire. The mind your own business kind of foreign policy that Mills wants to introduce to Ghana is the policy of non-interference in the affairs of other African states and the very attitude that undermined the credibility of the erstwhile unlamented OAU, and led to the welcome establishment of the African Union (AU), which is based on the principle that we are each other’s keeper.
Ironically, while preaching non-interference, he is also interfering in the work of certain institutions which he should not. Just last month, Ghana faced the risk of being banned by FIFA on the basis of government interference in the workings of the Ghana Football association (GFA).
When the President was asked by journalists to explain why he has appointed four Sports Ministers in two years, his answer was pathetic: “I send each of them there to execute a particular programme.”
Muntaka’s execution of Chinchinga programme
We are calling on the President to provide Ghanaians with the details of the ‘particular programmes’ that each of them was sent there to execute. Was Muntaka sent there to spend state resources on chinchinga (khebabs) and pampers? Was Pelpuo sent there to prepare the grounds for the IOC to ban Ghana? Was Akua Densua sent there to get Ghana banned from FIFA and since she failed to achieve that is that the same particular task given to her successor to try and execute?
By saying it takes one Minister per six months to execute a particular programme that is not discernable, the President has only proved to Ghanaians that his appointees lack the full complement of competence.
President Mills continues to convince the vast majority of Ghanaians that the NDC should not be given another four years to run down the affairs of the nation. And, they are getting better and better in running down the affairs of the country with excuses, blame-shifting, incompetence, hypocrisy, deceit, broken promises, and weak leadership. It has been two bad years and Ghanaians cannot be looking forward to the last two.
In other words, TWO YEARS SO FAR TOO BAD.
Very soon, after we have finished compiling the sampling results from our researchers across the country, we will present a full report of why the people of Ghana have judged the first half of the Mills-Mahama administration as two wasted years, as two years of broken promises.
President Mills used his meeting with the press last week to confirm that he has really lost touch with the concerns of ordinary Ghanaians. He used that talk-show to confirm to Ghanaians the hypocrisy, lies, dishonesty, vindictiveness and arrogance that have defined the first two years of his government and appear likely to define the final two years.
It takes an arrogant president to stand in front of the whole country to say, just less than one week after increasing fuel prices by a whopping 30 percent that he has nothing for which to apologise to the people of Ghana. The President has even lost touch with his own promise that not only would he reduce fuel prices drastically but that he would go on to reduce it further after the NPP reduced fuel prices twice in December 2008 alone.
His message today is that ‘Read my lips, I never mean what I say.’
We wish to take this opportunity to advise the President to examine himself a bit, from the time that he was Vice President and head of Economic Management Team throughout his opposition days to date before thinking of condemning others next time. The NPP did not only fix the mess that he and his team left behind in 2000, we also built significantly on what we met. We certainly did not do it all but please, let President Mills stop complaining and get down to doing some real work for a change. President Mills, please do something before you go! We want him to close the gap between what he says he is and what he does. We need to bring back the credibility in political promises.
We had hoped that, at least, President Mills would have learnt by being hypocritical. That, after pretending to be sincere he would, eventually, become sincere. That he would begin to let the hypocrisy make him a more sincere leader. How wrong we were!
Candidate Mills promised to care for Ghanaians. President Mills cannot care less.
We wish to advise President Mills to take some humility lessons from the man he borrowed the ‘Change’ slogan from, President Barrack Obama. Obama, at his own midterm crisis, was courageous and humble enough to apologize to Americans for some of his policies which have not brought them economic relief.
Mills is a talented hypocrite
President Mills, who styled himself in opposition as the epitome of humility, ‘a President you can trust’ was his campaign slogan, has now been exposed by his own deeds as dishonest. That is why the perception is growing that Mills is a talented hypocrite; a malignant hypocrite.
In the mind of President Mills he has done no wrong by inflicting a sudden 30% increase in fuel prices on the people of Ghana. He wants the party that was rejected in 2008 to apologise for his policies in 2012. We wish to state without any apology that President Mills LIED to Ghanaians when he said the NPP must be blamed for the recent 30% increase in fuel prices. According to the NPA, only 5.13% of the 30% increase has to do with the TOR Debt Recovery Levy. So even if the NPP must offer a 5.13% apology, what happens to the other 94.87%?
President Mills cannot go on blaming the NPP for his growing incompetence, which is eating into his administration like a malignant cancer. He should not continue to blame the NPP for his broken promises. He should respect Ghanaians and begin ‘fixing’ the economy that he claimed in 2008 was in ‘total paralysis’.
In conclusion, our message to President John Mills, Vice President John Mahama and the rest of the ‘Better Ghana’ team is that, please put your creed into your deed. Start practicing what you preached because in the last analysis you will be judged by what you do and not by what you say you believe. As Shakespeare said, it is a good divine that follows his own instructions.
"
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=201321
In a strongly worded statement signed by the party’s General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie popularly known as Sir John, the NPP described President Mills as a “talented, malignant hypocrite.” According to the NPP, President Mills has reneged on his many promises he made Ghanaians prior to election 2008.
The NPP said President Mills, who rode to power on a “President you can Trust” campaign slogan has rather inflicted more hardships on Ghanaians.
“President Mills, who styled himself in opposition as the epitome of humility, ‘a President you can trust’ was his campaign slogan, has now been exposed by his own deeds as dishonest. That is why the perception is growing that Mills is a talented hypocrite; a malignant hypocrite”.
Discussing the NPP statement on the Citi Eyewitness News on Friday January 14, Sir John reiterated the NPP’s position that Ghana is suffering from leadership paralysis and one cannot actually tell who is in charge of running the country.
NPP also accused President Mills of reducing Ghana to international ridicule and had devaluing Ghana’s sovereign name.
The NPP said President Mills’ comment on the Ivorian crisis and his stance against that of ECOWAS is a clear indication of his ploy to protect under fire Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo.
The NPP charged President Mills to focus on his governance and stop blaming the NPP for his “growing incompetence, which is eating into his administration like a malignant cancer.”
Below is the Full Statement by the NPP
A leadership Paralysis in Ghana
The New Patriotic Party joins the majority of Ghanaians in expressing our increasing worry over the country’s leadership paralysis under President John Evans Atta Mills.
In the face of mounting problems, from carnage on our roads, through increasing economic hardships, to political violence and crisis in Cote d’Ivoire whenever Ghanaians approach their leader for answers all that he can offer them is either to urge them to pray or blame the NPP for his own inaction, indecision or incompetence. President Mills has chosen to live in “la la” land, cut off from the realities on the ground and cocooned from the concerns of ordinary Ghanaians.
Prayers are, of course, very necessary, but we are also praying that our Head of State can begin showing real leadership. If God has empowered you to lead his people, you cannot choose to disappoint him by folding your arms behind your back, minding your own business. Act like a leader!
Carnage on our roads
When BBC correspondent David Amanor asked the President last Friday to comment on the disturbing carnage on our roads our President could only preach on, lecture on. He could only urge drivers to be careful on the roads. Whatever happened to the responsibility of a president to introduce policies to solve problems? The President showed that he has no clue about how to make our roads safer. He has no idea about how to lead a nation. He believes his responsibility as President is to preach a sermon to road users. Unfortunately, it is difficult to believe a man who does not even practise what he preaches. Rather than addressing the concerns of Ghanaians with honest and constructive changes, Professor Mills would only lecture to us.
Just this week, there have been several reports of fatal road accidents across the country, like the Takoradi tragedy, which claimed the lives of four children. Yet, the President, who admits ‘There is no doubt there is increasing lawlessness, not only on our roads”, is yet to introduce a single measure to make our roads safer. Not even the law about the wearing of seatbelts, introduced by the NPP, has been enforced two into the Mills-Mahama administration. We are calling on the President to act with urgency to help bring some sanity on our roads and save Ghanaian lives. His leadership paralysis is killing people.
This week’s banning of Ghana from the International Olympic Committee is just the latest in a string of hopeless and incompetent decisions from the Mills-Mahama administration that has led to Ghana’s international image sinking and sinking. Some of the faux pas, like the moves to impose his own people at local committees of international organisations like IOC and FIFA, are driven by little more than the kind of political vindictiveness that has led to the sacking of the female head of the Ghana Immigration Service.
In Mills, Ghanaians have a President who promised to be ‘father for all’ and yet believes that anybody who was not appointed by him (or the others making appointments on his blind side but in his ‘devalued’ name) and was appointed before him is with the NPP and, therefore, does not deserve his or her job.
Dzi Wo Fie Asem Foreign Policy
We wish to draw the President’s attention to the fact that he is reducing Ghana to international ridicule. Within one week, the President of Ghana has been able to undermine a crucial ECOWAS decision to which he was a signatory, and redefined over fifty years of Ghana’s foreign policy from one of proactive leadership on our continent to a new provincial foreign policy, which he has termed, Dzi Wo Fie Asem (Mind your own business).
It should be placed on record that the President is using the Dzi Wo Fie Asem policy not for the benefit of Ghana and Ghanaians but for the benefit of his personal relationship with Laurent Gbagbo and whatever personal or partisan benefits he has had from that relationship. He cannot put his personal or party-political interest above the national and regional interest. It is a betrayal of his oath of office.
The answer that President Mills gave to journalists last Friday did not only exposed his lack of understanding of international politics, it also isolated Ghana from the international community with the potential consequence of putting at risk the lives of the many Ghanaians in la Cote d’Ivoire.
Who is in charge?
The kind of confusion exhibited by the President last Friday underlines the leadership crisis that Ghana is facing under him. Ghanaians just don’t know who is in charge. The one who is supposed to be in charge is suffering from a huge weight of indecision.
For example, after saying that he agreed and signed up to the two ECOWAS communiqués supporting Alassane Ouattara as the legitimately elected leader of la Cote d’Ivoire and that Gbagbo should hand over or be compelled to go even if by the use of ‘legitimate force’, President Mills tells the public that "It is not for Ghana to choose a leader for Cote d'Ivoire. As a person I don’t think this military option is going to bring peace to the nation. I don’t want to be saddled with a problem we can’t settle.”
Confused Disciple of Nkrumah
He went on to say that we should mind our own business as Ghanaians and, in other words, leave our neighbours to burn. These were the words of the Asomdwehene. This is the thinking of but a confused disciple of the avowed Pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah.
We are happy that none of his last two predecessors decided to mind their own business when trouble brewed in Liberia, Sierra Leone and La Cote d’Ivoire. They chose to build and enhance Ghana’s international reputation as a peacemaker and peacekeeper.
To us, the fundamental faux pas of the President is in his decision publicly to undermine the collective decision of ECOWAS on the question of ruling in the option of legitimate force to get the legitimate will of the majority of the Ivorian people respected by former President Laurent Gbagbo.
While we are not in a position to argue against the claim by Ghana’s Commander-in-Chief that Ghana’s military, which recently saw the return home of more than 500 troops from the UN mission in Chad, “is already over stretched,” we are, nonetheless, not convinced about the legitimacy and relevance of this public claim. It appeared more designed to undermine the efforts of the international community to persuade Prof Gbagbo to quit than to state the capacity of our armed forces.
Nobody is praying for a war in Cote d’Ivoire, but we also know that the threat of force can itself facilitate the process of peaceful negotiations.
Our message to Professor Mills is that he should not use his one term in office to devalue decades of excellent international reputation that Ghana has built for herself in international peacekeeping.
His Friday statement which contradicted his earlier decision to append his signature to the December 24 ECOWAS communiqué was most unfortunate. It was a dishounarable act by the leader of a nation that has a life-time reputation of leading the African cause. It is a pity that Ghana, by the actions of its leader, a self-proclaimed devotee of Nkrumah, is being isolated and condemned in Africa.
Devaluation of Ghana’s name
When the President lamented that his name had been devalued he should have been bold enough to admit who was responsible. Worse still, is the ultimate devaluation of Ghana’s sovereign name. President Mills, we beg of you, please stop devaluing Ghana’s leadership role in our region, on our continent and across the world. Millions of people in la Cote d’Ivoire are looking up to us and the other ECOWAS states to act together to bring a peaceful end to the crisis. It can be done but let us not seek to achieve that by discrediting ourselves and undermining collective responsibility and leadership in the process.
The Ivorian people are not asking Ghanaians to choose their leader for them. No, Mr President! They are only asking us to help them put into office the leader that they themselves have democratically chosen, a choice that the international community has wholeheartedly welcomed.
Let us be bold and responsible in showing that we are fully behind the democratic choice of the people of la Cote d’Ivoire. The mind your own business kind of foreign policy that Mills wants to introduce to Ghana is the policy of non-interference in the affairs of other African states and the very attitude that undermined the credibility of the erstwhile unlamented OAU, and led to the welcome establishment of the African Union (AU), which is based on the principle that we are each other’s keeper.
Ironically, while preaching non-interference, he is also interfering in the work of certain institutions which he should not. Just last month, Ghana faced the risk of being banned by FIFA on the basis of government interference in the workings of the Ghana Football association (GFA).
When the President was asked by journalists to explain why he has appointed four Sports Ministers in two years, his answer was pathetic: “I send each of them there to execute a particular programme.”
Muntaka’s execution of Chinchinga programme
We are calling on the President to provide Ghanaians with the details of the ‘particular programmes’ that each of them was sent there to execute. Was Muntaka sent there to spend state resources on chinchinga (khebabs) and pampers? Was Pelpuo sent there to prepare the grounds for the IOC to ban Ghana? Was Akua Densua sent there to get Ghana banned from FIFA and since she failed to achieve that is that the same particular task given to her successor to try and execute?
By saying it takes one Minister per six months to execute a particular programme that is not discernable, the President has only proved to Ghanaians that his appointees lack the full complement of competence.
President Mills continues to convince the vast majority of Ghanaians that the NDC should not be given another four years to run down the affairs of the nation. And, they are getting better and better in running down the affairs of the country with excuses, blame-shifting, incompetence, hypocrisy, deceit, broken promises, and weak leadership. It has been two bad years and Ghanaians cannot be looking forward to the last two.
In other words, TWO YEARS SO FAR TOO BAD.
Very soon, after we have finished compiling the sampling results from our researchers across the country, we will present a full report of why the people of Ghana have judged the first half of the Mills-Mahama administration as two wasted years, as two years of broken promises.
President Mills used his meeting with the press last week to confirm that he has really lost touch with the concerns of ordinary Ghanaians. He used that talk-show to confirm to Ghanaians the hypocrisy, lies, dishonesty, vindictiveness and arrogance that have defined the first two years of his government and appear likely to define the final two years.
It takes an arrogant president to stand in front of the whole country to say, just less than one week after increasing fuel prices by a whopping 30 percent that he has nothing for which to apologise to the people of Ghana. The President has even lost touch with his own promise that not only would he reduce fuel prices drastically but that he would go on to reduce it further after the NPP reduced fuel prices twice in December 2008 alone.
His message today is that ‘Read my lips, I never mean what I say.’
We wish to take this opportunity to advise the President to examine himself a bit, from the time that he was Vice President and head of Economic Management Team throughout his opposition days to date before thinking of condemning others next time. The NPP did not only fix the mess that he and his team left behind in 2000, we also built significantly on what we met. We certainly did not do it all but please, let President Mills stop complaining and get down to doing some real work for a change. President Mills, please do something before you go! We want him to close the gap between what he says he is and what he does. We need to bring back the credibility in political promises.
We had hoped that, at least, President Mills would have learnt by being hypocritical. That, after pretending to be sincere he would, eventually, become sincere. That he would begin to let the hypocrisy make him a more sincere leader. How wrong we were!
Candidate Mills promised to care for Ghanaians. President Mills cannot care less.
We wish to advise President Mills to take some humility lessons from the man he borrowed the ‘Change’ slogan from, President Barrack Obama. Obama, at his own midterm crisis, was courageous and humble enough to apologize to Americans for some of his policies which have not brought them economic relief.
Mills is a talented hypocrite
President Mills, who styled himself in opposition as the epitome of humility, ‘a President you can trust’ was his campaign slogan, has now been exposed by his own deeds as dishonest. That is why the perception is growing that Mills is a talented hypocrite; a malignant hypocrite.
In the mind of President Mills he has done no wrong by inflicting a sudden 30% increase in fuel prices on the people of Ghana. He wants the party that was rejected in 2008 to apologise for his policies in 2012. We wish to state without any apology that President Mills LIED to Ghanaians when he said the NPP must be blamed for the recent 30% increase in fuel prices. According to the NPA, only 5.13% of the 30% increase has to do with the TOR Debt Recovery Levy. So even if the NPP must offer a 5.13% apology, what happens to the other 94.87%?
President Mills cannot go on blaming the NPP for his growing incompetence, which is eating into his administration like a malignant cancer. He should not continue to blame the NPP for his broken promises. He should respect Ghanaians and begin ‘fixing’ the economy that he claimed in 2008 was in ‘total paralysis’.
In conclusion, our message to President John Mills, Vice President John Mahama and the rest of the ‘Better Ghana’ team is that, please put your creed into your deed. Start practicing what you preached because in the last analysis you will be judged by what you do and not by what you say you believe. As Shakespeare said, it is a good divine that follows his own instructions.
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