I find Ghanaian politicians hard to understand. When a senior cabinet minister is honest and bold enough, to openly accuse a colleague of being involved in "gargantuan crimes" against Ghanaians, you would think that the government's PR team will think creatively.
Why do those genuises not see it as a golden opportunity, and instead counsel their colleagues that it should be seized upon by the government (in which the accuser and accused both serve) - to show the rest of the nation that when solid evidence of corruption within its ranks is brought to its notice, the Mills administration will deal with it swiftly and resolutely, instead of covering it up, as is usually the case in Ghanaian politics?
Will that not put clear blue water between them and the perfidious Kufuor & Co's New Patriotic Party (NPP): which came to power ostensibly to encourage an enterprise culture in Ghana, but ended up with Kufuor & Co asset-stripping the enterprise Ghana - and turning their own private enterprises (fronted by trusted crony-capitalist pals) into sprawling conglomerates?
So why are the geniuses in charge of the government's PR rather in a flap - and seem to see it as a calamity, and an unmitigated disaster-in-the-making, which will somehow lead to the implosion of their government? Do they lack the creativity to turn a disaster into an opportunity?
If Lady Luck has smiled on them - and blessed them to the extent that even the highly-intelligent Jake Obestebi-Lampteys (they of the share-and-grab grace-and-favour-state-properties lark) have made the grave error of judgment of entering the fray when they ought not to because they live in massive glass-houses and therefore ought not to throw stones at others - should the Mills administration not deal resolutely with those in its midst behind the "gargantuan crimes" against Ghanaians, by having them prosecuted for wilfully causing financial loss to the cash-strapped Ghanaian nation-state?
Will that not show ordinary Ghanaians that there is a world of difference between their confounded regime, and that of the greedy tribal-supremacist Kufuor & Co's sodden NPP government, I ask, dear reader? Incredible.
Instead of so doing, we now have the bizarre situation, in which the regime's PR team's members are busy heaping blame on the Attorney General, the Hon. Martin Amidu - for revealing something that they think will somehow threaten the very foundations of their hard-of-hearing regime. Amazing.
After nearly four years in power, do they still not get it: that ordinary people are fed up to the backteeth, with corruption by our ruling elites - because they understand perfectly, that elite-rip-off impoverishes ordinary people unfairly.
They experience it daily in the diminishing of their quality of life do they not - in inverse proportion to the stratospheric rise in the net worth of the thieves-in-high-places and that of their goons-in-the-media: whom our educated urban elites rent to polish and protect their phoney cut-and-paste reputations?
And all this huff-and-puff furore, because a patriotic and nationalistic individual in a/senior podition in the government is bold and honest enoug to reveal rot at the very top of what it turns out is a rather greasy pole - which is precisely what ordinary Ghanaians hope their leaders will choose to do in such circumstances: to ensure that our nation's resources don't end up being hijacked by wealthy and powerful rogues. Wonders will never cease, dear reader, will they?
Are they so blind that they do not see that it will give their embattled regime - which is currently facing an uphill task in getting re-elected again in the December polls - an eleventh-hour reprieve and present it with an opportunity to re-invent itself as an incorruptible regime that will not shield those engaging in wrongdoing in its midst? How clueless can you get?
For once, President Mills must ignore the oft self-serving advice of those around him that have his ear. For nearly four years now they have failed to sell him and his regime to Ghanaians effectively, have they not?
He must seize this opportunity and use it to show Ghanaians that he is not the weak, hypocritical and visionless leader that his opponents - a majority of whom grew super-rich ripping-off Mother Ghana during the golden age of business for the perfidious Kufuor & Co -accuse him of being - but is rather a strong and incorruptible leader who doesn't hesitate to deal with corruption in his own government: when presented with incontrovertible proof of serious wrongdoing.
That the government's PR team is unable to recognise what a rare opportunity this is, for their administration to make Ghanaians see it in a new and more positive light, but are talking instead in riddles, which give the discerning the unfortunate impression, that somehow they are desperate to find a clever way to cover up corruption at the very top, in which a colleague is apparently implicated, shows clearly that they are definitely not fit for the purpose they were appointed for and must all be sacked.
In effect, they have wasted precious time and more or less toyed with power, for nearly four years - instead of using the historic opportunity Providence presented them with when they were elected to power in December 2008, to make a real difference for Mother Ghana: and help change the nature of our nation's politics forever by visibly making Ghanaian politics, in word and deed, a more honest and honourable pursuit.
They will be incredibly foolish to follow their usual instincts, and try to spin their way out of a situation that demands honourable conduct and transparency and accountability in all their deeds and words - not endless forked-tongued responses using sugar-coated words and coded-riddles to try and fool Ghanaians.
This is a golden opportunity for President Mills to win massive approval in Ghana at long last - and finally shed the negative image he unfairly has today as a weak, hypocritical and visionless president: thanks to the effectiveness of the propaganda of the many ruthless and cynical New Patriotic Party rogues who are desperate to return to power again to resume their brutal and repeated gang-rape of Mother Ghana, after the December polls.
Let him simply ask the Attorney General, the Hon. Martin Amidu, to go ahead and publicly name the colleague he accuses of being involved in crimes, and substantiate his allegations - and then after asking the accused minister to temporarily step aside, move swiftly to ask Interpol to find outside serious fraud investigators from reputable criminal justice systems elsewhere, such as the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to assist their Ghanaian counterparts, the Economic and organised Crime Office (EOCO), to quickly get to the bottom of Martin Amidu's bombshell.
If he does that, who in Ghana will not approve of such action by their president, and see that indeed, they have a truly honest leader in President Mills - completely different from the corrupt, sly, cynical and tribal-supremacist President Kufour, whom he succeeded as president of Nkrumah's Ghana?
President Mills must understand clearly, that he can forget about being re-elected again in December, if he allows the cynics who surround him - and have used the whole of the period they have been in office for, to do the very same things they accused the perfidious Kufuor & Co, of doing when they were in the political wilderness - to try and cover up what cannot be covered up under any circumstances at this late stage of their regime's four-year tenure.
Were that to happen, his presidency, along with their hard-of-hearing regime, will definitely implode - as that clueless so-called government communications team that has failed so miserably to communicate in any meaningful fashion with ordinary Ghanaians for nearly four years now, seem to think will happen, if their regime is honest and transparent in dealing with Martin Amidu's bombshell.
This is no time to be talking like cynical politicians about sinking or swimming together - in an attempt to cover up alleged grand corruption in the Ghana of today. Not if they themselves are not also ripping-off Mother Ghana.
One certainly hopes that that is not the case - for some of us did not risk our lives in the fight to turf out the perfidious Kufour & Co only for a bunch of neophytes like them to come to come to power and engage in the self-same crooked activities that that selfish, greedy tribal-supremcist NPP lot got up to, and grow super-rich at the expense of the ordinary people of Nkrumah's Ghana, and the Ghanaian nation-state.
Enough is enough - the government's entire PR team ought to be sacked, if its members persist in continuing along that cynical path in dealing with this shabby and shameful affair. President Mills must choose transparency and resoluteness, as his only weapons, to confront and deal with what is the biggest crisis of his presidency.
His presidency has come to the crossroads - and how he deals with Martin Amidu's bombshell, will determine how history will eventually judge him as a Ghanaian leader. He must elect to do what any honest and honourable individual who is a man of integrity will do in dealing with this particular crisis - be completely transparent, at every stage, till the crisis is resolved and finally ends positively for him and for Mother Ghana.
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