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Deconstructing John Evans
Atta-Mills
By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong
John Atta-Mills’ failure to attend a highly significant
peace meeting organized in Accra by the Editors Forum
for presidential candidates in the face of some
political violence and the allegations making the rounds
by his own party that the ruling NPP intends to rig the
December 7 general elections further fuel the political
speculation whether he has the guts to rule Ghana.
Atta-Mills has been missing out on vital state political
functions, his campaigns not Ghana-wide, his inability
to articulate the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC)
policies in tackling Ghana’s development tribulations,
and unlike the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s
presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, Atta-Mills has
not been able to project confidence needed as a
political leader in pushing the frontiers of Ghana’s
progress.
The row that ensured when the NDC manifesto was unveiled
a few weeks ago, in which the NPP accused the NDC of
doubling-up its ideas and its programmes, reveals an
Atta-Mills who lacks original ideas, fuller grasp of
Ghana as a development project, and, therefore, short of
insight as to how he will tackle Ghana’s problems.
Though Atta-Mills may be qualified academically, I have
always wondered whether he has what it takes to be
President of the Republic of Ghana in an election season
that has been fought on surprisingly low cultural and
intellectual level, with presidential candidates, except
NPP’s Akufo-Addo, not demonstrating detail grasp of how
to engage Ghana’s development challenges. Yes,
Atta-Mills lacks the dexterity needed to ride the
rough-and-tumble of the sizzling Ghanaian political
terrain. Not only does he appear politically dull, with
unpresidential body language, he seems not to care much
about the political process as is expected of a leader
of a main opposition party.
More seriously, Ghanaians are becoming increasingly
concerned about Atta-Mills’ health as a President of
Ghana (in case he wins the December 7 general elections)
and his virtual control by ex-president Jerry Rawlings
and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang.
Under the brutal grip of the Rawlingses, Atta-Mills is
under some sort a shadow of the powerful Rawlingses that
appear he hasn’t been able to extricate himself from
over the years and who virtually control his thinking
and direct what he should do on vital political errands.
When the US President George Bush visited Ghana in
February, 2008, for some unexplained political reasons,
Atta-Mills said he won’t attend the ceremony. Then with
pressure from the Rawlingses, he turned up with the
Rawlingses for the Bush ceremony, gleefully greeting
Bush, his wife and other dignitaries.
Political Ghana’s concerns about Atta-Mills capacity to
govern also go beyond the Bush visit. Other Atta-Mills'
actions that worry Ghanaians, in the count-down to the
December 7 elections, point to a presidential candidate
who doesn’t have what it takes to be president of a
development challenged Ghana. Few months ago, Atta-Mills
failed to turn up in a Kumasi forum organized by the
Trade Union Congress for presidential candidates to talk
about their labour policies in a Ghana where
unemployment is a vexing issue. And yet among others,
Atta-Mills failed to grace a seminar organised by the
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Centre for Renewable Energy for presidential candidates
to discuss how they will solve Ghana’s energy problems.
Is Atta-Mills physically fit to rule Ghana? If elected
President on December 7 can Atta-Mills finish his
presidential terms? Has he got serious health issues
that may complicate his presidency? Is Atta-Mills hiding
any health issue from Ghanaians as matter of national
importance? Is he under some sort of juju-marabout
spiritual spell by his controllers that is wearing him
away?
Is Atta-Mills under too much pressure as a presidential
candidate? Can Atta-Mills stand the rigours of
presidential office? Is Atta-Mills troubled by the
Rawlingses’ huge appetite for power? Is Atta-Mills
disturbed by the overwhelming political machine of the
Rawlingses who own the NDC? If Atta-Mills is
uncomfortable with the burden of being a presidential
candidate within the walls of the Rawlingses’ autocracy,
why is he still in the race, why doesn’t he opt out
either for health reasons or incapacity or peace of
mind, and rest with his family?
Over the years such an Atta-Mills letdown has created
the impression whether he has the rigorous capacity to
rule Ghana which development indicators are still
pitiable and its on-going 16-years democracy yet to be
consolidated. During the October 29 first presidential
debate in Accra, the Daily Guide observed that
Atta-Mills show “signs of lethargy and weariness were
evident on him during the debate which became more
obvious when he tried to raise his voice in an
aggressive manner… [Atta-Mills] appeared to be angry
with himself.”
With his image as having weak political DNA and easily
manipulable by the Rawlingses, Atta-Mills had been a
professor of business law at the University of Ghana and
Commissioner of Income Tax. In Ghana, as in other parts
of the world, university professors are highly respected
because they are supposed to be sophisticated and
independent minded. The political Atta-Mills appears, in
all measure, not sophisticated and independent minded, a
far cry from his remarkable picture as a good classroom
teacher.
This has created the buzz that against other more
politically savvy and physically fit NDC candidates such
as Ekow Spio-Garbrah, the Rawlingses preferred
Atta-Mills. The reason is that the Rawlingses saw in
Atta-Mills a person they can control and dictate to, in
case Atta-Mills wins the December 7 presidential
election, in the presidency for their desired aims –
re-rule Ghana using Atta-Mills as a front. Though
Rawlings office denied it, a few months ago the
Accra-based The Chronicle reported that an Atta-Mills
presidency will see Jerry Rawlings as security chief
that will make him virtually control the entire
Atta-Mills governmental machine.
Bent on this aim, the Rawlingses has been serious on the
campaign trails as if they are the NDC’s presidential
candidates and not Atta-Mills. On the campaign tracks
the Rawlingses are devoid of projecting any Atta-Mills’
policies, drawing huge crowds and overshadowing
Atta-Mills the presidential candidate. More gravely, as
the Daily Guide observed of the Rawlingses’ various
campaigns statements, “instead of telling the electorate
about the policies of Prof. Mills, the former president
used his six-day tour of the (Ashanti) region to blow
his own horn and attack the Kufuor administration.”
For the sake of Ghana’s greater progress, against the
backdrop of its worrisome history of senseless military
juntas and frightening one-party regimes, and how to
consolidate its toddler democracy, in an atmosphere of
peace, is Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills fit to be
President of the Republic of Ghana come December 7,
2008?
Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, Canada,
November 3, 2008
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