Mills Can�t Deceive Ghanaians Again

The fact that President John Evans Atta Mills has a deceptive and a hypocritical attitude is no news to the good people of Ghana, after experiencing his leadership and presidency for the past three years. This is the man who claims to be �father for all� but looks on unconcerned when a section of society face abuse from his functionaries and other public officials whose work he is enjoined by the constitution to supervise. Here is the man who claims to be �I Care for You� but looks on unconcerned when all pro-poor programmes and policies initiated by the previous NPP government ground to a virtual halt. The man we are forced to believe is the most pious Christian in the country clearly does not seem to be moved by the cries of the ordinary Ghanaians who queued in the scorching sun to vote to entrust their destinies into his hands. While the people continue to cry for salvation from the unprecedented harsh economic realities confronting them, this is President Mills� advice to his functionaries and party members who do not feel the same pain the people feel: �Let us... not listen to the cries of those who are disappointed because they will forever remain disappointed.� This was President Mills speaking at the ruling NDC�s rally at the weekend, at the same time Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, wife former President Rawlings and NDC founder, was accusing the president of �stealing his way� to be re-elected as the party�s 2012 presidential candidate. Even though President Mills acknowledged Ghanaians were disappointed in his administration, he went ahead to claim that �the achievements� of his administration had been �unprecedented� in the history of the nation. And, in fact, he was right: that his three-year rule has witnessed �unprecedented achievements.� His �achievements� are indeed unprecedented because it is under his presidency that the nation has got unprecedented amount of resources with very little to show for their utilization. His �achievements� are indeed unprecedented because but for his presidency, Ghanaians would not believe that a person into whose hands they have voted to entrust their destinies would sit down and facilitate the fraudulent payment of over GHC51m to a single individual for no work done for the state. President Mills has indeed been an �exceptional� leader whose entry into the corridors of presidential power has given the good people of Ghana lessons about how a presidential directive can be flouted with gross impunity without any action. Another thing we at the New Statesman finds very intriguing about the President�s presentation over the weekend is his admission that politics of insults and character assassination is the hallmark of politicians who do not have anything upon which they will convince the electorate to vote for them. This certainly comes as a confirmation of the officially sanctioned NDC�s campaign strategy to subject the NPP Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, to constant verbal abuse and character assassination, as the NDC runs away from politics of bread and butter issues. And after all the confessed disappointment of the good people of Ghana, President Mills says he wants another them, to better our lives. This simple question is: What has he done to convince the people that he has what it takes to better their lives? What new policies will he be remembered for, as having initiated to improve the lives of the people he is seeking another mandate from? President Mills, pretending to be a good man with good intentions for the ordinary Ghanaian, succeeded to get the electorate to elect him the president in the 2008 election. After three years in office, his true colours are now known. He will be leaving in the fool�s paradise to think that the discerning electorate will once against be deceived by his cunning tricks of pretending to mean well for them.