A Few More Months Of Comedy Mills!

Ghana's President, John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, would in December mark his third year in office bringing to just about a year his time left in office. Opinion about his performance varies depending on who is passing judgment. But the most important judgment, the judgment passed by majority of Ghanaians including his own party founder suggests the President has woefully and shamefully failed to perform.The former President,Jerry John Rawlings,who brought Mills from the classroom in 1996 to be his Vice President described the current administration as a team of "team B greedy bastards and mediocre government appointees". The President wouldn't mind the former President though, as he has surrounded himself with mostly members of the former President's old guard who unlike dogs lack even the minimum sense of loyalty but like mindless dogs, would serve the highest feeder with the passion. One such man is Ahwoi, a lover of the President, who is seen by many even in the party as the man who really calls the shorts.An unchallenged allegation suggests the President doesn't even control the appointees made in his name, this allegation was made by no less a person than Jerry John Rawlings who mentioned in particular a Mr Awonoor as the person in charge of appointments at the Castle with powers enough to override the president's own appointments.

The President recently had to square it off with the wife of his party's founder, in an election which FONKAR(Friends of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings) described as marred by intimidation,abuse of power and victimizations.The elections saw what power can turn a man into or rather did it only show what a man can do with power? The former first lady was booed according to her by government appointees who had been placed among the delegates to intimidate them. She also suggested CCTV cameras had been installed on the grounds to monitor voter choices and possibly punish those who bought her message of being "bold".Before the congress the President was caught on tape making several donations, one of which was a donation of $20,000 to the Ashanti Regional Presidential Press Corps and 3,000 bags of rice to delegates from the country's poor Northern Region.One of his ministers was also caught on tape plotting how they were going to spend GH90,000 to among other things bribe delegates. The President,dramatic as ever, denied this allegation and ordered a probe into the matter. However, the matter was closed when the Security Officials failed to contact Mr. Rawlings,who had the tape.Rather unusual of any serious investigation body, the BNI, prayed the media to help them get the tape from Mr. Rawlings.With over 2000 security officials,Sunyani finally got closer. Although the former first lady had just around 90 of the valid votes casted, her "THANK YOU TOUR" has revealed that she isn't as unpopular a force in the party as Sunyani may have painted her and seems to confirm some of the concerns she raised before and particularly during the elections.It is highly unlikely that the former first family would sign a pact of peace with the current first family for that would deeply harm the credibility of the former President who has sworn on several occasions that his criticism of the administration is one pushed by an honest conscience and that untill the fundamental concerns he suggests are addressed he wouldn't have anything to do with them. Sadly, a few months is too short a time to address all the concerns of the former family which includes a clean up of the administration -dismissal of several ministers of state including the deputy ministers of information and the minister of communications-.

Mills,like all other deluded leaders in a continent marked by years of largely incompetent leadership, surrounds himself with sycophants who day and night sing his unending praise. This seems to have gotten into the head of the once sane law Professor to the extent that he ranked himself as scoring "80%" in his first 100 days in office.From obvious to subtle, the Ministers and scores of government and party appointees, extol the "holiness" of the infidel law professor who has a child out of wedlock with a married woman.He is portrayed no less than Jesus Christ or Mohammed whichever for the time appears convenient to the scores of party communicators.One diplomat visiting the Castle described the President as "acting,artificial and comical", but to scores of Ghanaians this reference is very diplomatic.It would be hard to convince even a casual observer of the President's mannerism that he hasn't taken any lessons in drama and acting.It appears the best way to catch the President's attention though is to take the sycophancy to unusual and incredible lengths. The Deputy Minister of Information,Ahmed Baba Jamal, is one such person who caught the President's attention through sycophancy and was quickly promoted from being a deputy Regional Minister to being a Deputy Minister for Information and he recently proved he deserved his job by attributing receding floodwaters in the Eastern Region to the President's visit. He suggested "as the president looked to the sky and said "father help us", the floods receded till it was vanished the next morning". The President seems to be rather fascinated by all this,so fascinated that he has started believing his own fictional world of holiness,he finds it difficult divorcing his natural and supernatural stage though as he continuously cites God as the President under a regime that has seen widening poverty,increasing levels of unemployment,impunity and stupidity by government officials,abuse of power and office,official theft and high taxation for even the country's poorest.

The President consistently plays on the religious intelligence of a country that largely prides itself as "God-fearing" but it is quiet uncertain that the majority of suffering Ghanaians would bet their chances on divine wisdom having learned the hard way that voting is a very secular affair that affects very secular issues.There have been several massive protests against the regime from the opposition to labor groups. The most dramatic being the demonstration by "concerned teachers" who were roughly handled by the government backed police force.The protests were dispersed with life bullets and hot-water with pressure enough to remove the bark of trees.It appears that Ghana has passed the coup days so for now, Ghanaians would have a year or more to deal with an incompetent regime led by a hypocritical,comical leader.