An Open Letter to President Mills…

Dear Mr. President,

In your inaugural speech at the Independence Square on 7th January, Mr. President, you said "I will be president for all Ghanaians, whether they voted for me or not. I'll heal wounds and strive to ensure unity. No Ghanaian should live in fear of armed robbery. Improvement in internal security would be top on my priorities,"

Mr. President you also said during your campaign an you have repeated this several time since your election that you will provide us with a lean government. It is against this background that I am writing this open letter to you.

Right now we do not see a government that is either lean or smart. You have a minister of information, with two deputies, a spokesperson with 3 assistants, and a director of communications, with 4 special deputies, a chief of staff with 2 deputies and 75 ministers and deputies all within 100 days of your supposedly lean government. It is no surprising that while you seek to cut cost in governance the money for your office of Government has shot up 163 per cent – from GH¢110m in 2008 to GH¢290m this year’s budget year.

Your first 100 days is characterized by snatching of cars, security gadgets, toilets, market spaces, beating up and displacement of people from their homes in selected communities in the North and Greater Accra.

800 National Security, 100 Police, 420 Army Recruits and a mass of Foreign Service Personnel thought to be in three digit figures have been dismissed under your administration.

Inflation is spiraling out of control and the cedi is on a free fall against major international currencies.

Your Finance Minister is said to have failed in the recent budget to outline adequate measures your government intends to take to stabilise the macro-economic environment in order to build confidence in our economy.

Your budget addressed petroleum prices. Well done and thank you for that. However you are being given a free economic lesson by the ordinary Ghanaian Mr. Edward Koranteng, Chairman of the Tema Industrial Area Taxi Union. He told the Ghana News Agency that despite the reduction; motor lubricants such as engine oil and brake fluid, as well as prices of motor spare parts were continually going up, adding that these components must affect the fixing of lorry fares. His suggestion to your government is to find lasting solution to stabilize the continuous depreciation of the country's currency against other major bills, adding that reducing fuel prices was not the real solution to the hardship of the people. While the nation’s economy require effective sorting out your men an women like, what the fiddling Emperor Nero did while Rome burnt, go on a joy ride to Ivory Coast and fumble with explanations about funding. Well you managed to find a political explanation that “Agoo Bonsu” financed it, but the truth is no one in Ghana believes you.

While you try to score a political first with a Founder’s day for Dr. Nkrumah, his Mausoleum lies in decay. What are you going to do about it? When your predecessor tried to rebuild one of Nkrumah’s legacies, The Peduase Lodge, your NDC cried foul – you said it is a waste of state funds. What are you going to do different?

While you advocate for a prayer camp at the castle, the spate of militancy is on the rise across the country. Your security network has revived the lawless 64 Battalion and is using them in “official armed robbery” all in the name of national security.

The Ga Dangbe Youth is picketing your predecessor former President Kufuor’s office near Ridge in Accra which we understand you gave to him. His crime? Well he is not a Ga and therefore not a Ghanaian enough. Mr. President this is what happens when your campaign message to Gas was one of ethic cleansing. The chickens are coming home to roost. Careless words for the sake of power can cause a nation its unity

Your own home turf, the Central Regional is burning with pay back time. Your Regional Minster and NDC Women’s Organiser, Ama Benyiwa-Doe is said to have compelled the Central Regional Police Command to lock-up the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman for Assin North, Fiifi Baako, and later arraign him on criminal charges. "I will be president for all Ghanaians, whether they voted for me or not”. Those are your words, not mine.

Mr. President, I also hear that your Party has already withdrawn from circulation, the manifesto that you campaigned on and won the elections. Is this true? Hon Dominic Nitiwul MP (Bimbila) is said to have been shouted down in Parliament for quoting from the wrong manifesto. Which one should the good people of Ghana hold you accountable for? Mr. President you seem to be getting lost in your own theatre of dreams. The hawks are taking the shine off your asomdwe accolade and taking us back to the bad old militant ways. Please lance the boil before it becomes cancerous.

AND FINALLY, please talk to some of your men. They are getting very arrogant and abrasive. Koku Anyidoho is one of the arrogant men you have got. Describing someone as having “cobwebs” in his head for criticizing the government or asking MPs to declare their mental status is simply not good enough. His recent attack on former Chief of Staff Hon Kwadwo Mpiani seems to me he had not cleared things with you. Please teach him to show respect as Ghanaians punish hubris big time. I may be the one he attacks next.

I have the honour to be sir,

Your humble citizen

Kwesi Atta-Krufi Hayford