RE: Akufo-Addo Rotten Record - A rejoinder.

When the lion is hungry, it only thinks of how to get another animal for a meal. The misrule, inefficiency and the directionless style of the Mills administration has so much permeated all facets of the NDC to the extent that in its attempts to find scapegoats for its failures, it has come up with unintelligent arguments like those one would expect from a five year old imbecile.

Thus, I am not surprised that the Informer newspaper has to come out with what it calls Akufo-Addo Rotten Record. The infantile argument the paper puts out suggests to me that the management of the paper has lost its sense of reasoning and direction and needs some tutoring.

In the first place, I would like to use this medium to exorcise the Informer’s rotten record by stating that in its futile attempt to shoot down the reputation of the NPP’s Flag-bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the paper ended up by portraying the President and Flag-bearer of the NDC as uninformed, irresponsible, vindictive and die hard party fanatic devoid of any Godly traits. The paper, like what Iku Kwesi Pratt always does, has put forth a lot of distortions, inaccuracies and outright falsehood in order to discredit Nana Akufo-Addo. But truth will always remain because discerning people will always distinguish a goat from a cow and a mosquito from a helicopter. The paper claims it is comparing the records of both President Mills who is the NDC flag-bearer and Nana Akufo- Addo, flag bearer of the NPP, and the only way it could do that, according to the paper was to visit the hometown of Nana Akufo-Addo. Sadly enough, the paper failed to go to President Mills’s hometown at Ekumfi and bring out with what he, Professor Mills, both as Vice President and as President has done for his people.

But I will be generous to mention the ‘positive’ things President Mills has done for his people. I sincerely believe that if the Informer is worth its sauce, it should have reminded the public about what the people of the President’s hometown and the traditional area said about him just before the 2008 General Elections. The people expressed their utter disgust at what it called the action or inaction and inability of the then Candidate Mills to resolve the chieftaincy dispute that had engulfed his hometown and the traditional area. What about the President appropriating the family to put up a mansion to commemorate the anniversary of his father’s death. He did that as soon as he was elected President. T So, what has the President done for his people if one may ask? The only ‘positive’ thing is to go the way of his people and play ’kokofu’ ball by giving his twin brother some juicy portfolios in his government. President Mills has, since his election been taking all our comforts including even the peace we had enjoined under previous governments from us.

Now, listen to the lies being ‘churned out’ by The Informer. “The good people of Kyebi in the Akim Abuakwa South Constituency were very grateful to the First NDC Government for putting up a health facility for them. The Kyebi District Hospital which was commissioned by his Excellency President Mills, then a Vice President to former President Rawlings has never seen any face lift, particularly in terms of upgrading facilities at the hospital.

The above is a mischievous misrepresentation of facts. The Hospital had existed under the name Kibi Government Hospital for a very long time before the advent of the NDC. When I entered Abuakwa State College as a first year student in September, 1968, the Hospital was already in existence. If the paper is unaware of its facts, it should ask the Honourable Minister of Agriculture Mr Kwesi Ahwoi. He taught Economics at Abusco before he joined Dr Kwame Karikari’s Special Action Unit at the Castle under the late General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong. What the NDC did was to upgrade the facility into a District Hospital. It is therefore a blatant lie to state that the NDC established the Hospital at Kibi.

I also find it reprehensible that the Informer deliberately chose to give different spellings to both Akim and Kyebi. One would have expected the paper to be consistent in its choice of spelling. It spelled the name of the town Kyebi, but chose to spell the Constituency Akim. For conformity, one will spell the two words Kyebi and Akyem or Kibi and Akim. What did the Informer choose to mix the two? Was it an attempt to denigrate the people of the town and the area? This is so ordinary that I never expected the paper with all its ‘paa paa’ to make such an elementary mistake. But can any good thing come from the Informer? I would also like to use this medium to ask the Informer newspaper how the Mills administration which claims to be a father to all has been treating the Founder of their contraption. I concede the fact that the NPP took away some courtesies of former President Rawlings. But unlike vindictive Mills, the NPP never prevented ex President Rawlings from travelling outside the country. On Mills instruction, ex-President Rawlings plane was prevented from leaving the tarmac at Kotoka International Airport to witness the inauguration of President Lucky Jonathan in Abuja, Nigeria. This is contrary to the “Dzi wo fie asem” concept as enunciated by the President himself. If he could treat the founder of his own party in that manner, what would he not do to his political opponents? Now, let us come to the seven or so points which The Informer newspaper used to denigrate Akufo Addo. The paper says there is now only one doctor at the Hospital and so Akufo Addo should be blamed. Does the Informer know what it is talking about? If there is only one doctor, why not blame the MCE, the Ministry of Health and the Presidency but Akufo Addo? Is he in charge of health? Is he a member of the government? Is the NPP the Government in power?

Let me state here for the avoidance of doubt that during the time NPP was in power, there were always at least three doctors at the hospital. Why has the number been reduced to only one? The answer is not far fetched. Is shows the vindictive nature of the President Mills.

The paper went on to state that the generator in the hospital does not work, the toilets and bathrooms of the hospital are an eyesore and almost every facility in the hospital is in a state of despair. Are these things peculiar to only Kibi District Hospital? Take a trip to Korle-Bu to find out whether the facilities are functioning. Go to KATH and other public health Institutions and you will be shocked at the rot that has set in at all these places. When did the lifts at Korle-Bu and KATH stop functioning and how long did it take before they were repaired? As at now, I don’t even know whether they are functioning. When the Informer writes there is only one doctor and that patients at the hospital have to wait for a long time before they see him, I asked myself what is wrong with that. Since when have the situation been otherwise? It has always been that bad for more than two or three decades. Even in private hospitals where one has to pay through the nose, it is no different. But the angle the Informer has introduced into the whole thing gives one a funny sensation. But take it or leave it, the blame must be put squarely at the door steps of the NDC Government.

The paper writes: “Sometimes, the doctor does not come to the hospital. The result is death”. Ebei… So the Mills administration is indirectly committing genocide against the people of Kibi and its environs just because the people belong to the constituency where his main political opponent and protagonist comes from! If the Doctor doesn’t go to work, what has the MCE, The Ministry of Health and other supervisory agencies done about that? . Truth cannot be hidden for long. Some time in 2008, I had some exchanges with Professor Danso Boafo, now Ghana High Commissioner to the United Kingdom on the state of Affairs at the Kibi District Hospital. I want to refer readers to what Professor Danso Boafo wrote. “The Kyebi Mortuary was so efficient then and is so efficient now that it attracts corpses from across the country”. That statement was made on 9th November, 2008 in reaction to my earlier submission. Professor Danso Boafo article is titled : “Re: Akufo Addo Homecoming Rally is Bogus - Another Reaction”. The paper makes a very funny allusion which actually backfired on President Mills. It states that because Akufo Addo does not access the facility, he failed to pay attention to the hospital which today is in a state of despair”. Just for the records. Former President Kufuor recently had his operation here in Ghana. Can we say same of President Mills? No! Two years ago, he was in China, then to South Africa. Yesterday, he was in the United States and then Cuba. Tomorrow he will be in the United States for medical treatment.

In the last paragraph, the Informer wrote: “ If Akufo Addo as MP for 12 years for the people of Kibi and its environs and who went on to become Attorney General and Foreign Minister cannot help his people in his own constituency, how can he help the entire nation? Is this the record he believes can beat President Mills’s record?

May I also ask? If Professor Mills as Vice President and later as President cannot reconcile his own biological son with his step mother (the President’s wife), how can he reconcile the various ethnic groups in the country? No wonder he has said he fears and hates the Great Ashanti Project and has vowed to use his nearly created Special Force in the Army to intimidate the electorate in the Ashanti Region during the December, 2012 Elections! You see, Akufo Addo as President will never allow his appointees to insult his political opponents as is happening under President Mills. I know Nana very well in saying this. I will give you an example. When Akufo-Addo body guards assaulted some supporters of Allan Kyerematen at the NPP headquarters, he suspended his security detail involved in the assault, visited the victims at the hospital and paid their hospital bills. Can we say same of President Mills? Just wait. The following extract from the Ghanaian Lens of Tuesday, July 10, 2007 will give you an aspect of the wrinkles behind the President’s mask. Under the heading “Press Release “was the caption: “Prof Mills Body guard in Alleged Assault Case”

“It has come to the notice of the Office of Professor J.E.A.Mills, Presidential Candidate of the NDC, publications in sections of the medial that a member of his Security detail allegedly assaulted a certain Kojo Yeboah at Cow Lane, in Accra on Thursday, July 3, 2007. We are aware that the matter is being handled by the appropriate Law Enforcement Agency, in this case, the Accra Central Police.

The office of Professor Mills is also independently investigating the matter and can assure Ghanaians that should the said body guard be found to have acted unprofessionally, the appropriate disciplinary action would be exacted” Koku Anyidoho (In Charge, Communications)

What did Mills do about the case? Nothing! Rather the said body guard was the one who went against all ethics of a decent society to impound the lawfully – acquired vehicle of our flag-bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Nii Lante Vanderpuye who accompanied the said body-guard on the “akakabinsem”, “atuturasem” and “patapaasem” spree was appointed a Presidential Aide and anointed as one of the king-makers at the Castle. Let us keep on comparing the records of the two presidential aspirants: - But the one who is yet to be elected into the august office of President has already made his mark in the annals of history and the one who as Vice President, and now as President is behaving like a pupil who just goes to class to answer “present’ and is heard no more. The first, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo is our decisive President in Waiting and the second is our current President, John Evans Atta Mills.

President Mills it was, who at the onset of his administration gave orders for Regional Executives of the NDC to refund monies to aspiring D/MCE’s which had been erroneously collected from them by the Executives. But the monies were never refunded. Again, on two occasions, the President instructed that monies should not be paid to Woyome, but his orders were flouted and he came sulking like a school child who has been scolded by his parents or teacher. By these acts or inaction, President Mills has proven to all and sundry that he doesn’t have what it takes to steer our ship of state from foundering on the high seas amidst turbulent waters. We need no weakling for President! Fortunately, we have a decisive President in waiting in the person of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who has proven beyond all reasonable doubts that he has what it takes to captain any ship of state no matter how turbulent the waters are! He will not equivocate or prevaricate when decisive action is needed. Drastic situations need drastic solutions.

Ghana needs Akufo Addo to cleanse the Augean Stable now more than ever. Work towards Akufo Addo’s victory as if your entire life depends on it. God bless you as you make a wise and informed decision. Akufo Addo all the way.

Daniel Danquah Damptey (0243715297) (0275353854) ([email protected]) (Pomaasebretuoba @gmail.com)