President “Chimp” in a Balancing Act

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

The decision by President John Evans Atta (Chimp) Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) not to officially participate in activities marking the 31st anniversary of the June 4th 1979 mutiny by some low-ranked members of the Ghana Armed Forces against the F. W. K. Akuffo-led Supreme Military Council (SMC II), must come as a proverbial breath of fresh air. For as has been widely expounded elsewhere, by both this writer and others, June 4th had absolutely nothing, whatsoever, to do with either democratic governance or constitutional democracy. That most bloody episode in our dear nation’s political history also had absolutely nothing to do with justice and fairness. It was simply about the opportunistic decision of some low-level military personnel hankering for unfettered political access in a scurrilous bid to amassing wealth in turn, just as their superiors before them had done. And to best and popularly achieve such vulgar objective, then Flt.-Lt. Jeremiah John Rawlings and his malcontent cronies shamelessly resorted to the use of such cheap populist slogans as “Probity and Accountability” in order to mischievously arrive at where these cynical, mega-rich retired Ghanaian soldiers are today. It therefore does appear that President Mills, with a coldly calculating eye to clinching an increasingly elusive second-term of office, has decided to play it safe, very likely with the tacit complicity of the putative chief architect of June 4th. Otherwise, the president needs to explain to the general public precisely why he mischievously and rancorously participated in the June 4th festivities at Somanya, in the Krobo district of the Eastern Region, some three years ago, in the at once ungodly and inglorious company of Togbui Avaklasu I and Lt.-Gen. Arnold Quainoo (my favorite “Toy Soldier”), when then-Candidate Mills, a former Legon professor of law, was fully aware of the judicial and constitutional proscription of the sanguinary and unconscionable Rawlings revolution.

In the latest executive edict from the old slave castle at Osu, President Mills is reported to have directed each and every minister in his administration to refrain from officially partaking in the June 4th program of activities expected to come off in the northern regional capital of Tamale (See “Mills Bans Ministers From World Cup and June 4” Peace-Fm Online 6/1/10). The same directive, reportedly, also warned any highly placed officials in government against the great temptation of skipping state side in order to watch the impending global soccer fiesta in South Africa (a.k.a. The World Cup).

It thus appears that the president firmly believes that he is the only chief citizen of state with the inalienable right to emplane and ship himself into the nation that Mandela united and democratized anytime his vital signs whisper to him as follows: “Fiifi Chimp, it is about time.” Of course, the directive was functionally sound enough to specify that only the minister of sports and her minions are expressly authorized to view and partake of “South Africa 2010.” And all this while I thought the president would do the right thing by dispatching Sister Akua Sena Dansua to a boot camp to properly learn about what it takes to raise responsible and prosperous young women in Ghanaian society. Or maybe Uncle Fiifi Cee simply decided this time around that it would be best to have Sister Akua introduce some of our fetching young Ghanaian women soccer players to their far more famous and richer male counterparts elsewhere and see what happens in the bedroom afterwards.

The preceding notwithstanding, it would be clearly remiss on our part not to laud this patently courageous attempt on the part of the president to refreshingly assert his independence from his longtime sponsor and mentor. Still, it would also be woefully inadequate for the general public to simply take the president at his word, without keeping a scrupulous eye on whether or not the taxpayer’s money gets appropriated for any of the activities marking June 4th.

And, of course, it goes without saying that in order to seriously put himself back in the running for Election 2012, President Mills needs to go far beyond these cosmetic histrionics by ensuring that the ordinary man and woman in the street have real use for the cedis and pesewas in their wallets and purses. So far, the 89-percent and 36-percent, respective, increases in our water and electricity bills do not seem to point at the pulse of a president poised to making the lives of Ghanaians more meaningful in the post-Kufuorian era.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is a Governing Board Member of the Accra-based Danquah Institute (DI) and the author of 21 books, including “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Atumpan Publications/Lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net. ###