Claim Of A Coup Against Prof Mills

It was Minister Kwamena Bartels, who in a press conference many months ago sought to take a cheap shot at the former president by asserting that his pronouncement abroad against the NPP regime amounted to the talk of a man who was having nightmares after eating the head of a baboon.

Ironically, it was president Kufuor who within a matter of days after that, epitomized this adage when he claimed during the bye elections in Offinso South, that some leading opposition gurus were soliciting funds from an oil rich country to overthrow the NPP regime.

This ridiculous talk about coup against his regime was for long derided by a large segment of the media as the true example of the talk of a man who had eaten the head of a baboon and was having nightmares.

The Lens is sad to realize that this malaise may not just be the preserve of president Kufuor and Bartels but may actually be affecting a few otherwise sober minds within the NDC as well.

Over the last several days, the media has been inundated by the talk that there is an imminent plot to do a palace coup to oust the candidate of the NDC, Prof JEA Mills on account of his so-called failing health.

The frenzy got so intense that one leading personality close to the NDC candidate has even gone on air casting insinuations in the direction of some unnamed officials within the NDC. Some media publications have also gone as far as to claim that some failed aspirants of the NDC are working in cahoots with some gurus of the NDC and some government officials to push through the so called 'palace coup'?.

In the midst of all this, a disenchanted former host of Alhaji Alhaji (who was ousted by the management of Radio Gold from hosting that programme) wades into the issue, claiming that he can prove emphatically that the whole coup plot is the work of President Rawlings, the Founder of the NDC and the abiding central pillar of the NDC superstructure.

Incidentally, this same disgruntled former host of Alhaji Alhaji was on record months back claiming that his removal from the program was ordered by the same President Rawlings. The Lens wonders whether some or all of these folks have lately partaken of Kwamena Bartels’ baboon head soup and are suffering from hysteria and making what clearly amounts to baboon nightmare talk?

The Lens would not have bothered to make this reaction if the comments were solely made by disgruntled folks like the former host of Alhaji Alhaji. People like him are obviously obsessed with President Rawlings and clearly desperate to make wild accusations for the personal woes they have endured.

But when otherwise sober minded folks start to disturb the harmony of the NDC by orchestrating various media publications making ridiculous claims, then there is the need to be concerned. Coup plot to oust Prof Mills? What coup plot? Prof Mills was elected by the highest decision making body of the NDC, the Congress and only that body can, if need arises, take a decision to strip him of his position as the candidate of the NDC.

It does not lie in the hand of any individual or group, outside of the Congress of the NDC to take such a decision. So why all the hullabaloo, worry and frenzy? The fact that there is such a needless frenzy from these “dreamers” can only show one of the following:

Either, they are not conversant with the rules and regulations of the party, or they have become so susceptible as to naively believe that those rules and regulations can be so easily set aside, or they are in two minds about the health situation of the candidate, which will be very unfortunate given the public condemnation that has greeted the same vacillation expressed by NDC MP, Hon Nyarnor.

In the view of the Lens, there is no need to have any doubts about the health status of the NDC candidate because Prof Mills is too noble, honourable and honest to lie to a whole nation about his health status. If the professor were in a condition that would make it impossible for him to lead the party successfully into the elections, he would be the first man to openly say so and bow out honourably.

It would not take Palace coup plotters or 'baboon head eating dreamers' to force him in out, or keep him in his position against his will. The Lens has decided to also comment seriously on this issue because of the ease with which certain elements among these 'baboon head eating dreamers' have resorted to using the media and Ghanaweb to scandalize some or all of those who contested and lost against Prof Mills and some party gurus. Some of them clearly have gone to the extent of scandalizing the Founder of the NDC and calling him all sorts of names. Readers should read last Friday's issue of the Lens to see a scandalous attack one of these characters (whose real identity the Lens is withholding) launched against the Founder.

The advice given to Hon Nyarnor must be given to these folks too. If they have any concrete evidence of an internal coup plot against the NDC candidate, the smart thing to do is to make such evidence available to the appropriate bodies within the party and not start their amateurish and frenzied media orchestrations. The Lens cannot end this submission without reminding those involved that this same short sighted and petty calculation (mostly inspired by personal and parochial turf protection) brought about the current unfortunate media nonsense about the health of Prof Mills. Those involved in these recent schemes know very well that the real cause of the present media speculations about the health of Prof Mills came about not because of the text message that flowed between President Rawlings, Spio Garbrah and Prof Mills in the run up to the NDC Congress. If it were left at the level of txt messages alone, the media and the general public would not have been privy to that information. The real problem was when this same group of vicious minded folks deliberately orchestrated the release of that txt message into sections of the media, just as they have orchestrated the recent releases of internal NDC stuff into the media, without tendering their concerns to the appropriate party channels.

Their calculation at the time of the NDC primaries was that they were achieving their short term agenda of evoking public anger against the aspirant they knew fingers would automatically be pointed at. Of course, they got away with that act of wickedness- that Machiavellian act. But many months on, the wind they released has fast become a whirlwind disturbing the peace and harmony of the NDC and needlessly disturbing the aspirations of millions of suffering Ghanaians who have rightly put all their hopes on the NDC.

The Lens is of the hope that this 'Baboon Madness' would stop forthwith in the collective interest of the NDC. The swift resort by this miniscule bunch of desperadoes to the use of Obed Asamoah’s Machiavellian ways must stop. It must, else they may justify suspicions in the head of some that they are behind last Friday's 'wicked rumour'? that Prof Mills was dead- and of course, if they were, the motivation as usual would be to evoke suspicions that so called detractors of Prof Mills are out to undo him so badly that they are even resorting to such sick and wicked jokes.

The Lens has no problems with any individuals who choose to eat the head of a baboon. The Lens also has no issues with them as long as their obvious nightmares are kept to themselves and do not start causing any needless nightmares to the NDC.

The Lens will always have a problem when any individual or group decide to disturb the cohesion of the NDC because of their parochial interest. Coup plot to oust Prof Mills? A truly ridiculous baboon head eater’s talk!