Rawlings Puts Mills On Notice and turns heat on Emile Short

Accra - President Rawlings yesterday considerably whittled down the blanket endorsement he gave to his Vice President Professor John Atta-Mills and threw the race for his successor wide open and serving notice to Mills that he should not take his position for granted.

The President was giving his sessional address to a full house of Parliament yesterday, on the 27th anniversary of the coup that brought General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong to power.

The Vice President's craggy forehead which showed signs of concentration registered a slight wobble as the words of endorsement rang out to an enthusiastic approving roar from the hall of Parliament House, but quickly doused by those loaded words of caution:

"This year's election will be real test to transition as it marks the end of my second term of office.

I know that is good news for you.

Ladies and Gentlemen we should approach this exercise in the spirit of nationhood. There will be no need for violence or provocations. We must all work to ensure free, fair transparent elections.

We have overcome many attempts to destabilise the process both from internal and external sourcesY..

Vigilance, level headedness and pragmatic economic policies are the legacies that we leave for our next President Professor Atta- Mills..

YOR WHOEVER MY SUCCESSOR MAY BE!".

At this juncture, the President clarified for the still cheering chamber (mostly the majority) that he was referring to "our successor" (NDC'S internal succession) for his job as President.

It was the clearest signal yet of the uncertainty of an automatic Mills succession, and a repudiation of the controversial Swedru declaration which was made when the First Lady was outside the country.

The excitement in the chamber at the issuing of this presidential caveat dropped several decibels, but was raised later at the face-saving attempt to apply a comforting balm at the humiliating demotion of Mr. Kwamena Ahwoi, a faithful Captain of the administration, loathed by the opposition and some media men.

The minority shouted their contempt at the President's rehash of the previous day's comments by the Vice President and the Minister of Communications when they dutifully but unsuccessfully to raise the profile of the new office - created out of a hat B for the popular (in his own corner in the NDC) Kwamena Ahwoi.

The chopped Local Government Minister himself tried hard to laugh with the minority as they laughed over his predicament when the President raised it on the floor, saying how important Regional economic cooperation is.

Mr. Bandana-wearing Ahwoi is to be the Minister for Planning and Regional Cooperation.

This is a non-cabinet position B no less different from the Big sounding post B Minister of Environment in Charge of the Whole Northern Sector B they parcelled out for Kumasi's Nana Akwasi Agyeman two years ago when he fell.

The reaction of The First Lady was itself significant.

She excitedly pumped the hands of Dr. Obed Asamoah, the Minister of Justice who has differed politically with Kwamena and Totobi and has vacillated on aligning with Mills and The First Lady politically for a long time.

The President whose comportment and delivery had been excellent so far, still carried some decency and good carriage into the next phase of his address when he turned on the Commissioner of Human Rights and Administrative Justice.

He criticised Emile Short for "reversing" certain punitive actions that they had taken against some companies and wondered what kind of signals the Commissioner was sending by going on television to talk about the lack of energy in dealing with corruption in Ghana.

He felt Mr. Short had not been fair by giving the impression that Ghana government was formenting corruption in the country since he (president) was making every effort to block out crooked companies.