Mr President, Your Judgement Stinks…

A good leader should possess impeccable Judgement as one of his many qualities as his decision making will show the kind of person he is, his wisdom and what beliefs and values he holds dear. Our President Atta Mills, in his one year in power has demonstrated that his Judgement stinks and he is not the man he portrayed on the campaign trail to Ghanaians.

One of the first errors of Judgement by Agya Atta was when he appointed the ex-convicted Minister of Tourism, Mr Dan Abodakpi to be his High Commissioner of Malaysia. Interestingly, this is the very same Country where he set up a dummy Company claiming to publicize Tourism in Ghana only to siphon the money into his back pocket. Perhaps, because Mr Abodakpi was not paid money to influence his decisions in office but just conned Ghanaians out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, it is not seen as corruption but as a minor indiscretion by the President. So Stealing from the Taxpayers of Ghana and to date not paying a Pesewa is not bad enough? The president in his wisdom appoints him as his High Commissioner and further uses taxpayer’s money to pay him. Now that’s what I call been paid for your crimes. And please none of that pardon business, because a gesture of mercy does not exonerate him. He still stole from Ghanaians and the President insults the intelligence of Ghanaians by paying him with our money to be the mouthpiece of the President in Malaysia. Our incorruptible president been represented by a corrupt government official. You just cannot make it up. When you listen to a man speak, you tend to understand his point of view and until I heard the President speak on his anniversary I could not understand the sanity in Dan Abodakpi’s appointment. I thought it was because he used all means possible, some illegal to deliver the Volta vote to the NDC. And I’m not even going to write about Alhaji Mumuni or the Auditor General in this Article .

Mr President, so when you said you would fight corruption, what you meant was that you endorse dipping your hands in the taxpayer’s coffers but you are against inducements used to influence public officials. So that’s why you refused the Christmas hampers. It’s all beginning to making sense now. As you explained to the Reporter from Peace FM to great applause from your Ministers, Muntaka did not commit forgery but he did commit deception and misrepresentation in acquiring a Visa for his girlfriend and as far as I can remember, deception is a crime in Ghana. You should know this because you are supposed to be a law professor and you should not be commending him publicly. You are now saying it was an indiscretion and not corruption. The insight I gained about you from listening to you was that you are a very confused president.

So taking girlfriends on trips abroad by ministers of state is now “normal.” ooh ho! What kind of change were you bringing again?A better Ghana? Better than what? And I thought you wished the whole of Ghana was a prayer camp. One minute your moral compass points to prayer camps, and the next, trips abroad by married Government Ministers with their girlfriends to enjoy Frankfuters on the taxpayer is “Normal”. Are you making up your beliefs and values as you go along? You even have the audacity to disregard a ruling made by a competent court in Ghana that Mr. Ampofo, should not hold any public office in Ghana due to some financial malfeasance by appointing him to the National Media Commission. As the saying goes, humility is the worst form of deceit.

Asomdwehene, yeah right! The Ashanti regional minister and the Deputy Eastern regional minister have both gone on platforms to incite violence against the opposition, with Baba Jamal’s Jihad coming to fruition and you were either silent or you call for forgiveness without public rebuke. A wanted murder suspect was found in a deputy minister’s bungalow and again you took no action. It is always easy to point the finger at the opposition but not at your own party people. For you information, it was Dr Spio Garbrah and your mentor in chief “JJ” who called your team, mediocre, Team B and Greedy Bustards so try to be a bit brave and direct your comments towards them, because your fear of confrontation is really exposing you as weak and not in control. We all know what “JJ” did to his vice- president Ackaah, so we understand your hesitation but I can assure you that if you stop avoiding the issues you have with him and confront him, he will not dare lay a hand on you. After all you are the president so act like it.

So now you are initiating Programmes from “different angles,” 45 or 270 degrees? To ensure that “Ghanaians would feel the economy is moving forward in a different direction.” North, South, East or West? Specifics please, enough of the vagueness already. Is this your idea of transparency? After careful preparation to meet the press, you come out with this vagueness. No wonder your Ministers don’t seem to be reading from the same script. I only listened to your interaction on the internet and I’m confused. I can imagine how your ministers feel listening to you all the time. Now I see why you have not been having monthly interactions with the press as you said you would while campaigning, it exposes your many deficiencies. I wish you a happy New Year and I hope you abide by the constitution of the land in 2010 and learn from your shortcomings. And for the sake of all Ghanaians, I hope the old adage, “you can’t teach an old Dog new tricks” does not apply in your case.

At the end of the day Mr President, the fact that you are an introvert and perhaps your predecessors were extroverts does not make you morally superior and your Judgement is at best, at par with theirs if not worse, so please get off your high horse.

Ahenkro Osei Email: calitob@mail2world.com