Opinions of Thursday, 29 October 2009

Columnist: Biakoye, Nana

Prez Mills: A Man Of His Word!!!

What shall we render to President Mills, for all his honesty and sincerity shown so far; we will take the promises he has delivered upon, and humbly ask for more.

The naysayers; the saboteurs; the ill-wishers; the pull him down people; the nation-wreckers; and even Judases within the NDC; we are sure that they are beginning to wake up to the realization that President John Evans Atta Mills, is a man of his words.

Some may say the President is slow; what is happening is that, they are misconstruing meticulousness for slowness.

What shall it profit President Mills if he rushes and moves “gidi gidi” like an alligator and makes so many mistakes rather than move cautiously and get things right?

A local proverb has it that “when you want to destroy the house of a liar, you take it apart gently; you don’t burn it down lest the liar comes up with all kinds of stories about the unbelievable worth of the burnt down house”. In other words, we are dealing with a bunch of criminals and brigands who would have wished that the Mills Administration went on a witch hunting rampage so they can hide behind that and create all kinds of problems for the new Administration.

Any attempt to have dealt with the NPP in rough manner, would have muffled the issues and today, all we shall be hearing, is witch hunting; nobody would have had the ears to listen to the gargantuan robbery and outright theft that took place under the watch of Kufuor.

President Mills is wisely moving cautiously in order to efficiently expose the criminal deeds of Kufuor and his looting brigade and in all honesty, the Mills Administration’s calculated approach is really hurting the NPP that is why they have resorted to arson; but they lie bad!

O yes, it is the NPP that is torching public buildings to wipe out evidence but they will not succeed.

Who Jah bless; no man curse!

Those people who thought that President Mills went to TOR on a PR blitz just to throw dust into the eyes of the workers; we are sure that such naysayers are looking for holes to hide themselves in now that a ship load of crude oil has berthed in Ghana.

When the President visited TOR, he most certainly knew what he was talking about when he said that crude will arrive in Ghana.

I am sure that the President must have known exactly when the crude will arrive but he chose to allow the arrival of the consignment to come as a surprise to the workers.

I am sure that over-excited young man who ended up embarrassing himself by playing to the gallery and insulting the President, must be ashamed of himself by now.

President Mills promised that crude oil will arrive and crude oil has arrived! If President Mills is not a man of his words, then we don’t know what he is. As for the NPP and its acolytes, they are most certainly in a state of apoplexy because it was their wish that the crude will not come so they will be able to call the President names.

Now that the crude is in, they have nothing else to say.

The President promised; and he has delivered! President Mills is certainly not the kind of President who declares a zero tolerance for corruption and then goes on a looting and stealing spree.

President Mils means everything he says!

Ever since he was sworn-in as President of Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana, His Excellency President Mills continues to gladden the hearts of lots of right-thinking Ghanaians with the extent to which he is a President who delivers on his promises.

I am not by no stretch of the imagination saying that President Mills has delivered on all the NDC’s manifesto pledges; far from that!

What I am saying is that, President Mills has stayed commitment to certain core values of, truth, sincerity, modesty, accountability and good governance; which are critical elements if the President is to stay committed to building a Better Ghana.

President Mills promised to cut out profligate spending, and to date he has kept to that pledge.

Since the President was sworn-in, there hasn’t been a single state banquet. Instead of wining and dining, President Mills has chosen to focus on finding concrete solutions to the myriad of problems bequeathed to Ghana by John Agyekum Kofi Diawuo “50 Cents” Kufuor.

In line with his commitment to cutting out profligate spending, President Mills, apart from not junketing around the world with huge entourages like “50 Cents” Kufuor, has also decided not to collect any per diem.

Unlike “50 Cents” Kufuor who increased his per diem by over 1000%, President Mills does not collect per diem when he travels outside the country to conduct important business in the interest of the state.

While not denying government officials their per diem, the current going rate is one-third of what “50 Cents” Kufuor and his looting brigade used to take. Yes, the per diem that government officials take today, is far less than what existed during the time of “50 Cents” Kufuor.

Unlike Kufuor’s ministers and appointees, who used to have not less than 3 official vehicles, most of President Mills’ appointees use only one car with some senior government officials using not more than 2 vehicles.

President Mills promised Ghanaians that armed robbery would fought headlong, and it is a matter of fact that the crime rate in the country has dropped significantly.

As for the Kufuor era’s “contract killing” phenomenon, it is a thing of the past.

President Mills pledged to make sure that Ghana is no longer an attractive destination for the international barons and their illicit drug trade; and as of now, cocaine is in short supply in Ghana with the barons having relocated to other countries.

President Mills pledged to resource the security services, pay attention to their conditions of service, and rebuild their morale.

As a matter of fact, the salaries of the security services have been significantly with the Police Service getting over a 100% rise in salary. Today, all over the country, policemen/women are smiling all the way to the bank.

And people are saying the President is slow?

Just because he is not unwisely throwing people into jail without following due process so he is slow? Laughable indeed!

Is it not President Mills who set up the Ghana@50 Commission of Inquiry? If President Mills is not interested in exposing the rot that existed in the Kufuor regime, why would he set up the Commission; allowing Ghanaians to see for themselves, the extent to which Tarzan and Kwadwo Mpiani (of course with the tacit support of “50 Cents” Kufuor), chopped the nation’s money “fuka fuka”? For a fact, Ghanaians are also watching live, the manner in which Tarzan and Mpiani are hurling insults at Ghanaians.

Tarzan says we are animals, and Mpiani says we are mad. We thank them for their insults.

When they end up in jail carrying shit, they should insult the people who will be ordering them to carry the shit.

Ask me and I will tell you that President Mills certainly knows what he is doing.

Let us credit him with some common sense and support him rather than moving around saying that he is “slow” and has surrounded himself with Team B people. Those of us who are saying he is slow, are we saying that given the chance, we would have done things “gidi gidi” without thinking?

The NPP did things “gidi gidi” and suffered dearly for it. Do we want the same fate to befall President Mills?

Just like a plane taking off; there often is some turbulence but once the plane stabilizes, the flight becomes smooth.

In like manner, we are experiencing some turbulence in the first year of the Mills Administration but with the kind of commitment that His Excellency is showing to bringing CHANGE to the governance process, as well as building a Better Ghana, the “flight” will stabilize very soon and even the devil will acknowledge that Ghanaians indeed made the right decision when they voted for Professor John Evans Atta Mills instead of giving the mandate Akufo-Addo to move Ghana forward in the wrong direction.

President Atta Mills, ayekoo ooo ayekoo; and may God continue to give you wisdom and fill you with the spirit of discernment for you to build a Better Ghana. People of Ghana; there are Better days ahead!!!

Nana Biakoye (A True Patriot)