I keep always asking myself the above question, just as I also keep asking myself whether or not it was good for Professor Frimpong-Boateng to have joined the NPP. *In Other Words, Should Water Mix with Oil?

By: OTCHERE DARKO.

Introduction: My article today questions the reasoning behind the political choices of some politicians, or some people generally, who associate with political groups that are clouded and coloured by a large number of members with characteristics that differ drastically from those of their own. I have specifically chosen two fine Ghanaian “Gentlemen”, Professor John Atta Mills and Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, to whom I have addressed other questions that are also for the attention of the reading public who may help me with answers. If someone should ask me why I have chosen the two named Ghanaians, I would say that it is because I adore them very much and, further, it is because I believe that the two big men would not look like “flowery plants sitting beneath the Ocean floor and wasting their worth”, if they were in different parties. *In choosing this topic, I am risking rocking “my boat”. Avoiding controversial issues in politics is one thing I stick to as much as I can. And so do I try to stay out of the “ifs” of events that have already happened and passed. But sometimes, one cannot help the agonising temptation of swimming in shark-infested seas of danger and risk getting eaten up. Nor can one’s mind sometimes avoid being sucked up by the temptation of the joy of entangling oneself in Socratic mental drills of seeming absurdity that merely satisfies the taste of inquisition. And more so, where the mind captures a scenario that is like swimming to the ocean floor and observing a full array of flowery plants of high quality wasting their lives where “they cannot shine” and “be appreciated”.

Professor Mills’ incorruptibility has been attested by many distinguished Ghanaians, including those who are not members of his party and, also, have nothing in particular to gain by giving such testimonies about him. President Mills, was a staunch admirer of the CPP, at least while he was a student at Legon, [we are told]. The honours he has bestowed on Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, since he took over power a little over eighteen months also show that he is a clear Nkrumahist. I am not aware of his religious background, but, judging by what we read in the papers, I can vouch that he is a Christian and a deep one who does not even worry about what people say about his faith and the right relationship he has to establish between it and his job. Professor Mills must also have known Mr Arkaah who was Vice President under Rawlings before a rift between the two forced the then Vice President to quit, [or be forced out of], his job. The rift between Arkaah and Rawlings was washed across all the streets of Ghana, even if Professor Mills was not very close to ex-former Vice President Arkaah. Mills was a University of Ghana Associate Professor of Law and, therefore, was not in need of a job or money, going by the Ghanaian standard. And it does not appear to me that Mills would have agreed to the carrying out of any of the “horrible” things that happened under the two regimes from which NDC sprang up, if the “Asomdwiehene” was one of the civilian members of those regimes; nor would he have so advised those at the helm of affairs in those days, if he was in a position to give such advice; nor would he even now, deep inside him, justify the atrocities of those regimes that parented the NDC. SO, WHAT PROMPTED PROFESSOR MILLS TO JOIN THE NDC? *I would not ask this question, if I knew the answer.

That Mills is not performing as much and as best as he would have done, is not a secret. Even people who admire him more than I do will, deep inside them, say this same thing. And if there is any doubt in the mind of anyone, let that person judge his administration from the two clear standpoints, partly over which I am assessing him, and which follow below.

*Mills was an Associate Professor of law. Though he is not actually practising law by working as the President, it is clear that people expect his Government to do well when it comes to matters of law, due process and related prosecutorial issues that have confronted his administration since they took over. Admittedly, Mills is not the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice, but because he is a top lawyer by profession and also because he is the Head of State and takes full blame for all the failures of his administration, it suffices to say that he is blameable, and very much so, for the total legal inefficiencies that have ridiculed his Government since they took over. Just a few days ago, a much publicised legal case concerning financial mismanagement which was pursued by his Government against some former public officials collapsed so shamefully. There have been numerous other legal failures that are too many to recount here. WHY? IS IT BECAUSE HIS GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN SO PRESSURED BY THE “KWESIs” AND “JJs” OF NDC THAT HE AND HIS ATTORNEY GENERAL HAVE NOT HAD THE TIME AND THE MIND TO FIND INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE AND USE “DUE PROCESS” BEFORE PUSHING CASES TO COURT TO WASTE THE TAX-PAYERS’MONEY AND RIDICULE HIS ADMINISTRATION? OR IT IS BECAUSE HIS LEGALTEAM IS WEAK? OR IT IS BECAUSE HE AND HIS PARTY HAVE BEEN ACTING ON MERE RUMOURS AND CHASING “PHANTOMS OF RETRIBUTIVE MINDS”? *Again if I knew the answers to these questions, then I would not be asking them.

*Apart from these disgraceful legal failures of his administration, here is a leader who has been acclaimed by numerous Ghanaians of distinction to be “whiter than white” and, PERHAPS, rightly so. Here, also, is a President who has come public to say “he does not accept gifts from people” because they tend to have hidden motives. I have no reason, up to this very day, to doubt the integrity of Professor Mills. Presidents, though, are not judged on their personal records alone, but on the records of all members of their Administration. Mills is also a President who adores Dr Kwame Nkrumah very much. And Dr Kwame Nkrumah could be called a “dictator” by his opponents, but they could not say he was himself corrupt, or was afraid of disciplining his team-members. If you adore a leader who ruled before you, you use him as a mentor and follow his footsteps. Nkrumah’s famous “dawn-broadcast” was an occasion he used to deal with some “criminal” members of his administration whose deeds had surfaced in “his, [Nkrumah’s], control radial”, even though such deeds had not become as public as they do now in our contemporary political environment. Nkrumah did not wait for Auditors to report through Annual or Quarterly Reports before action. As soon as a Minister or party member did something that got to his hearing and needed disciplinary action, he acted immediately; and on that particular occasion of his “Dawn Broadcast”, Dr Nkrumah used the proverbial “anopa tutuutu”, [“at dawn”], to deal with the Ministers concerned before they could walk to their offices again or get the chance to bolt away. We also know how Nkrumah demoted one of his Ministers, who was said to have equipped a house he, the Minister, had built at Asylum-Down in Accra with what was said to be a “Golden Bed”. In contemporary times, our Presidents seem to fear to act to discipline “inside criminals”. President Mills is, woefully, one of such Presidents. Quite recently, some members of his administration were bold enough to publicly admit, through their spokes-person, that they had accepted and taken “$2000” each for “shopping” from their negotiating partners when they were sent to South Korea to negotiate an official agreement on behalf of Ghana Government. And they had the “stupid audacity” to give a “childish”, “shameful”, and “hilarious” excuse that those “monies” given to them were “gifts” and “not bribes”, because the Korean Company gave them for “shopping”......as if to say that: ‘bribes are not for shopping’; or that ‘if the giver does not say “it is a bribe”, then it is not a bribe’. And OUR PRESIDENT, a “Learned Professor” and a former “trainer of Lawyers” who is “whiter than white” and does not accept “gifts” because of hidden motives, HAS NOT, UP TO THIS DAY, COME PUBLIC TO MAKE ANY STATEMENT ABOUT THE DESPICABLE AND INCRIMINATING BEHAVIOUR OF THESE “POLITICAL CROOKS”. IS IT BECAUSE OUR LEARNED PROFESSOR OF LAW AND PRESIDENT OF GHANA IS EITHER “CONFUSED” OR “PARALYSED” AS A RESULT OF SOMETHING WE DON’T KNOW? COULD IT BE THAT PRESIDENT MILLS IS BEING TORN FROM TWO OPPOSING SIDES IN A PARTY WITHIN WHICH HE NO LONGER CAN DO ANYTHING WITHOUT ANTAGONISING SOME MEMBERS? *I wished I could also answer these questions, but alas I can’t and, therefore, I leave them to readers to figure out while I switch my focus on Professor Frimpong-Boateng.

Professor Frimpong-Boateng is a cardiac specialist who trained in Germany but, after his training chose to come to Ghana to set up a cardio unit and provide specialist services in this important part of the human body, services which were absent in Ghana at that time. If it were up to you and me to decide, I guess, we would either continue to stay in Germany and gain from more sumptuous financial benefits or we would, after returning home, use our immense specialist knowledge and other resources acquired from Germany to set up a private cardio clinic or centre and make more money from private practice. But Professor Frimpong-Boateng did not choose these options; instead, he fought against storms and waves to get the permission to open at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital this unit that soon rose to world standard and fame. Later, he became the Chief Executive Officer of this Number One Hospital in Ghana. It was through his role as the CEO of Korle Bu, rather than as a great cardiac surgeon, that this Professor earned his name as “the no-nonsense man”. He would not tolerate what Ghanaians call “kalabule” which is a specialist branch of corruption. Some of his critics say he is “too harsh” and those who did not like him because of his strict “accountability policy” found ways to paint different pictures about him. Squatters who had “stolen” parts of the Hospital’s land to build on or use for other purposes cursed him from “Antoa” to “Kwaku Fri”, but he would not be intimidated. I have not heard people describing him as “whiter than white”, as Professor Mills has been so lucky to have been described. But I have also not heard others describing him as “darker than darkness”. Interestingly, in the latest NPP election for their flag bearer, which he had contested for the second time, I came across a particular argument that was being widely used against him outside official circles, which was that “he belongs to the theatre” because that is where he trained for and is good at. This argument only confirms my conviction that when you are among a group that has an agenda which is different from your own, there is nothing that you will do or say that will get them to switch to your side. Do these people know that the man who within a period of two decade turned Malaysia from a poor dependent third-world country to the enviable position of being one of the “Asian Tigers” was a Medical Doctor and not a Lawyer, or an Economist, or a Political Scientist? There are numerous examples of leaders who were either Medical Doctors or Engineers or other specialists without political or legal or economic background, but were as efficient as, [if not more efficient than], leaders who previously came from what are considered to be “the mainstream professional backgrounds” prerequisite for political leadership roles. I know that the moment people feel that you are not “the type” they want, they will use every argument to throw you off board and get their man on board. *SO AS USUAL, THE QUESTION MAY BE ASKED: WHY DID PROFESSOR FRIMPONG-BOATENG JOIN THE NPP, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT HIS ACCREDITATION AS A DISCIPLINARIAN WHO IS NOTED FOR HIS “NON-COMPROMISING ATTITUDE” TOWARDS THOSE FOUND WANTING IN RELATION TO ACCOUNTABILITY WITHIN THE STRUCTURES OF ADMINISTRATION AT THE PLACE HE ADMINISTERED? *I guess he joined the NPP before that party had the chance to get into Government and, therefore, that party had no record of its own in government to guide the “no-kalebule” German-trained cardiac surgeon to make an informed choice. But since NPP gained power and lost it after which certain things have started to surface to cast doubt on the credibility of SOME members of that party, has this widely acclaimed “disciplinarian” done anything PUBLICLY to distant himself from certain “irresponsible behaviours” of such NPP members? I am here not talking about accusations that cannot be validly used against anybody unless they have been proved to be true in court. I am talking about clear “irresponsible behaviours” that are noticeable by “commonsense” and may not lead to prosecution but are so damning that they can taint the credibility of a party and all its members, such as when a “BIG MAN” in the party takes home Government assets that shouldn’t be taken home. There have been numerous examples of cases of “irresponsible behaviour” by some of the out-gone NPP officials which the “no-nonsense” former CEO would not have tolerated in his Hospital, if they had occurred there during the period he was the Chief Executive Officer. Has Professor Frimpong-Boateng shown courage, [as he is known to possess], to speak out against members of the NPP who did those things? Obviously, there are universally accepted party codes that prohibit party members from coming out to “wash the party’s dirty linen in public”, without risking possible expulsion. I do accept the presence of these party codes and, therefore, will not rebuke the Professor very much, if it is not on public record that he has spoken against his party. IT IS, HOWEVER, FOR THIS SAME REASON OF PARTY CODES NOT ALLOWING PARTY MEMBERS TO COME OUT TO DENOUNCE FAILINGS AND BAD BEHAVIOURS OF MEMBERS THAT PEOPLE HAVE TO THOROUGHLY STUDY THE KEY MEMBERS OF THE PARTY THEY INTEND TO JOIN BEFORE THEY JOIN THEM, TO ENSURE THAT THEY DO NOT PUT THEIR “SQUARE LEGS” IN “ROUND SHOES”. AND WHERE THEY LEARN, AFTER THEY HAVE ENTERED PARTIES THEY OUGHT NOT TO HAVE ENTERED, IT IS ALWAYS IN THEIR BEST FUTURE INTEREST TO LEAVE AS SOON AS THEY REALISE THAT THEY ARE IN THE WRONG PARTY.

In conclusion, Ghana needs a new breed of politicians who have vision and are also honest, selfless, dedicated and always ready to put their Nation’s interests before those of their parties and, certainly, those of themselves. There are people like these in Ghana. But such people do themselves and the Nation a disservice if they join parties “owned” or controlled by men and women of suspicious characters. Despite what I classify as “the nonsense” that some fanatically attached Ghanaian ideologists erroneously throw separately, from two opposite directions, at each of Ghana’s TWO GREATEST POLITICAL PATRIARCHS, Dr JB Danquah and Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, I personally admire both leaders and wished that they had been able to work together. But any political psychologist who thinks he could have been able to counsel the two men and get them to work together would either be lying or acting in utter ignorance of the two political characters who were as different in nature as planets Mars and Venus, despite the fact that both of them had noble and identical political mission and ambition. One of the two was pro-West, traditionalist, free-market and private-ownership oriented, bourgeois, calm, and cautious. The other was pro-East, revolutionary, State-control and public-ownership oriented; came from a poor back-ground, and was hot and very action-prone. It was natural therefore that Nkrumah who was the last of the “Big Six” to be admitted into UGCC, which was a political collection of “like minds”, found himself the “odd one” among the lot; and could therefore not fit-in and, accordingly, had to leave on his own accord. He did the right thing, even though I do personally, always and deep inside, grieve over his exit which was to start the “tumultuous road” that was to characterise Ghana’s political journey to independence, nationhood, and subsequent development. *Prospective politicians must NOT rush to join parties whose members’ “combined chemistry” is inconsistent with their own chemistry. Sometimes, it pays dividend to form your own party, if there is no available good alternative. *No politicians must allow the sizes of existing parties to frighten and force them to abandon their own beliefs and join parties whose beliefs or whose members have behaviours that are inconsistent with their own behaviours, beliefs, and philosophies *Politicians must not forget that good political leaders always have magnetic qualities that help them to draw people from existing parties into their own.

Source: Otchere Darko. [The writer is not Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko. Neither is he related to him by blood, nor politically.]