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Opinions of Thursday, 30 September 2010

Columnist: Amponsah, Jerry

Who Bears Prez. Mills’ Second Name?

President Atta Mills' personal failings and imperfections have caused enormous
pains and untold hardships to the people of Ghana.
A man’s most open actions have a secret side to them. The truth is generally
seen, rarely heard. He can choose to be a hypocrite, if he likes, but should not
talk like one!
How could he shield his paternity capacity and fatherhood responsibilities and
expects the country to be mute over it? All truths that are kept silent become
poisonous. He was proud to campaign on a “Father for All” slogan, but ironically
he has strongly placed a solid lid on his outside wedlock pickin. Are we sworn
to secrecy? This issue is an inescapable truth and public knowledge. The public
weal requires that men should betray and lie.
His predecessor, former President, was happily seen in public with his children.
Ghanaians expect the noble Father-for-All to do same. As a leader and a role
model, he needs to think right over his conduct. You cannot cleverly shield your
private life IF you are seeking for public office, the highest seat of the land.
He did what is politically ‘correct’ but morally wrong and awful. We ought to
see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.

Among world leaders, he is the only president with his fatherhood status hidden
from the people who actually voted him into office. Getting to two years on the
highest seat in the country yet he is still sitting comfortably on the truth.
The country is in a state of confusion over our President Mills’ paternity
status. It is high time he faces the camera and spills the bills. As a devoted
Christian, his conviction is extremely against the doctrine of Christianity. We
all know Mrs. Naadu Mills – the first lady – is a very nice and dependable wife;
she can play with the ‘child’ after tilling the gardens, other than playing with
the dog. How could he deny his biological child given to him by God for the sake
of political expedience? Every well meaning frowns on such conduct. It is an
unprecedented issue Ghana is witnessing in its political history. How could
President Atta Mills handle successfully a population of over 25 million people
if he cannot handle a minute issue of a child?

As an intellectual, one expects you to have conventional approach to traditional
values. The good people of Ghana don’t know who this proud child is. He claims
openly to be father of the nation but secretly fathering a biological son is a
shame as a leader of a country. He has committed an immoral act but he does not
feel regretted for his actions. One is shocked of Mills conduct of sexual
misadventures. How could he have a child outside wedlock and yet presents
himself as an angel, a real wolf in sheep skin. With all great deceivers there
is a noteworthy occurrence to which they owe their powers to. In actual act of
deception they are overcome by belief in themselves.
The kind of family structure our president is portraying in our modern society
is unfair and disgrace. This irresponsible behaviour of an unplanned fatherhood
does not augur well for our country. Any child is raised by a couple of
grown-ups. Father and Mother may be nearer and dearer than anyone will ever be
again – still, they are members of a different species.
How does a child deals with having a father whom he hardly knows and hardly sees
except on television? He who seeks happiness for himself by making others
unhappy is bound in the chains of hate and from those he cannot be free. As a
president of a country, there are privileges your children should benefit.
Indeed, if this child in question is not benefiting, it’s a disgrace to the
president. Why should he hide the child from public knowledge when seeking
power? It’s shocking and absurd to have a father-for-all persona who cannot
juggle his parental responsibilities. My deep pain goes out to this poor and
hidden child who has been dropped off the face of the earth going through
intentional infliction of emotional distress. If our father-for-all does not
like this innocent child, we the good people of Ghana will take care of him and
show him real love publicly. A father is a banker provided by nature.
How could the Atta Mills deny child-support obligations? As a public figure, if
he is doing so without the public knowledge, it amounts to probity and
accountability because the taxpayer ought to know. Championing father-for-all
slogan yet you have paternal related issue hanging on your neck.
Our country’s president, whom we all expect to live an exemplary life, is rather
promoting out-of-wedlock breeding. His out-of-wedlock birth is gradually
reflecting a social epidemic.
Given the well-known dangers of unprotected sex, he was reckless in his
behaviour. Was Atta Mills trying to prove his masculinity through sexual
conquests to his wife, Naadu Mills? This is purely an erratic behaviour. It
takes two to a tango. Who is the mother of the child Mr. President? He has
caused hell to the innocent mother. Atta Mills’s tight-lip over his hidden child
precipitates my worries to him, to let Ghanaians know who this child is. It does
not sit well with the discerning people who voted him into power.

When you talk about investment in a child, its not just buying pampers – it’s
all the things that go into producing an adult who is a functioning and
productive member of society.
He should learn how to zip up. Was the birth a choice or an accident? We need
answer. We will keep knocking till the taxpayer gets an answer.
It will not be surprise to know the comic extremes our president has gone to
avoid paying child-support. He will only become better when we make him see what
he has done.
Is the child a product of one-night stand and the mom-virtual stranger? He is
not sympathetic. With his long silence, it concludes that he condones to
out-of-wedlock affair. Was Atta Mills engaged in overlapping relationships with
women? He is only hung-up on instant gratification. To some NDC supporters, it
is okay for president Mills to engage in infidelity.
It would be simplistic, at best, to end the discussion here if he opens the much
awaited lid to let sleeping dogs lie. We expect our president to make a valiant
effort to see his child. He is a deadbeat. He cannot claim ignorance over
unprotected safe sex. He is refusing hard to take personal responsibilities of
his actions.
Man is neither an angel nor a beast, and it is unfortunately the case that
anyone trying to act the angel acts the beast.
We cannot form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them
as God gives them to us. At the Day of Judgment we shall not be asked what we
have read but what we have done.



Jerry Amponsah
(King Sabbato)
New York