Atta-Mills hits the road crawling to his 100 days

Kwesi Atta-Krufi Hayford.

Professor Mills, the 5th Executive President of Ghana has chalked his first proverbial 100 days in office. Admittedly though, it is the easiest part of any presidency as one enjoys a honey moon and an excellent good will from the people.

In his electioneering campaign, the then candidate Mills said to his cheering crowd, “I am ready to lead Ghana, if given the nod”. He went on to promise “An Atta-Mills government will … in its first 100 days” and many things followed the “will”. Following a government that promised so much, my chronicle here is to catalogue some of the government’s track record on the road to the proverbial hundred days in office. Please fasten your seat belts because the road might be bumpy at times.

It all began on the fateful 7th January 2009, after the gruesome and tiring marathon of campaign and elections, when the learned professor was sworn in as the President of Ghana. The man who would be president started his reign fumbling and mumbling through his own swearing-in ceremony. His frail arms crumbling under the weight of the Holy Bible and cracking voice from the fatigue of the gruelling electioneering campaign, the President told all Ghanaians he would be the President for all, whether we voted for him or not. Reassuring words from a man dubbed the “asomdwehene”. It was talked about in the court of public opinion that the President should have taken the swearing in again as his eloquence deserted him on the day. President Barack Obama did it again to banish all demons but the Ghanaians who know it all felt it would be a downer on the President’s administration and therefore brushed it aside. The mess of the day was to set the tone for a torrid 100 day journey for President Mills.

The President though sought to redeem himself in his maiden sessional address to the Parliament and the nation. However as the minutes ticked on his long but short-on-details address it became a boring lullaby that sent us all asleep except for one jolt that awoke us all with an interesting debate. This was the call for a Founder’s Day. An interesting proposition which is like marmite in Ghana politics – either you loved it or you hated it. However one other interesting fact was that this proposition had been made in the wake of Dr. Nkrumah’s 100th birth year and at a time his mausoleum lay in ruins at Nkroful.

The President’s speech, which had the bipolarity of a budget and post-election manifesto touched on many aspirational aspects including what seemed to me to be a window dressing change from NHIS to UHIS. Call me stupid, if you will, but I did not understand a word he said here when he waffled around our health as a nation and how to pay for it. These were his words “The NHIS will be enhanced and expanded … The one-time NHIS enrolment fee still remains an achievable goal, and we will work to make the scheme truly national…since every person in Ghana contributes to the NHIS through the national health levy, the Universal Health Insurance Scheme (UHIS) will allow for a one-time premium payment of the scheme. The NHIS will be restructured to respond to the needs of the population…” There isn’t time to critique this part of the learned professor’s speech here as we are on a long journey and besides I do not understand the long waffle. If you do, please explain it to me. The President however chose to explain his intentions on the NHIS to the people of Yamoussoukro in Ivory Coast and not to Ghanaians in Ghana when he went on his tour to the neighbouring countries. Yeah, what was all that about, Mr. President? 24 million of us are here and ready to know if the NHIS is safe in your hands and you choose to speak in tongues in Ghana and interpret in Ivory Coast. Are we safe? (Like we used to say and Vandals of Commonwealth Hall)

Having stated, and having been later contradicted by Dr. Duffuor that Ghana was “broke”; the President sent his men and women to Akosombo to draft a “solid” budget which was to set the tone for his administration to cure the “challenged economy” left behind by the erstwhile NPP administration. This administration had missed all its targets in its last year in government – inflation, GDP growth, budget deficit and its accumulated 3-months international reserve, so enter President Mills- the surgeon-general to fix the economy. His much awaited “solid” budget though hit the airwaves with a whimper. The GDP growth rate was to reduce from 6.2% in 2008 to 5.9% in 2009; national income receipts to rise by a paltry 2.7% on last year’s against the 57.8% rise from 2007-2008 under he NPP administration; a mere 20p reduction in petrol and a reduction of taxes on petroleum products which went to fund the NHIS, NYEP and the School Feeding Programme. The budget reintroduced import taxes on the already high priced food items like rice, cooking oil and wheat. The so-called “austere budget” saw President Mills' office budget expenditure rise from GHC110m to GHC290m - a rise of 163%.

In the midst of this entire “sakawa” budget, the President was still struggling to put his patchwork quilt of a cabinet together. His “fre-fre kobo” (call-anyone-to-play football team) cabinet was trying to find the right flavour of the Ewe hegemony, Bor-bor Fantsi Confederacy and the Northern Caucus – (of course not forgetting the irritating Ashanti pantomime led by Akwasi Agyemang). The result has been another first for President Mills – the slowest gathering of a government in the history of Ghana. The man who would be president and who had spent 8 years preparing and 4 years as an apprentice was to be beleaguered by the biggest lobbying agenda in NDC history. In the end we did not see a government that is either lean or smart. You have a minister of information, with two deputies, a spokesperson with 3 assistants, and a director of communications, with 4 special deputies, a chief of staff with 2 deputies and 75 ministers and deputies all within 100 days of your supposedly lean government.

Of course there were casualties on the way to the cabinet formation. The Northern Caucus, the weakest link in the whole chain and yet the hardest working branch of the trinity during the 8 years of opposition was cut adrift. Of course the Ashanti pantomimes were mere clowns so they did not count in this whole episode. Hon. Moses Asaga, the hard-working “Boxer” of NDC in opposition “went home with nothing”. Hon. Alban Bagbin, the much-dreaded Bagbin of Vetting fame had his position as Majority leader cut out of ministerial status let alone cabinet. Tragic Ayariga has had his meagre position eclipsed by Koku Anyidoho of the other wing.

The vetting of the ministers had some very interesting highlights again underlying the swift current of abuse of power under the President. His brushing aside of public sentiments to endorse Mohammed Mumuni and Fiifi Kwetey as ministers tells us that the whole constitutional process of vetting is a waste of public time and money.

The President though scored a huge first with the selection of the 40% women ministers. Mills’ “babes” represent the brightest spot of his presidency. NPP should watch and learn.

Having struggled to form the government then entered the band of undisciplined merry men and women. First it was the joy-riders to Ivory Coast and back. The President said nothing and allowed Mr. Alex Segbefia, a novice in this whole saga of power excesses, to sweat it out with baffling explanations. The indiscipline had started way back before then. Mr. Victor Smith’s car snatching syndicate had formed even before the President could say the word “go”. The Transitional Team were sacking people from left to right, including over 1200 security personnel. Mohammed Mumuni sacked from NADMO to DVLA and Dr. Tony Aidoo from MoFA to army recruits. Then entered Mills’ security capo Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey (rtd) to pick on his number one target, Ex-President Kufuor, stripping him of his security accoutrements and vehicles and threatening to evict him from his office. Before then the NDC`s AZOKA and ALUTA Boys had made Tamale a no-go area and had refused to disarm. From a stern warning to disarm in 30 day or else, the language has changed to bring in your weapons for cash. Parts of Asafo Market in Kumasi had been reclaimed by the NDC to use as car park for their officials. The Ga-Dangme Youth then entered the frame to make Accra ungovernable unless they get all their lands back; the Western Patriots also say that nothing goes out of the Western Region, to the extent that the President had to cancel a trip to the Cape Three Points oil fields in the region for security reasons. Meanwhile Amma (Chavez) Benyiwah-Doe decides its “pay-back-time” in Central Region for all NPP persons that annoyed her during the campaign and goes on arrest-them-all spree. The president has said nothing about all these. Instead these undisciplined merry men are now painting Ghana green white and black with brand new posh cars while the cat is always away.

The President’s silence in this torrid 100 days of indiscipline has been loud and deafening except his famous “I AM THE PRESIDENT and “THERE IS ONLY ONE PRESIDENT IN GHANA” boom. This would have been a clear mark of stamping of authority against the notable indiscipline in some members of the government if the president had directed it in that direction. Instead he chose to bark at the wrong tree and has got the guns of the much suppressed NPP opposition blazing at his rather wobbly government. His much heralded 100 days has been a tragic one, hurried to even more confusion like Pharaoh’s chariots, by Ghanaians who were promised “money in the pocket”, “a better Ghana” and “jobs for all” and have seen none of that so far.

Many people had cautioned before the election that a vote for Mills meant a vote for Rawlings (Buy Mills Get Rawlings Free). It was therefore a matter of time for Former President and leader of the NDC J.J. Rawlings to take over from President Mills. In January he described Mills’ decision to keep the DCEs and MCEs until suitable replacements were found “poverty of ideas.” Then he spanked the President into changing the service commanders. This led to open criticism on him as taking over the government already. He decided to go into hibernation and remained uncharacteristically quiet for a good part February and March until suddenly it all came spurting out at a National Democratic Congress (NDC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, the first since the party came to power. This meeting gave the leader the opportunity to dominate and spew out his guts once again, as he passed a vote of no-confidence on President John Evans Atta Mills’ governance approach. Not even the deliberations in the meeting chamber could match the sharp reproaches by ex-President Rawlings when he spoke to the media after the encounter. The no-holds-barred meeting was held at the Royal Majesty Hotel, Nungua at the end of March. Describing the ministerial appointments by the President as a show of mediocrity, the ex-President was in an abrasive mood as he scowled at the man he campaigned for as being slow in the manner in which he was running the country. President Mills was conspicuously absent from the meeting, which was characterized by leading members of NDC pouring out their disappointments over dashed expectations. Ex-President Rawlings came close to giving a clue to the source of President Mills’ headline-making “there is only one President in the country” outburst, when he remarked that the government was not asserting itself and thus allowing the opposition “to undermine its authority”.

Rawlings went on to say that ‘usurpers’ with parochial interests had hijacked the Mills Administration and these elements were hell-bent on entrenching their positions on the ruling government. He said some of the usurpers who had been hiding in rat holes during the heady days of the electoral campaign, had today surfaced to make themselves decision-makers. This rhetoric prompted Ghanaians to make their own deductions as to the performance of President Mills in his first 100 days. Ex-President Rawlings said the slow pace administration of President Mills was acknowledged by a large number of NDC kingpins at the meeting. Party Founder Rawlings was not charitable to President Mills’ aides and others in his company, describing them as taking undue advantage of his sluggishness. During the Jirapa by-election campaign, Rawlings again gave the President an ultimatum to quicken up the pace of his administration and start prosecuting NPP former ministers within 6 months. Mr. Rawlings who it seems wants to be the Attorney General, head of National Security, Director of Public Prosecution, Chief justice and ultimately, the President once again wanted to wrap around President Mills his Kangaroo justice mentality, to prosecute people even before they are probed or investigated. He also warned Mills about the choices of MCEs and DCEs. A day after the nominees were announced, the youth of NDC started their trademark acts of vandalism across the country. Tema, Adenta, Kade, Akwatia, Shama, Nkwanta and many more places were set aflame by NDC supporters because the appointees were not NDC enough. Remember the words “usurpers with parochial interests … who had been hiding in rat holes during the heady days of the electoral campaign?” the chickens are coming home to roost.

Well, I do not know about “usurpers” from “rat holes” but I know about self-professed tribalists moving back to the heart of Mills’ government. Prof. Kofi Awoonor a self confessed believer in Ewe-land before Ghana-land, and whose novel “The Ghana Revolution” was forcibly withdrawn from the shelves because of its tribal contents, has been unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Council of State, a body chosen to advise President Mills on matters of state interest. Worrying 100 days indeed.

So even before I draw the curtains on the much promised 100 days, the movers and the shakers in the NDC have already spoken. The NDC National Executive Council led by Mr. Rawlings have passed a vote of no confidence in Mills’ administration. The youth of NDC have rubbished his local government administration with their rejection of appointments at local level. Rawlings has inspected the security perimeter at the airport and made a dawn raid at the Air force Base to inspect the aircrafts. Mills has been largely absent in all these and it makes me wonder who is actually the Commander-in-Chief in Ghana. “What need we any further witnesses?” (Mark 14:63). The biggest concern for me though is the ability of the government to manage the already sluggish and challenged economy of Ghana. The G20 summit has just ended in London and the NDC government did not show any interest in it. I presume they were too busy seizing cars and toilets. Now the economy is falling apart with the cedi falling to a double speed gravity (now 1.6 against the US$). Inflation has increased by 2.53% since January (From 18% to 20.53%) and rising. Perhaps we need another bold person like the late Hon Victor Selormey to admit that the “economy is between the devil and the deep blue sea” as he said in 2000.

Ghana is on the verge of tribal insurrections at the expense of national unity. It is Ga Dangme Youth and Western Patriots today, who could be next. Now as proud Ghanaians we are afraid to point to our ethnic origins for fear of reprisals except those of us who belong to a melting pot of tribal intermarriage and do not even know where we belong.

His Excellency, Mr. President, this is your 100 days! It has been a long road. Terminal report? Could do better!

Kwesi Atta-Krufi Hayford.