Opinions of Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Columnist: Asare, Noah Dugubrame

Why Is Anyidoho Barking At Peace FM?

This morning I listened to a voice on peacefmonline during the news paper review program; korkrokoo. At the end of the program Kweku Anyidoho the presidential aid was heard reading correspondence between the office of the president and the Regimanuel Gray Ltd Estates. Correspondents which suggested that the President's new mansion was built for him on rent and not a free gift as reported earlier on. After Anyidoho was done with the reading and explanation of these correspondence he then went further to threaten peacefm of dealing with them personally. As Anyidoho was barking, his recorded voice was still on the Peacefm web page where he was heard saying that the building was given to the president as a token(not even a gift: token is a small appreciation much less than a gift). After listening to his voice again, which said and I quote; “…It’s not true that he has constructed a new building for himself as it is being alleged. It was a building that was given to him as a token…they themselves decided to do it as a token…,” he said. This was the voice of Kweku Anyidoho, so why was he threatening peacefm with a court action?

You may not understand it but I do. Kweku had realised the mistake he did by revealing that it was a gift. Because president Mills in his first year in office, to continue in his pretences of "holier than thou" reportedly rejected gifts from people with the excuse that accepting gifts are forms of corrupt acts. In those times we were told that the president was approached by an admirer who wanted to give him a whole house as a gift. The president Mills incorruptibility was in full display whem he rejected the house and told the owner to look around his vicinity and identify people who were needy and give them that house. According to Kwasi Pratt. We were told the president again told the good Samaritan that he(president Mills) has two houses already and did not need any house again. The question I asked at the time was, why did the president not accept the house and give it out to the poor people he has also been seing everyday? That was just by the way. Kweku's worry is that how are the decerning Ghanaians going to view the president haven been told that the president classified gifts as bribes and now he was receiving a whole house as just a token?

We were told by another confidant of President Mills who is also a leading member of the main opposition NPP that in his presence a brown envelope perportedly containing money was presented to the President in his presence and according to him, Pre Mills rejected the envelope outright with the same reason that it was a form of bribe. Kwame Pianim stood on this and hailed the president as incorruptible. The president's spokespersons confirmed how incorruptible the president is and how that he has been rejecting many bribes. This issues raised concerns as to why the president failed to blow the whistle on this criminals who sought to bribe him. Kweku is showing his teeth to peace because his defence that the house is just a token has revealed to Ghanaians that all those stories about him rejecting gifts were just cooked. In fact he has received no small token than a mansion.

Anyidoho has a tall task. The frustration of this task ahead is what is making him vent his anger on peacefm whilst his own recorded voice is still on the webpage clearly saying; "IT WAS A TOKEN THEY THEMSELVES DECIDED TO GIVE TO THE PRESIDENT". Character could be hidden but just for a while. You can't continue to paint a person as what he is not. He will betray you one day by his true character. Former Preaident Rawlings painted Mills as an angel and defended him from 1996 to 2008. A few days after President Mills was voted into power, according to former President Rawlings he was shocked at the kind of person Mills is when he told him in his(Rawlings) sitting room and I quote; "after the 2008 elections, Mills came to my office and was very elated and was smiling and he told me many things I will not like to say here, but he said one thing that made me very sad and surprised; he said we should just allow things to run and then the money will be flowing". This is what made the former president to say Mills government failed in the first week in office. His intentions made the former president to say that. But all those years he held his hand touring the length and breath of Ghana he never knew this about him and was ignorrantly praising him as a saint. Kweku and his folks did the same painting Pres Mills as somebody who was so incorruptible that he will even reject gifts on his birthday. Now confronted by the fact that he Kweku Anyidoho himself is the one who confirmed to the media that the Mills mansion is a token from the estate developers, he has nothing to say but to go on rampage.

Finally, how the NDC then in opposition critisized the repair of Kuffours gate and part of the fence wall which the former president said was sponsored by a friend of his, they are restless as the same issue is starring them in the face. Just a gate, and NDC hammered it so hard and now they are faced with a gift or "a token" according to Anyidoho not for the repair of a security gate but a whole mansion. It is very disturbing if a gate cannot be a gift but a whole mansion could be. I will advise Mr Anyidoho to hang his gloves and say, please forgive me, I never knew president Mills will betray us like this. We only tried to let him look good as commanded by the Jihad Squadrom Leader. I did that to save my job.

Frankly I am not surprised by these developments because I had the upportunity to speak to people close to the president who was by then the immediate past vice president and what I heard about his attitude towards gifts by NDC propaganda was different from what I was told. At that time a security personnel in the house of the the the former Vice President told me that the biggest fish he ever saw in his life was in the deep freezer of now Pres Mills. Goats, sheep, foodstuff and all kinds of gifts. Those which were displayed public I mean. He said, the then former vice president's deep freezer was always so full that sometimes they throw away large sums of meet and fish to make way for fresh ones whilst even some of the men on duty will have wish to have those deposed ones to themselves but "who give monkey banana", even food for them on duty came from the cook house, never from Naadu's kitchen. A gift small or big is a gift, so I was wondering all this while of when president Mills took this decision of rejecting gifts. It has turned to be just another camouflage. Now the truth is out. Guess who brought it out, Anyidoho himself, so why is he barking at peacefm.

God Bless Our Homelamd Ghana.

Noah Dugubrame Asare. Frankfurt, Germany.