President Mills Cannot See The Problem

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

As far back as July 2009 I wrote a piece on the Quality Grain Rice saga, which triggered a $22million loss to the Government of Ghana.  I wrote that piece under a series which I themed “A Guide to Corruption”.  The link to the article is here.  http://www.modernghana.com/news/230489/1/a-guide-to-corruption-in-ghana.html

When Mr. Atta Mills was made Vice President and put in charge of the economic management team, he inherited the Quality Grain Rice project. He later testified to a court presided over by Justice D. K. Afreh in April 2003, that “ …. throughout my four years as vice president, there was no project which occupied more of my time than this Quality Grain Project”.

There were many red flags all over the case at the time and they were all ignored.  The government failed to join in several suits against Ms. Cotton.  They (Government) did not accept the FBI’s (who finally prosecuted and jailed Ms. Cotton in the USA) invitation to sue Ms. Cotton.  Prof. Mills said the reason for inaction was because the Government “had a “trump” card” – a deed of indemnity and a floating charge on assets.

Stigmatization: a diversionary political strategy

By Prosper Yao Tsikata

The recent revolting development in Ghanaian politics, whereby stigmatization of certain individuals for perceived or real “abnormalities” is fast becoming a diversionary scheme to distract from the gigantic developmental issues that confront our country.

When news broke out in the run-up to the 2008 general elections that then National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, John Evans Atta-Mills, was sick and hallucinating, party aficionados saw it as a propagandist scheme by the ruling government to stigmatize him in order to declare him unfit for the highest office of the land. While there are constitutional provisions that prohibit the sick from holding office, especially if the sickness potentially impedes his/her ability to discharge the duties of the presidential office, the accusation could be regarded as speculative in the absence of any tangible evidence.

The NDC Is Not NDC Without It’s Core Values: Probity And Accountability

By Ben Ofosu-Appiah, Tokyo, JAPAN

With the NDC delegates conference in Sunyani over and the endorsement of  Attah Mills peace is supposed to return to the party and all factions are supposed to join hands, close ranks and work together in unity. However it is easier said than done and it looks like it is not going to be easy to mend fences.  The refusal of Nana Konadu to concede defeat, congratulate the winner, raise his hand, give a concession speech and pledge support to Mills for the 2012 campaign is something that is going to hurt the NDC as 2012 approaches. Nana Konadu should have been graceful in defeat and Mills humble in victory.

The NDC At The Crossroads: Unattractive And Just Another Political Party Without Rawlings

By Ben Ofosu-Appiah, Tokyo, JAPAN

With the NDC delegates conference in Sunyani over and the endorsement of  Attah Mills peace is supposed to return to the party and all factions are supposed to join hands, close ranks and work together in unity. However it is easier said than done and it looks like it is not going to be easy to mend fences.  The refusal of Nana Konadu to concede defeat, congratulate the winner, raise his hand, give a concession speech and pledge support to Mills for the 2012 campaign is something that is going to hurt the NDC as 2012 approaches. Nana Konadu should have been graceful in defeat and Mills humble in victory.

90 Million Cedis and 90 Votes

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

The first salvo in the “Fonkar-Game” games left a wonderful ring tone with President Mill’s laugh in a history-making recording.  After the Government denied that they even had 90 million cedis to run a competitive campaign, the country exhaled a big sigh of relief and carried on with our bigger challenges.

But what was the Nana Konadu challenge really about?

A few said “Women power”, some said a “Rawlings hegemony” and for Fonkar itself, was it really a serious challenge against a Government they actually believed had lost its way after the 2008 elections?  Was this actually a political in-fight or did the Rawlings’ believe they would win this?  Many sources claim Rawlings would not do this unless he knew he had a more than a 50% chance of electing his wife.

January 2011: Half – time for the Professor’s Presidency

By Prof. T. P. Manus Ulzen, tulzen@yahoo.com

The Mills administration is at about the half –way mark of its mandate. Yes, mandate is the word. With a margin that sent the Bush – Gore election to the Supreme Court in Florida, Ghana showed the world that we at least understood democratic elections. However, the nuances of democratic governance seem to have escaped us over the last two years.

Critical News 18th July 2010

The week in Ghana ends with the JoyFm political news program “Newsfile” now hosted by Kwaku SakyiAddo.  Last week, the studio raged with the Rawlings’ home situation after Nana Konadu had come on air to tell Ghanaians how she and his “Jerryship” were not living together because Government had until now not given them alternative accommodation.  Well, it turned out not to be exactly true, but the two and a half hour discussion took up most of the three-hour program and other news was left to fester till the this week.