President John Dramani Mahama on Monday swore into office Justice Yaw Appau, as the Sole Commissioner of Judgment debt. His main task is “to investigate the judgment debt cases the nation has been confronted with” (Myjoyonline, October 8, 2012).

This measure is in fulfillment of President Mahama’s pledge to Ghanaians in his broadcast to the nation to appoint an independent sole commissioner for this purpose.

Welcome to this onerous task, Justice Appau; but I have serious doubts whether this is how to solve the problem. I won’t hail it as a welcome relief because it is a mere face-saving move. It won’t end the judgement debt spree. For how long will Justice Appau do his assignment for government to act on his recommendations? We need action now, not any further complication of simple cases of thievery through an empty bureaucratic move!!

The weird things that happen in government business don’t redound to our well-being. The earlier we voice out our indignation, the better it will be for those entrusted with the responsibility to solve our country’s problems but are more inclined toward compounding them to know why we don’t trust them.

A case in point sums it all up. Despite all the public anger at the Woyome scandal particularly, and the fact that this payment of judgement debt is a subtle means by some unscrupulous government officials and their collaborators in business to fleece the national coffers, little is being done to solve the problem.

The prosecution of Woyome is moving at a snail’s pace because of the weaknesses of the judicial system that encourage lethargy (whether on the part of the government itself, the officials at the Ministry of Justice/Attorney-General’s Department, or the court system itself).

Someone must be pulling some strings to stall this case. Otherwise, why the painful delay and more salt being rubbed into our wounds? Ghanaians are anxious to know how the huge amount of money paid to Woyome can be retrieved and measures put in place to prevent anything of the sort in the future.

As if mindless of the negative fallouts, the government isn’t doing anything reassuring. Appointing a sole commissioner to investigate all these judgement debt payments won’t solve the problem any sooner than expected.

Neither will the revelations being made by Martin Amidu be pursued because doing so will take food out of the mouths of those perpetrating the fraud in the corridors of power. It is an age-old case of people using their political connections to reap where they haven’t sown anything but rely on their mischief and stealing habits to fleece the national coffers.

They know the loopholes in the system and how to tap into them. It is not a new thing happening under this government. It has been with us all these years and will continue to be so for as long as those in authority who are to plug those loopholes rather widen them.

Here is how they do so. It is the “Ghanaian thing” for those well positioned to detect loopholes in the system itself (the institutional weaknesses) for exploitation by the appointing authorities who fill positions with their cronies to work hard for mutual benefits.

Do we not know how appointments are made, especially in this 4th Republican era when politics has become the inexhaustible goldmine for those who have political connections?

The loopholes are all over the place for such cronies to exploit. If you doubt my claim, just do your own homework at the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (including the security setups too). As is often heard said by some people who know of such holes, “Everybody eats from his work place.” In other words, wherever a goat is tethered, there it gets its food.

And those who know how to overwork themselves in exploiting those loopholes to share the proceeds equitably last at their posts. Only those who are mindlessly greedy enough to grab the lion’s share or run away with everything under their armpit get kicked out to be replaced with malleable ones.

Why aren’t these loopholes being plugged, you may be tempted to ask. It’s impossible to do so because that is the lifeline of those who find their ways into politics or other departments of national life. They can’t take action to plug those loopholes because it will amount to economic suicide. And they fear to even think of choking themselves that way.

From the lackadaisical manner in which this all-too-terrifying Woyome fraud case is being handled—and the fact that many other sordid ones yet to be known fully (the Construction Pioneer and Balkan ones, particularly)—there is only one explanation: some people in authority are doing things for obvious reasons!! Their desire to protect their interests is really strong.

Again, it may be that the problem is endemic, meaning that intricate networks of thieves parading as government officials or heads of institutions where the economic crimes occur are in operation to the blind side of Ghanaians. I will go for this aspect because what we have heard so far in the Woyome scandal points me to this conclusion.

We are reminded that those who manage to walk the corridors of power to be close to these loopholes know how painful it is to be poor; and once they have access to the “goldmines,” why do anything to impoverish themselves? They will not do anything to plug those loopholes but will be the first to mount rooftops to condemn bribery and corruption, moral decadence, and economic stagnation!!

From what has happened so far, I have no doubt that our country is in the hands of the wrong people. This is not to say that I consider any of those at the sidelines making frantic efforts to return to power as any better. They aren’t because in their own words, “being in the opposition is like being in hell.”

Give them the chance and they will widen the loopholes too. That is our plight. Our country isn’t developing as fast as we expect it to—nor will our democracy mature—because those in charge of affairs aren’t committed in any way to solve the systemic problems to serve the wider national interests. Their main focus is on the self. If you doubt it, monitor their activities carefully. Cronyism does it all for them.

The real issue is that all these people are the same in every guise but use different strategies to achieve their pernicious objectives. That is why we have the differences in political parties, names, and manifestoes but no expectation that anything will change to promote the interests and well-0.
+being of the citizens down the line who have no means to exploit those loopholes. In effect, though, none of them really has the interests of the country and its 25 million people at heart. I am waiting to be proved wrong.

The inordinate desire on the part of the politicians to grab every public property they come across should be curbed for good. But how can we do so when the institutions to use are themselves so heavily implicated or politicized as to render them ineffective right from scratch?

Don’t even mention any civil society grouping because there is none credible enough to depend on for anything.

One may be talking about using “citizen advocacy” (as Martin Amidu claims to be doing); but it will fizzle out as soon as started because it has no foundation. Individuals on their own can’t effect any change. They need institutions to back them up. Our problem is that we don’t have any institution capable of doing so. How far, then, can an individual’s advocacy go to rid our country of the vices that have taken over public life?

Justice Appau may expend public resources investigating all these judgement debt payments but what will become of his efforts if his recommendations end up in files to be left on office shelves to gather dust? Ghanaian politicians lack what it takes to solve problems of this sort. That’s why they cannot and must not be trusted to plug all those loopholes that facilitate corruption. They are the problem confronting us.

*The writer can be reached @ mjbokor@yahoo.com or you can connect with him on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor

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I say so with hindsight—Bawumia couldn’t get the NPP the Northern votes that it had anticipated in the 2008 elections. Thus, by retaining him for the 2012 elections, whatever might have contributed to his inability to woo voters needs to be neutralized. That’s why the publicity stunt is all about him these days.

But he has joined the “Yen Akanfuo” choir to sing himself hoarse with an old tune that will not help the NPP win the elections. The cacophony grates on the ears—and it hurts too!!

The reality of Bawumia’s non-starter effort is clear already. He has also quickly fallen prey to the worn-out politics of empty fault-finding with the incumbent administration, repeating the stale old tales of the Mills government’s inability to fulfill its 2008 electioneering campaign promises and destroying the economy.

There is nothing new in this approach to politicking. Ghanaians already know what these issues are. In fact, they have known these problems since the first Republic when governance took a turn for the worse after independence. They won’t root for Bawumia and the NPP just because this self-same story is being told and re-told by the political neophyte that Bawumia is.

Ghanaians want to know what the NPP’s solutions are. So far, nothing new has been told them. It’s all about destructive criticism topped with empty promises. As if that is not irritating enough, Kennedy Agyapong’s hate speech has added a new complexion to the matter.

Although Kufuor may claim that the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia ticket is “heaven-sent” and the best to have happened to the NPP in its bid to recapture power, there is nothing really substantial about the NPP’s politicking. In 2008, was it not the same pair who fought and lost the elections? Were they from hell, then?

As is already obvious, Bawumia himself doesn’t seem to know the drift of Ghanaian politics and is faltering already. His claim that the NPP will win all the North (the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West Regions) because of his “Northern roots” is more ridiculous than Odoi Sykes’ promise to our Northern Ghana compatriots that an NPP government would extend the railway system to the North.

As someone rightly asked, is it now that Bawumia has developed his “Northern roots” to cite as an electoral asset? Were there no “Northern roots” for him when he paired with Akufo-Addo for the 2008 elections and lost?

You see, when political neophytes are given the limelight, they don’t take too long to expose their immaturity.

I have said it several times already but will repeat it for purposes of reinforcing my stance that although Ghanaians are complaining about living conditions and political opponents are jumping on President Mills, criticizing him over his leadership style, it doesn’t mean that they see Akufo-Addo and his NPP as the automatic replacement or as Ghana’s saviour. Many factors are at play and the NPP should not deceive itself that victory for it at the polls is a done deal.

Probably, having already conditioned their followers for victory, the party’s leaders have no other option but to turn to plan “B,” which is encapsulated in the “Yen Akanfuo” and “All-die-be-die” war cry by Akufo-Addo. Then again, that is why Kennedy Agyapong has declared war on the ethnic groups that he and those in the NPP fostering the ”All-die-be-die” war machinery perceive as the match spoilers.

Having thus exposed their inner selves, they will not rest until the mayhem that they are hatching is unleashed and pursued to serve their political purposes. But they are deceived. From the barrage of condemnation coming from the major segments of the Ghanaian society—except the NPP itself—it must be clear to those in the NPP banking hopes on mayhem as a strategy to win power that the going will be really tough for them.

The best option is not to intimidate or blackmail the voters—or to attempt establishing any paramilitary force to fight their cause. They have every opportunity to present their ideas on national development to Ghanaians for them to make their electoral decisions on why they should replace the incumbent with Akufo-Addo and his NPP. But they are not doing so. Where are the ideas for national development?

So far, there is nothing concrete to prove that an Akufo-Addo government will be any different from those we have had so far and complained bitterly about. I am apprehensive because I don’t see anything that the NPP has (apart from so-called transient social interventionist programmes that will further tighten the grips on the national coffers) to drastically overhaul the system to ensure that the democratization process will move to a higher and better level to give Ghanaians the benefits they deserve.

Not until anything emerges to prove that an Akufo-Addo government will do other than what has persistently kept our country on its knees, any noise that Akufo-Addo and Bawumia make will come across as mere self-righteous rhetoric. Ghanaians won’t vote for self-righteous braggarts just because of their high-sounding but empty political rhetoric.

Now, back to Bawumia. From what he has given us to know, there is nothing to enthuse over about his resourcefulness and, therefore, ability to reverse the country’s economic downturn. I laugh to scorn the claim that having been the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Bawumia knows the root causes of our economic problems and will team up with Akufo-Addo to solve them.

What haven’t we had before him only to realize the folly of relying on such hollow claims to our disadvantage? For those who don’t know it, previous governments had former Governors of the Bank of Ghana and so-called renowned economists to work for them but the economic recovery never happened. Do you remember Dr. Robert Gardner, Mrs. Gloria Nikoi, and Dr. G.K. Agama?

And now Dr. Kwabena Duffuor who is the Minister of Finance but under whose watch the tide has refused to flow?

The point must be made clear here that if the NPP should win the elections, it will be because of many factors other than this fawning over Bawumia, who still has no constituency from which to draw votes. Such a victory will likely result from disenchantment with the incumbent government’s performance just as Akufo-Addo’s own defeat in 2008 was contingent on Kufuor’s failure to satisfy the electorate.

Such a cycle is already in motion and will determine Akufo-Addo’s own fate at the end of a first term of his being in office, assuming that he ever wins the elections. It is a Ghanaian thing!!

For Bawumia, the writing must be on the wall for him to read and use to guide himself. Ghanaians already know the forces at work in his choice as a Running Mate—the irresistible tendency to play the “Northern Ghana” and Muslim cards to help the “Yen Akanfuo” return to power—which reduces our politics to a predictable game of treachery and chicanery. A mere game of musical chairs that should alarm Ghanaians!

Bawumia shouldn’t go far to see the reality of his being used as a pawn in the “Yen Akanfuo” game of political chess. Will he not reflect on what happened to Aliu Mahama for all the 8 years that he served under Kufuor and got relegated to the backwoods of the “Yen Akanfuo” politics? Or how he was humiliated when he attempted becoming the flagbearer of a “Yen Akanfuo” political cabal?

If he does, he should pause to think deeply before shooting his mouth. Gradually, he is fitting into the pattern and will be wise only after the fact. Not until he and his handlers in the NPP give Ghanaians anything new to suggest how they will solve the country’s problems, they should hasten slowly.

We are already aware of and fed up with all the tired issues that they keep harping on. Isn’t that enough of a needless bother already? We need something new to engage us as we move toward Election 2012.

**All rights reserved on all articles posted on WTA. Please let’s respect intellectual properties and duly seek permission before we use them. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of WTA.

Many negative events have occurred in this 4th Republic, especially to confirm the lousiness in that sector, which doesn’t bode well for our democracy. We see those negative events as either a deliberate attempt to frustrate justice delivery or to perpetrate injustice against people whose cases reach that Ministry.

Under Rawlings, we had cause to question the calibre of people working in that Ministry. Under Kufuor, the situation didn’t change for the better even after he had appointed three different people to head it. Under President Mills, the canker and rot in that Ministry has reached an alarming height even after three different appointees have been sent there at different times to work for the good of the people.

We don’t want to recollect the circumstances surrounding the loss of cases prosecuted by that Ministry but we take note of the fact that the Woyome scandal has opened the can of worms that that Ministry is. It has exposed some clear instances of incompetence or complicity in wrong-doing. What led to Betty Mould-Iddrissu’s resignation from there and the appointment of Martin Amidu only for him to be kicked out to make room for Benjamin Kumbuor will for long be remembered as a major lapse in the Mills-led government’s performance in the workings of that Ministry.

Against all odds, Ebo Barton-Oduro (the Deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney-General) is still at post despite the aberrations. His unguarded public utterance that the government saw its case against Woyome as “bad” and, therefore, halted the prosecution is a reflection of the lousiness that I am complaining of. It enabled Mould-Iddrissu to facilitate Woyome scandal. That huge sum of money e paid to Woyome as a judgement debt belongs to the good people of Ghana.

The negative attitude of that Ministry goes beyond this instance of criminal incompetence. As if not properly trained to perform their functions, the State Attorneys (especially those based at the Ministry in Accra) don’t attend court to proceed with cases that they are prosecuting. And they often do so without informing the Bench, which jeopardizes the trial and frustrates the accused and their defence counsel.

They also frequently give lame excuses for not proceeding with cases being prosecuted, which often either leads to the needless remanding of accused people in prison custody or their acquittal for lack of prosecution. Several cases of this sort don’t create any good public image for that Ministry.

More troubling is the fact that their failure to conclude cases being tried results in accused people being remanded in custody for ages and forgotten about. The current exercise by some kind-hearted lawyers visiting the prisons to ensure that those being unduly remanded are given a hearing and their cases disposed of is the direct consequence of the hard-heartedness with which officials of that Ministry and their counterparts in the Police Service handle their tasks.

We are even not talking about the bribery and corruption that goes on there. Everybody who deals with that Ministry and its analogous institutions knows the behind-the-scenes manouevres by officials of that Ministry and the Police Service. It’s all about palm greasing before being helped. The mess is thick.

Additionally, dockets vanish, making the fate of suspects or accused people hang in the balance. In effect, our Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General’s Department is highly notorious for its incompetence to which much of what hinders an expeditious trial of cases is attributable. Justice is not only delayed to those unfortunate victims caught in that web but it is also needlessly denied them, which makes me wonder whether this kind of sordidness will help our democracy mature at the level of justice delivery.

Of all the adversities that demoralize the people and provoke disaffection or apathy in them, none is worse than such lousiness that breeds injustice. Food insecurity and poverty may make them dejected and forlorn; but injustice kills everything in them. In our case, injustice and abuse of human rights persist.

How will the people be willing to contribute their quota to national development efforts if they know they will not benefit from it in the long run? Or that the democracy for which they are sacrificing their lot is skewed to benefit only a select few with political connections? Dispense injustice to the people and they will have no compunction but to either sit on the fence or look for means to subvert that democracy.

A democracy that survives only because of the political ritual of voting to put greedy and power-drunk people in office is no democracy at all to enthuse over. Such seems to be our case, almost 20 years after establishing the 4th Republic. Every democracy that is designed to endure provides opportunities for the people to feel fulfilled. A viable democracy must depend on the trust of the people whose sweat, blood, and toil feed it. It is a truism that democracy is expensive and can’t endure in an atmosphere of poverty, mismanagement, and outright injustice as is ours at this point, which is being operated in an opaque manner.

On the contrary, though, it is only when all that happens in the system can be seen through that the people will be inclined enough to continue sacrificing their lot to sustain that democracy. Ghanaians may be proud that they’ve chosen the right path toward political stability, economic prosperity, and national development, which may be the case on the surface; but deep down, it all seems to be fluffy high hopes that are more likely to burst into smithereens of disappointment than materialize to relieve the people of their age-old existential problems.

Those in the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General’s Department or elsewhere don’t do much to enhance justice delivery. That is why none is even thinking of prison reforms to make our prisons and other holding-places habitable. Such people forget that for as long as the law remains an ass, anybody can fall foul of it and be behind bars one day. If you doubt it, ask this “Jesus One Touch” preacher man who has just been released from prison and says that prison is worse than the hell that he preaches about!!

It is within this context that the statement made today by Miss Audrey Kokuvi Tay, a Circuit Court Judge hearing the case of Christian Asem Darkeh (the alleged importer of the MV Benjamin cocaine) is appropriate. She took issues with the attitude of the State Prosecutor handling that case and stressed the need for the human rights of accused people to be respected.

In fact, no statement could be more salutary than this one. It reinforces public complaints against the incompetence or sheer wickedness on the part of officials of that Ministry, which results in cases being protracted and accused people being kept on remand in deplorable conditions in police cells and prison custody for years without their cases ever being concluded. Such people are certainly being dehumanized which, I suppose, is the exact result expected by those officials whose laxity creates that situation.

And Mr. Heward-Mills, the defence counsel for Asem Darkeh, made it clear too when he said that since the case started, the prosecution had asked for many adjournments to complete investigations; yet, it had still not completed enquiries to be present in court. Claiming to be investigating cases and, therefore, not proceeding with cases they hurriedly send to court is one of the virulent strategies used by officials of that Ministry to dehumanize people. If the cases haven’t been fully investigated to warrant prosecution, why rush to court only to dilly-dally with the case while the accused is subjected to all manner of callous treatment (by the police, the prison system, and what-not)?

It seems this approach to handling cases serves some people’s best interests and has been so since time-out-of-mind. But that is not what a democracy requires to be able to serve the people’s interests. Unfortunately, some are of the mistaken belief that the more cases they dump at the courts, the more obvious it is that the Ministry is up-and-doing.  That is why they will harden their hearts and subject others to this kind of inhuman treatment. How many times haven’t complainants turned into suspects or accused people to be unjustifiably prosecuted because someone in the corridors of power is wearing his authority on his sleeves?

We must not continue to have this kind of wicked aberrations that spawn miscarriage of justice. Of all the bad things that can happen to threaten our democracy, none equals the denial of justice and freedom to the people; and the problem reaches frightening heights if it is caused by the institutions of state that are supported by the sweat, blood, and toil of the people.

The Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General’s Department is a perfect example of a bad institution in a democracy, and its officials must bow their heads in shame. I am particularly incensed by the Ministry’s lousiness because it is part of the national malaise that nobody in authority seems to care about. All that happens there is just a replacement of one political appointee with another—a clear case of new wine being put into an old wine bottle to become contaminated as soon as the action is over.

Not until something drastic is done to streamline the justice delivery system, the loopholes in it that have been exploited over the years by unscrupulous elements with political connections will continue to hurt our democracy. No matter who heads that Ministry, or how many times the President dismisses or appoints anybody to head it, nothing remarkable will come from there. The Ministry’s problems will continue to defy solution. More importantly, they will continue to ensure that those who have no political connections are either victimized or denied justice when caught in the maze of prosecution.

Not until the justice delivery system is revamped to weed out the undesirables and the bottlenecks eradicated, there is no way we can benefit from that Ministry as expected. And if we don’t benefit from it, we won’t work to sustain its activities. As is gradually emerging, we can foretell the danger that lies ahead of us as Election 2012 approaches and new problems add to existing ones.

 The writer can be contacted by email @ mjbokor@yahoo.com, on facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor. 

By not being at peace with each other, these foremost personalities are not setting any good example, and should be told the truth. The matter is troubling, especially in the case of Rawlings and Kufuor, being the only surviving former Presidents. And being two of the three leaders we’ve had in this 4th Republic, they should have known better not to allow their ranks to be divided by who-knows-what?
I will be brazen in passing judgement here to say that the worst example has come from Rawlings. I say so because he is easily identifiable as the source of the conflict. He is at loggerheads with both Kufuor and Mills just because he can’t relate to them properly or fit into their frameworks for governance that differ from the one that he functioned in when he ruled Ghana for nearly 20 years.

At every turn, it is either Rawlings this or Rawlings that. In truth, the causes of the strained relationship between him and his successors (Kufuor and Mills) can be traced to his doorsteps. I will bluntly say here that he seems to relish in this antagonism and wishes that it persists so that he will continue to portray himself as someone to be deferred to and concessions made to accommodate.

As he continues to enjoy the media coverage that is given him, he seems poised to do all he can to prolong the enmity. That is a clear indication of the sort of character that he is. Granted that Kufuor belongs to a rival political camp, we may assume that there would naturally be a fair amount of “hostility” between him and Rawlings. But that “hostility” has its roots in other things, which we will explore later on.

The conflict between Rawlings and Mills is particularly bothersome because of its negative impact on governance. We can tell from the rumpus in the NDC and the disdain that Rawlings, his wife, and all those supporting them have for the Mills government that the persistence of that strained relationship is doing more harm than needed. The NDC is suffering the pangs as its followers take sides.
Rawlings can’t bring himself to accept the fact that by constantly antagonizing and alienating people, he is endangering his own future and reducing all his good accomplishments to absurdity. He seems not to accept the fact that it is foolhardy for him to climb two trees at once just because he has two feet.

The strained relationship can’t be resolved because Rawlings isn’t willing. If he were interested in an amicable resolution, he would have toned down on his scathing attacks on President Mills and made room for it. But he doesn’t, which underlines the internal crisis in the NDC itself.

The latest indication that something is being begun to that effect may be heart-warming but I have serious doubts whether such peace-brokering efforts won’t end up in smoke. In effect, Rawlings doesn’t seem to like peace and won’t work for it. He seems to be more poised to dig in and benefit from the strained relationship than any peace that may be brokered. He thrives on risks, so the saying goes.
That is why I strongly disagree with the MP for Adenta, Kojo Adu Asare’s proposal that the NDC should employ a professional mediator to reconcile him and President Mills.

According to the MP, “a professional mediator would know the appropriate strategy to adopt to ensure the two gentlemen settle their differences amicably to avoid any factionalism in the NDC” (MyJoyOnline, Friday, April 6, 2012). In his estimation, the eminent chiefs constituting the Coalition of Traditional Rulers formed by the NDC to settle the almost four years’ rift between President Mills and Rawlings ahead of the December polls are not professional mediators and, thus, lack the requisite skills to resolve the impasse.
The MP is said to be skeptical about the ability of the chiefs to succeed in that endeavor. He made his views heard on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Thursday.

I regard the MP’s position as weird and unacceptable. First, he is wrong to propose the use of a “professional mediator” for this task. Second, he is dead wrong to conclude that the chiefs can’t resolve the conflict. Experience tells me that our chiefs have acquitted themselves as capable mediators and problem solvers even without being tagged as “professional mediators.” They are known and respected for their conflict resolution efforts in many ways, succeeding in brokering peace among antagonistic factions in different parts of the country.

Now, let me take these two issues to discuss on their merits. What is it about a “professional mediator” that should warrant the MP’s proposal? More importantly, should the NDC waste money on such a venture when these two “old” men (Rawlings and Mills) should have known better not to misconduct themselves as they are doing as far as the strained relationship between them is concerned?
At well over 60 years, aren’t they mature enough to know how not to bother us with their tantrums? What is it that prevents them from being bold and determined enough to repair their strained relationship?

By not sinking their differences and reconciling at their own volition, they come across as pitiable. No amount of mediation by a “professional whoever” will yield any long-lasting benefits for as long as none of them has the compunction to take the first step or be prepared to eliminate the causes and, thereby, prevent a relapse. No one but Rawlings and Mills can resolve this strained relationship!
Now, to the point about our chiefs not being able to resolve this conflict. Who has told this MP that our chiefs lack the skills for such an assignment? The only hindrance may be the constitutional prohibition against their involvement in partisan politics. Even then, they can go ahead to initiate efforts aimed at reconciling Rawlings and President Mills without being accused of flouting the constitution.

After all, their action won’t amount to any participation in partisan politics. There is a difference between peace-brokering and partisan politicking in respect of this personal problem between Rawlings and President Mills. We can easily separate each role from the other and excuse the chiefs in this instance. The larger problem is the intransigence of Rawlings, which is the major obstacle for anybody wanting to repair that broken relationship.

The root causes of the conflict or friction between Rawlings and President Mills (or former President Kufuor) are not difficult to determine. Let’s say here that Rawlings’ irresistible dictatorial urge and desire to control people and call the shots are at the center of the conflict. After handing over to Kufuor, he couldn’t bring himself to recognize the fact that the Kufuor who was to head the new government was no longer that Kufuor whom he had appointed as Secretary for Local Government in 1982 to be controlled and dictated to.

Rawlings did all he could to call the shots, which backfired and for which he felt implacably offended by Kufuor. Didn’t Kufuor tell us how Rawlings manouevred and called meetings with him at which he sought to school Kufuor on how to govern the country?
Kufuor did say it openly in 2001 that he stood his grounds and refused to attend other meetings called at the instance of Rawlings because he didn’t want to give Rawlings any iota of feeling that he (Rawlings) could call the shots. The result? Rawlings cultivated acrimony against Kufuor to the extent that he openly derided him with his “Nii Ayii nie, Kufuor nie” cacophony.

Rawlings didn’t end it there. His public pronouncements against Kufuor were nothing but scathing attacks on his personality. His persistent hard-hitting abuses and outright denigration of Kufuor deepened the hostility between both and made it difficult for well-meaning Ghanaian public figures to broker peace between him and Kufuor. The prosecution of his wife and others who functioned in his government heightened the hostility. We heard all that Rawlings said in condemning Kufuor and why the venom simmering in him seemed to catalyze his electioneering campaigns for the 2008 elections.

That was why he and all others fought hard to return the party to power. But in one way or the other, they didn’t take long to become disenchanted that the Mills government wasn’t taking the fight to the NPP

functionaries as expected. By refusing to punish these ex-government officials, President Mills definitely angered Rawlings and whatever has continued to be hurled at him seems to be his “reward.”

Then, let’s turn to his fracas with President Mills. One wonders why the Mill

s that Rawlings found so much virtue in to the extent that he virtually anointed him as his successor (through the Swedru Declaration) should now be the “Atta Mortuaryman” and a “Greedy

Bastard” to Rawlings. It was all because Mills has refused to bend as pulled up-and-down by Rawlings. Indeed, Rawlings’ persistent clamour for Mills to denounce the outcome of the 2004 elections, particularly, portrayed his impatience at showing the NPP functionaries where naked power lay. Investing his time, energies, and resources in the NDC’s bid for power, Rawlings made sure that the politicking remained anti-NPP to create room for a future NDC government to deal drastically with functionaries of that political camp whom he hasn’t ceased accusing of thievery.

His constant stentorian calls for the arrest and prosecution of members of the Kufuor government is another cause. It underlies the bad-blood relationship that developed following President Mills’ refusal to toe his line. In pursuit of a pacifist agenda (couched under the slogan “Father-for-ALL”), President Mills has doggedly refused to obey Rawlings’ call. We all know the outcome, which seems to have deepened the internal crisis of the party to such an extent that it can’t successfully put its house in order. To worsen matters, his own poor opinion of the Mills government and its functionaries—those he pejoratively wrote off as “Greedy Bastards”—won’t create any congenial atmosphere for peace-making. That is why despite several calls from public-spirited citizens for differences to be sunk in the interest of the party, nothing beneficial has been forthcoming all this while.

The stark fact is that if Rawlings’ intention is to work for President Mills to lose the elections and send the NDC back into opposition, he will only be cutting off his nose to spite his own face. Ghanaians want to do better things with their time than being bothered with Rawlings this today, Rawlings that tomorrow!

Indeed, I can confidently say that by locking horns with everybody who disagrees with him and projecting himself as the only one who knows how Ghana should be governed, Rawlings has succeeded in inflating himself too much and shouldn’t be surprised if he bursts into fragments.

* The writer can be contacted byemail @ mjbokor@yahoo.com, facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor.