My life has gone through five decades plus and is closing-in on the sixth decade since I became a citizen of this nation of ours. I am a thorough-breed Ghanaian. I was born in the heart of the garden city of Ghana, Kumasi and to be precise Bompata, near Donkirk. I am a Ga. I have lived through four republics headed by both military and civilian rulers. Some of them were good others were explicitly bad. I saw how Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown, how Busia and Hilla Limann were both overthrown by the military. I wasn’t enthused at all at the last military take-over headed by a Flight-lieutenant by name Jeremiah John Rawlings, a half-blooded Ghanaian with an Irish or Scottish father whom I understand did not ‘take care’ of him. I wonder if they know themselves after all, I stand to be corrected though. (I was about writing my A’ level exams by then and this man, because of his selfish ambitions, made shipwreck of my education) . It is this Jerry man who ushered in the NDC that is ruling the country as I write this piece after usurping power through the barrel of the gun and later on ‘transmogrified’ to become a civilian ruler after causing the country to retrogress in all spheres of her endeavors. To the best of my knowledge, one has to be SMART, TOUGH, BRAVE and sometimes STUPID enough to run a government. Stupid in the sense that one might be ‘hit and insulted’ in many ways but like the proverbial and Biblical Jesus, one will be inclined not to insult back but allow oneself to be taken to the cleaners like a sheep in the hands of his shepherds to be sheared or slaughtered. But before one is elected to become a president, one has to go through a lot. I quite remember a student once asked his lecturer ‘How do I run for president? The lecturer retorted thus: Make enough empty promises to get voted into office. Undoubtedly, Uncle Atta Mills made a lot of empty promises and was thus voted into the high office of being the president of this dear nation of ours. Now the question is, is he smart, tough, brave and stupid enough? Did the voting masses consider all these attributes or virtues? No, this answer is emphatic. The reasons are that we were made to believe that the then NPP candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was not religious and that Atta Mills was, and ‘is’ now. In fact we were made to understand that Atta Mills was a God-fearing Christian and that the country needed a good Christian like him, and not Akuffo Addo who was not even a ‘church-goer’ by then to rule the country. Most of the citizens, being unlettered (they have one vote to cast as the learned professor has) and also being religious minded believed that lie (it is called propaganda in political terminologies) and voted him into power. He was given the accolade ‘Asomdwoehene’, to wit Prince of Peace. No wonder serious-minded Christians want to take him on on this assertion. An attribute that belongs to the Almighty God has been conferred on a mortal being. Has he been able to bring peace and sanity into his own party?? He was not a man of his own. He declared that he was going to consult Jerry John 24/7 in his politicking prior to becoming the president. But what do we see now. He has ‘jettisoned’ the man who made him. Because he was not smart enough, his henchmen made him understand that the masses would see the real man in him if he should do away with Jerry Rawlings. What do we see now, chaos, chaos. I however do not say that had he consulted with Rawlings, we wouldn’t be faced with the mess in the body-politic of the nation now, far from it. To get rid of the encumbering Rawlings, he surrounded himself with people who have a bone to pick with Rawlings and thus went about discrediting him and his family. They denied him assess to a decent home when his house was gutted down by fire a couple of years or so ago. He was and is still being disapproved by his detractors within the party, whose constitution he used his blood to seal at a party’s conference in Koforidua sometime ago. Ah! Human beings! Human beings are ungrateful to the hilt. In order to cover their ineptitude, they used and are still using propaganda to lure the masses to believe that the previous government was worse-off than all governments that we have had since the dawn of independence some fifty-four years ago. One thing that is happening at the blind side of these bootlickers is that the people are wide awake now than ever. The ‘Kokromoti’ power is there. It is indeed the only deciding factor. He was not smart enough to read through the lines when they propounded that agenda to deal with the former president and his wife. The fact still remains that he has been overwhelmingly endorsed by delegates at congress to lead the party, but does the centre hold now. I am told propaganda and falsehood did not die with the cold war, they are still very much alive, and they are the agents with which America seeks to cow us all into some psychological submission. That is exactly what uncle Fiifi’s men are trying to do. Well, it is said if you can’t beat your opponent, use propaganda to undermine him and that will enable you to overwhelm, unsettle and triumph over him. That is also the exact way these people are handling their opponents. They however are ignorant of the fact that it is the good people of the nation whose lives are at stake here. Where they have not sown, they say it as if they were reaping the results overnight. People are suffering. No square meal is enjoyed by the masses. Water, electricity, gas and health issues are looming at us all. The NHIS is gradually becoming a white elephant. It’s now very expensive to educate our kids. Conditions on our roads have nothing good to write home about. Filth is engulfing the entire nation, centre, left and right. Unemployment has become the order or the day. Graduates from our tertiary institutions are unable to access employment, let alone those who are below. Businesses are finding it difficult to stand on their feet, yet these people, instead of finding solutions to them; rather have chosen the path to throw dust into our eyes by their propagandist posture. In their books, all is well with the people. Inflation is below par, but the reality on the ground is different. Ironically, the founder of the party in power, which they belong and serve, calls them greedy bastards hence, they have jettison circumspection in their point of view to the background. Greed, to them, is the other of the day. Because they get what they want at will, they don’t respect and care a hoot about anything. They have chosen the path of self-gratification. Fortunately or unfortunately, the good old professor is looking on unconcerned. He has refused to call them to order, yet when he is ‘insulted’, he calls on religious leaders to wage a crusade or may I call it war against his opponents. Pointedly, he has lost control of affairs. ‘Remove the beam in your eyes before you attempt to ask your brother to remove the specs in his’. Some of us have consolation in the fact that their term of office, whether to be continued or terminated would be determined by the close of December 2012 when the right-thinking Ghanaians would go to the pools to exercise their franchise just as I opined somewhere in this submission. It is about time these people and others in like manner change their attitudes or else posterity will not take kind with them at all. For propaganda sake, a deputy minister once asked the staff of a ministry to lie about acts of the government in order to paint it good in the eyes of the public, ‘say cow when the government buys sheep’ I was told he ordered those innocent staff to extol the government or else they loose their jobs. How preposterous and inconsiderate can man be? I have a firm belief that he is being chased by his own shadows, why because, it makes mockery of his touted ‘Asomdwoehene’ God-fearing man, and a good Christian accolade that we were made to believe. The processes to him being endorsed were riddled with intimidations, aspersions and a whole lot of behind the scene wrangling to his advantage. A good Christian does not cheat in anything he does, being himself undertaking it or someone doing it in his behalf. For this reason, he could not celebrate his victory well. There were no vivid smiles on his face. He was rigid on his acceptance speech. He was not exciting on the podium. I think his conscience was pricking him by then. Everything was ‘overwhelming’ at the Sunyani Coronation Park during their national congress. The man, I mean His Excellency Professor John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills is not tough enough. He is not hard-hitting. He has let loose his spokespersons to go about discrediting his government by their way of life, both in speech and in deed. They insult and malign at will and go scot-free. I am having the conviction that he is not on top of affairs. They go about lying about things that are not as if they were. Every now and then, it dawns on me to have the premonition that the president is ‘blind’ to what is happening on the ground. He buys hook, line and sinker what his agents tell him without questioning. The following are excerpts from the former first lady of the country at a rally at Takoradi sometime ago. ‘Nana Konadu pointed out that corruption, infighting, broken promises and incompetence had become the order of the day in the current NDC administration. “Ghanaians are now discerning, she opined; to separate truth from propaganda and lies and I believe the electorate will not want the economic hardship they are going through under the current administration to continue,” she stressed. According to her, corruption in Ghana in recent times under the current administration had taken disturbing dimensions and was gravely affecting the pace of national development in Ghana’. Is Ghana really withering with the coming of H.E. Professor John Evans Atta Mills as the president of Ghana? Everything is bizarre. The centre cannot hold. I heard Professor Frimpong Boateng, the head of the only Cardio Centre in the country has been relieved of his position, or is it sacked from that position for no just cause. This was done by no other person than the then ‘Honorable’ Minister of Health. Incompetence had become the order of the day in the current NDC administration, to borrow Nana Konadu’s misgivings. . How and where on earth that, a professional of this man’s caliber could be brought into disrepute and public ridicule like this. This is an affront to professionalism. This man (Yieley Chireh) does not know the thing, period. Why couldn’t he call his (Prof. Frimpong Boateng's) attention to any mishap in his dealings at the helm of affairs at the centre if any, for him to either deny or otherwise of those inefficiencies. Hmm, posterity would definitely not forgive this man. For political expediency sake, the president endorsed Prof. Frimpong Boateng's removal by asking him to properly hand over within one month. That is how we celebrate heroes in this part of the global village. I am inclined to say that the professor of tax knows a lot about the distasteful dismissal of the professor heart. He has a hand in it. You can fault me here but, that is my opinion. Unquestionably, Uncle Attah is not a brave man. A leader must exhume bravely to lead his people. He is an ‘afraid’ man. Because he is not a brave man, and maybe for cheap political gains and to cover up for the disgraced minister for acting in that manner, he backed his actions. I quite remember someone told me that he lacks what it takes to run the country on business lines like Mr. Kufuor did. The answer is simple. He was a teacher. It was the government that was paying him. When his salary does not come at the end of the month, he could not find any alternative ways to live. Unlike a business man who, in order to succeed, would go at any length to make it. For this reason, he’s unable to attract foreign capital into the system. Whenever he tries to do that, he does it in haste and the end result becomes bizarre. We were told the $3billion Chinese loan was initiated by the erstwhile NPP administration and instead of them taking the pains to negotiate it very well they rushed into it hence it could not materialize. God help us! This country needs a brave person to govern it. Someone who does not fear to take risks at all levels of his decision making processes... Someone who can initiate actions without fear or favor, someone whose actions are devoid of trivialities. That is to see whether they could thrive or not. This country needs a valiant. I mean someone who could defy the odds and act to the betterment of the suffering masses, challenges not withstanding. (I am not saying he is a coward here in literal terms). We were, as a nation fooled into believing that since he could make it academically to become a professor at a youthful age, and the fact that he could propound the VAT form of taxes for the then government to romp in more revenue, he could as well pass for a good president. No. this man has woefully got it all wrong. He is far below the pass mark. Undeniably, he is a ‘good man’ morally, but politically, he is a ‘bad man’. The president is not ‘stupid’ enough to handle issues, especially, about what he hears his opponents say about him. He is inclined to answer every criticism of his. He should try to be ‘stupid’ some of the times and pretend not to have heard anything at all. Well, am told nowadays he’s becoming a bit ‘stupid’. That is to say he does not answer his critics as and when he hears them, but holds his peace and does so when appropriate. Is that a fact of him of late? The other time at the Sunyani conference, he replied the boom man right there on the podium when it was his turn to address delegates on an issue he (Mr. JJ Rawlings) raised on him and his government. It was a genuine concern, though. My mouth was filled with sour grapes there and then. I just would not go far on this tributary of attributes of a president. I am holding the rest to my chest. Is the president a hypocrite? No! The NO is emphatic. But somewhere along his handling of issues, one may be tempted to say he is. Take the drugs issues for instance. Am told Akrasi Sarpong, the NACOB Executive Secretary was lamenting over the government’s inability to nib in the bud his accomplices who use the VVIP to trade in illicit drugs. The fact that he speaks about it does not mean he is fighting it. Mr. Akrasi Sarpong was once heard saying the government has failed in providing the board with adequate resources to fight the menace. How is he handling the cocaine turned baking soda issue. Is he really abreast with the realities on the ground?? He should walk the talk and stop talking the walk. The president should act, period! Sometimes, some of us are inclined to believe that the president is a hypocrite. He is not the good Christian we were made to believe he was. He is a professing one not a practicing one. When he returned from the USA and was asked about the huge sum of money doled out to Mr. Agbesi Woyome, he said he knows nothing about it. When we heard this, we were taken aback. His actions and utterances points to the fact that he is ‘irresponsible’ as he claims he is not. When he met with the senior journalists at the Castle in a press soiree, he was asked the same question about the GH¢58million that was paid to Alfred Woyome, he said he cannot be so irresponsible to direct his Finance Minister to pay such a whopping amount of money to an individual while the masses suffer due to inadequate infrastructure and basic amenities. Just listen to him “...when I know the plight of our people, when I know our people are crying for water, the basic necessities of life, how can I be so criminally-minded, so irresponsible to say give GH¢58 million to one person.” The emphasis is mine. This is a confirmation in his assertion that the payment of the money was “irresponsible”. Further more, he has established that under his BETTER GHANA AGENDA “the masses suffer due to inadequate infrastructure and basic amenities”. He thus inveterate that, the payment of such an amount was “criminally minded.” One aspect of this whole saga which still haunts my resolve is why the government did not call the attention of the officials of the past administration whose actions or inactions brought about this to give inputs as to what exactly transpired between the then administration and Mr. Woyome before the judgement debts were paid. If he could order his men not to honor the payments and his orders were flouted on two occasions by those appointees of his then, he is not on top of affairs. He really has lost touch. He is not in control of affairs. Even some of the die-hard members of his government are very skeptical about the whole show and are very worried about the turn of events but...Hmm Before the professor took over the reigns of government our mothers and sisters could access loans from the banks to trade with. Both the old and the young could go about their daily lives without a sweat. What are we seeing now? They struggle to get goods to sell. The irony of it is that, the purchasing power of the people is weak so they cannot buy. This was evident in the recent past listening tours of the NPP’s presidential candidate. Copy cat! What sometimes baffles me and beats my understanding is that the president was the ‘initiator’ of this house-to-house campaign in the political arena, yet, he has woefully failed to address those issues or concerns that the people he visited in their homes brought to the fore. Haba! Mr. President, build the schools you promised the people. Deal with the pre-mix bottlenecks you promised the fisher-folks. Mr. President, kindly fix the problems that you saw the NPP could not handle before you took office. Time is running out for your first term in office if you don’t know. Fix them for the people to feel economically liberated for it seems you are not on top of affairs. The bootlickers are ruining your efforts if you don’t know. I can’t take it to see the country wither under your leadership … I shall be back. Thank you! NIIBI ADJETEY - OKLAHOMA, USA