MILLS THE COOL POPULIST

BY QANAWU GABBY

It is difficult to really put a finger on who President Mills is after listening to him on his 1st anniversary. Connecting the philosophy of Candidate Mills, with the actions and mixed-bag messages of President Mills is becoming rather tricky. My advice to him is to find quickly a bridge between these two ends or stand being hit for good with the hypocrisy tag.

As a report on the press conference of one year of the Better Ghana agenda goes, his performance was not top rank. In one statement he can defend a position and attack that same position!

I was intrigued by the way on his first annual anniversary of a ‘Better Ghana’, President Mills made a self-denying ordinance on not giving himself marks when a journalist asked him to rate his own performance. This time, he pointed out that it didn’t make sense for a school boy to mark himself in exams. Last year, he gave himself a modest 80% after his first 100 days. Then it made sense.

Statements like that give the impression that the President blows with the wind, he’s defined by events rather than defining events. I see him as a Cool Populist. He plays the populist card but with such humility that you are likely to take it with a gallon of sincerity.

I marvelled at the pomposity of the humble leader’s self-regard afterwards. “I'm proud of all my ministers for their wonderful performance in this first year of my administration. I sympathise with the other [political] parties. If NDC Team 'B' can perform this well, then they should wait for Team 'A' and when the Team 'A' comes, they would see what will happen,” he said, marking himself and his team high.

Here again after showing some modesty to make a point he makes a u-turn to brag to make another point. What matters to him is the point he wants to score and not how that point is scored. If it means forgoing a claimed principle then so be it.

As a social democrat, it was not surprising that when asked to name one item of major achievement of the year he mentioned but 4 social interventions: school feeding, capitation grant, free text books and free school uniforms. President Kufuor would certainly have recognised the first three items!

The associate professor gave Ghanaians a lecture detailing, as Simon Heffer would put it, some (but not all) of the attributes of contemporary politics and politicians that we find so distasteful. These included the adversarial nature of our democracy and the inability of those who participate in it to admit error.

The president said Muntaka did not resign because of corruption, “there wasn’t corruption, it was because of indiscretion on his part.”

Just a couple of weeks earlier, this same head of state scored high remarks with an international publicity stunt. ‘Ghana’s President John Atta Mills Rejects Christmas Gifts.’ The news item carried by Reuters, BBC, CNN, etc, was another showmanship on how seriously Ghana’s President intends to fight corruption.

It reminded one of the Graphic headline last year that the President had given his political appointees one week to declare their assets. A year later only a fraction of them had heeded to the declaration. The impression this gives is that things are said and done more for their publicity effect than their substantial impact on the agenda for bettering Ghana. This may not be fair, though. But in politics perception travels further than substance, as NDC may know so well.

The news item on hampers went like this: “Ghanaian President John Atta Mills is refusing to accept Christmas presents this year because he fears they may be intended to corrupt him. Sending hampers of food and gifts to people in authority is a Christmas tradition in the African country.

“But Mr Atta Mills's spokesman said the president felt it was better not to accept them in case the givers were seeking something in return. Mr Atta Mills was elected in 2008 on a promise to fight corruption.

‘“Some people bring the gifts and their motives are genuine,’ presidential spokesman Mahama Ayariga told the BBC's Focus on Africa.”

The President who would not even accept a traditional Christmas gift because of the fear of being corrupted is prepared to dismiss a case of corruption not tested in court as an act of indiscretion.

Sport Minister Muntaka was accused of corruption at a time that former government officials were visiting the offices of BNI like a diarrhoea patient visits the loo. But, Mills directed
National Security to handle Muntaka’s case – not the BNI specific.

In areas where the whistleblower had alleged that specific amounts of government cash was taken by the Sport Minister and the Minister denied, the investigation concluded that “the allegation could not be proved.” Instead, the whistleblower became a victim of persecution.
Even though the letter that sacked Ken Attafuah as head of the National Identification Authority stated he was being fired on the instructions of the President of the Republic, when the question was put to President Mills by a journalist his response was that he was not familiar with that particular case. “There is only one President”, he told Ghanaians fondly last year.

As a lawyer “if somebody makes an allegation against another person and is not able to give credible evidence…I have no option but to give the benefit of the doubt to the person who is being accused.”

Well, President Kufuor was also a lawyer when he called for evidence but Candidate Mills did not forgive him. “I would not hide behind evidence to shield corruption,” he said in 2008.

“So it was not a case of corruption, corruption could not be established. We felt that the young man was being indiscreet and that is why he felt that it was right for him to resign and he said so in his statement. In any case let me add this, we’ve been in this country for some time, you have reported on many cases [of corruption], since when have ministers, given these facts, had the courage to tender in their resignations? How many can you cite?”
Well, the truth is Muntaka’s was the first time in Ghana’s history that a Minister was accused of using state money to buy chinchinga (kebab) and pampers. But, it was not the first time Ministers were forced by circumstances of ‘indiscretion’ to resign.

President Mills reiterated his earlier stance that Muntaka should be commended for resigning his post for after all; “are we saying that this is the first time that ministers of state have gone abroad with girl friends, this is the first time that ministers of state have infringed the law, have spent state money on themselves?”

When a candidate campaigns on the ticket of morality and promises to better Ghana, the last thing we expect of him is to say: “I wish you asked me this question 8 years ago. This is not the first time that ministers have gone abroad with their girlfriends.”

What President Mills showed at the press conference was the type of intolerant temperament that an Akufo-Addo or Kufuor would have been accused of arrogance had they done so.

It was a farcical week. The President did not have to sack the Ashanti Regional Minister who incited his party supporters to assault those who criticise their President. But after acknowledging his Minister’s apology the President should have publicly rebuked the Minister and sent a clear ‘fatherly’ message to the country that people in responsible places should be mindful of what they say. That is the mark of a principled leadership committed to making Ghana better.

We must expect that with a new government successes of the past can be built upon, failures of days gone by can be learned from, new ideas can be tested, new solutions implemented and the nation continue to move forward in an ever constant course.

The route now remains uncertain. But, we must not lose hope.