Ahwoi Tells Spio – Leave Mills Alone
Below unedited, is an open letter from Mr. Ato Ahwoi, a
leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC)
to another leading member, Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah:
Hello Spio, I have read with interest and disbelief, your
long article published in the September 18 and 23, 2009
issues of the Daily Graphic. It was deceptively headed,
‘Honouring Nkrumah’s Legacy: A Challenge To The NDC’.
I use the word, deceptively because it was an opportunity
for you to launch an unnecessary attack on President John
Atta Mills and the NDC government under the guise of
honouring Nkrumah’s legacy.
Spio, I get the impression that
you are trying to intimidate the President to give you a
cabinet appointment. You gave many Ghanaians that impression
when you quoted the reason ex-President John Kennedy gave
his brother Robert Kennedy (then Attorney-General) for
tolerating a difficult man like J. Edgar Hoover as the
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).
You
said President Kennedy told his brother, ‘Bob, I’d rather
have Edgar inside the government pissing out than outside
pissing in.’ Another indicator of you wanting to pressurize
President Mills to give you a ministerial appointment is
when you stated ‘Are we in Ghana saying that we don’t know
why President Obama invited Hilary Clinton into the
important position in spite of the quite bitter contest they
had during the primaries in the Democratic party?’ Are you
implying because you lost miserably to the President in the NDC primaries, he should invite you into an important
position in his government?
Spio, please remember that Mrs.
Clinton never said Mr. Obama was a sick man and will NEVER
Win an election.
Now, why are you so desperate to serve in the government
headed by someone who will never win an election?
My NDC
brother, if President Mills does not appoint you as a
minister, please continue to piss in as many times as you
want! You are dying to be a Minister in President Mills’
government, yet you are insulting your potential colleagues
that they have not been appointed on the basis of merit but
by virtue of proximity to power, feigned loyalty, financial
considerations and other factors. Are you implying that you
were appointed a Minister in the 90s by some of these
reasons like feigned loyalty and financial considerations?
Spio, your reference to football in your article gave the
impression that your knowledge about football is limited.
Until last year, three players in Barcelona – Ronaldinho,
Deco and Eto’o considered themselves indispensable. Last
year, the Barcelona coach sold two of them – Ronaldinho and
Deco and for the first time won the treble including the
Spanish league and the European Champions league. This year,
he has sold Eto’o and Barcelona are still on fire!
The NDC government will do well without you in government. I
have been wondering the basis for certain statements you
made, bearing in mind what you said that there is no serious
opinion polling in Ghana but informal chop bar research,
personal vendetta stories and skewed field reports from
certain ‘security’ agencies. Against this background, can
you please indicate, in your next article, the basis for
these three conclusions:
1. that the impatience of the NDC rank and file has been
further worsened by some of the appointments that have been
made, where they can see clearly that many people who had
little to do with the NDC’s electoral victory are amongst
those reaping the rewards;
2. Is there a reason why many of our NDC appointees are
reported as being no longer accessible to party members by
phone or text and have distanced themselves from those who
put them into power?” and
3. Do most appointees realize that a gulf is widening
between them and the party faithful? Are the appointing
authorities aware that most foot soldiers are angry because
of the way some leading party members are being treated?’
By the way, Spio, was President Mills obliged to consider a
so-called well-considered written proposal on how to gain
most from the Obama visit? You talked about a written
recommendation in November, 2008 for the NDC leadership to
establish a transitional team – how can an opposition party
have an effective transition team? Any transitional team
will need the cooperation of the government in power!
Spio,
you claim that many NDC members have been calling on you to
be a candidate for one of the National Vice Chairmanship
slots. That is not the way to go about it – please leave
President Mills and the NDC government to do what the true
NDC members in particular and Ghanaians in general know they
are capable of giving all of us, A BETTER GHANA.
Finally, in future, you want to be a presidential candidate
of the NDC and become the President of the Republic of
Ghana. As a true party man, why don’t you do a private memo
on the shortcomings and possible solutions, than publishing
them?”
Ghanadot
