President Mills Is Indeed Corrupt

In a feeble attempt to refurbish the sagging image of President John Evans Atta Mills as a hypocrite and corrupt politician, the NDC branch in the USA posits some porous arguments in a rejoinder that appeared on Ghanaweb on December 30, 2010. The fact is that the National Democratic Congress has used reverse logic ever since its inception. It begins with the word ‘Democratic’ in its name. The party is in fact so “democratic” that despite its numerous members, one person runs the whole show, and is in fact the one who appointed John Evans Atta Mills as his successor in the famous Swedru Declaration. Further, the party’s slogan is “Unity, Stability, and Development.” In truth, everything it does seeks to disunite Ghanaians, destabilize Ghana, and reverse her development. This is a party that does exactly the opposite of what it says it will do, or what it says it has done. If its leader, President John Evans Atta Mills, therefore, goes out of his way to suggest that he has declined several offers of bribe, we have to suspect that the opposite is in fact the case particularly since he refuses to name the culprits despite being a law professor. The NDC-USA, which by the way so named itself to copy NPP-USA (it was previously called North America Coordinating Council of NDC), rather than joining law abiding Ghanaians to urge the president to reveal the names of those who have clearly violated our laws by offering him bribes, is expectedly endorsing their Masters’ penchant for relying on circumstantial evidence to make their shameful assertions. Their logic explains why they are referred to as “Team B.” Among their many fallacies, they write “events have clearly revealed President Mills as a paragon of these virtues.” What events? Other than staged scenes and complaints no more conclusive than hearsays, not a single iota of evidence has been submitted to substantiate President Mills as virtuous. This is the same Mills who as Vice President oversaw our nation’s largest, proven case of corruption in the Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal. Mills was also there when the Scancem corruption scandal took place. In this scandal, the Oslo-based multinational cement company, through a conduit, funneled money into the coffers of the NDC two months before the 2000 general elections. Remember Mills was the NDC presidential candidate at that time. The evidence include a letter dated October 13, 2000 authorizing the transfer, a bank statement confirming the transfer, and a signed handwritten letter from a former NDC Minister to the National Chairman of the party confirming the receipt of the money. A virtuous Vice President Mills should have resigned, or as candidate condemned the bribery. Rather he condoned the corruption as he is today. Fast forward to 2009. No sooner have members of President Mills own staff been assigned their respective offices did they begin to distribute amongst themselves farm tractors that were bought and paid for by the Kufuor administration to be distributed to farmers. Further, The Castle, which is the seat of our government, was turned into a used car dealership with the inventory source being illegally seized cars from our two harbors. Yet the NDC would have the rest of us believe that “rectitude and incorruptibility in leadership may be incomprehensible or alien concepts for NPP-USA.” So let us look at the facts. The NDC has produced two presidents. Their first was Jerry John Rawlings. Until his ascent to national leadership, he was so destitute that he used to buy “yokegarri” (garri and beans) on credit. He had no history of business or tenured employment. Yet after his stint at national leadership, he is a multi-millionaire with mansions, speedboats, race horses, and the likes. Mathematically it is clearly impossible for him to have acquired all these assets relying only on his emoluments. In contrast, the one president that the NPP has featured was a businessman and a practicing attorney prior to becoming president. He also owned a completed house in which he lived throughout his presidency. After his presidency he returned to live in the same house that he owned prior to becoming president. At the same time, we have a sitting president in Atta Mills who has no history of property ownership prior to entering national leadership. Now let discerning Ghanaians decide which of these individuals more likely enriched himself through corrupt means. Remember that wealth does not merely drop from the sky, and that explains why John Evans Atta Mills could not develop his family’s land all this time until he became president. But the NDC-USA has a good point. President Mills is not the only working member of his family. Jeez, why did we not think of that? Obviously, other members of his family earn income as well – right? But there is one little problem with that assertion. These are old people who have obviously been working their whole life. So why did it take just the time of their sibling’s presidency for them to all-of-a-sudden have enough money to develop a land that has laid bare for decades? It is not surprising that the members of NDC-USA do not understand the simple logic thematically entrenched in the NPP-USA article. That explains why they would write: “In the article, the NPP-USA actually claims that, ‘anyone can take bribes, and complain about the offer and how it offended him’. Based on this premise, they actually conclude, that because President Mills in a meeting with US officials is revealed to have complained and expressed outrage about attempts to bribe him, he must have something to hide.” The aforementioned rejoinder misses the points we raised in our earlier article. The thrust of NPP-USA’s article is that pious expressions of indignation alone cannot fight corruption. As a lawyer by profession, President Mills should know that attempting to bribe the President of a country is in itself a serious crime. Therefore, instead of talking about attempts to bribe him, we challenge him to name those involved and to allow the law enforcement agencies to prosecute them. That is how to fight corruption and deter would be bribe givers and takers. Refusing to reveal their identities is a loud indication that he actually condones the corrupt practice or is a beneficiary of it. On the issue of drug trafficking, the NPP inherited an active drug trade from a president who himself used drugs, and was known to acknowledge revenues from drug trafficking as advantageous to the NDC’s re-election potential. Any suggestion that drug trafficking in Ghana began in 2001 is simply a fallacy. The NPP fought drug trafficking via the rule of law, which means it did not enjoy the drama of SWAT team standoffs that make the news. In fact evidence exists of numerous drug traffickers including Kwabena “Tagor” Amaning and Alhaji Issa Abbass who were jailed through due process by the NPP, but who have been inexplicable released by the Mills administration. Today drug trafficking is combated merely by mouth by this NDC administration. For example if the President is aware that members of his cabinet are already compromised in cocaine trafficking, why is he shielding them? It is a fact that the NDC has a long history of trafficking hard drugs through diplomatic channels. If President Mills wants to tackle this historic canker within his party, his hypocritical, see no evil, touch no evil approach will not help him. Why are members of his staff, that he knows are compromised, still working for him if he was indeed serious about fighting the drug menace? Let us be serious. President Mills conforms to the traditional NDC tendency to say one thing and do exactly the opposite. A man who was revered as “Asomdweehene”, (king of peace) in opposition has presided over violence and anarchy as President. A man who pledged to be the” father of all’ has turned to be the father of only NDC foot soldiers. The “father-of-all” has also proven to be a vindictive leader who never forgives anyone who contests him for political power. Even in his own party, he has effectively ostracized Ekow Spio Garbrah, for having challenged him for the NDC nomination in 2008. Further, the “father-of-all” could not control his vindictive demons in the interest of the nation to invite the leader of the largest opposition party to witness the nation’s first oil pump because the latter challenged him in the 2008 elections. Is this the NDC’s paragon of virtue? President Mills and the NDC have established a clear pattern of reverse logic. They say one thing, and do the exact opposite. This has earned them a reputation of deception. To that end, why should Ghanaians now believe that if President Mills and the NDC go out of their way to project their anti-corruption stance, the reverse is not the case? NPP-USA insists that President Mills is guilty of complicity of corruption, and that is why he has so far refused to reveal the identities of the culprits.