OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA

Dear President Mahama, Let me do the first thing first. Congratulations on your victory as President – elect of the republic of Ghana. You fought hard for this victory. It is not a fluke. I know that there were many who would rather die than see you become president of Ghana. There were those within your own party who even worked actively against your victory. They tried hard to sabotage your efforts. I am sure you know them for yourself. Within five months you managed enigmatically and charmingly to get more than half of the Ghanaian voting population rooting behind you for victory. One is left with no choice than to admire the ease with which you have become elected president of the republic of Ghana. I want to believe that your victory has nothing to do with your ethnicity. It is a fact that more non- northerners voted for you to become president of Ghana. You even captured more votes in Ashanti – region – the opposition strong hold – than your predecessors ever got. You have been given the blessing of all Ghanaians. Therefore, I am hopeful that you will eschew tribal politics during your reign as president since tribalism is a major bane for our country’s development. I will never support you just because you come from northern Ghana. That will be ‘primitive loyalty’. I will only support you for your show of commitment to fighting corruption, ensuring probity and accountability in public office, demonstrating that you are clearly in – charge of your government among other things. I am sure that one of your strongest attributes which brought you victory is your ability to reach across to others who may even openly disagree with you. You did it within the NDC after the demise of late president Mills. You can do it again now that you are fully in –charge. There are also many who voted for you because they believe you are very competent. Now you have the task to prove that competence. Mr. President, your victory is a new day not only for your supporters but also for many of those who had hitherto lost confidence in the NDC leadership. You represent new hope for those of us who almost lost hope in the essence and relevance of the fundamental values of the NDC. I have heard your spokespersons say that you are taking this electoral victory with humility. I hope so. I know for a fact that the task ahead of you is a daunting one. You cannot afford to fail where President Mills did - Unless you want to end where he did. There used to be a lot of vindictiveness within the NDC. There also was exclusiveness. There was divisiveness and ingratitude. Flatterers ruled the presidency in the past and intolerance of divergent views reached such intolerable levels. And regrettably, truth was buried and the speakers of truth publicly crucified. You may disagree with me on my judgment of the last NDC government, Mr. President. We are allowed to agree to disagree in a democracy. However, we have a new day to begin to make amends. Some of us are progressives and will give full support to a new, genuinely inclusive government – inclusive of divergent ideas, inclusive of genuine competition, and a tolerance for truth. In my books, the only way to be different from the last NDC government is to get rid of all the people who have out –lived their usefulness in government. I don’t need to name them. There are young ones who must go out of government to give way for a new day. There are equally the old guards who must be retired for good if there is to be any real progress. The opposition to your government will be strong and vicious. The NPP with over 47% of the voter population behind them do not believe that your victory is genuine and without manipulation. Indeed, the NPP have accused you of conniving with the electoral commission to rig the 2012 elections. They obviously feel embittered and may not be cheerful losers. I hope you can contain an embittered opposition, and keep them also loyal. It is important to rally the opposition behind you. Inclusiveness should be your hall mark. Mr. President, You don’t need another opposition within your own ruling NDC party. If that is allowed to happen this time round, you may have too many enemies to deal with – a situation that will destruct you from succeeding as president. Learn from the mistakes of the Late President Mills. Don’t fall into the same traps as he did. Remember those who helped you win power. Don’t say it was the work of God because God works through men. Remember your promises to the people of Ghana too. Don’t tell us they were just promises to win elections. We would hold you accountable to your words – and we will do it without apology. I wish you good luck as President of Ghana. As a young person considered as a global being by many, you must raise the bar and galvanize young talents from within and outside Ghana to move Ghana forward to a competitive stage in the global village of international trade and commerce, cultural integration, international relations and diplomacy as well as research and development that will make Ghana technologically competitive around the world. It is my hope that some of us will not become compelled to be an opposition in your government on the basis of principle in the near future. That can only happen if you refuse to show true leadership – a new leadership that gives all of us hope. I really look forward to a new day in governance in our dear nation. Please don’t disappoint young people of Ghana. Sincerely yours, Amenga – Etego SaCut Political youth activist & columnist

Are we all just inherently hypocritical in Ghana?

Who in this country with the ability and opportunity to surf the internet did not first read from the BBC website that the late Ghanaian President John Evans Atta Mills died of throat cancer? Did we ask the BBC if they were pathologists? Why has there not been a denial of that BBC story? And why are we now pretending that it was the former president and NDC founder who first mentioned cancer as cause of death? Or do we have selective memories to the extent that we forget this man was answering questions from the same BBC? And if JJR said that the Prez Mills could have lived 6-7 months longer with the wisest of advise, what is wrong? After all, in 6-7 months, the NDC would probably have won power again, and if at all he died after that, power will remain in our hands for the next four years. What will be more prudent than that for the NDC? Are all these noise makers inciting the public against the former president simpletons? if not, what is difficult to understand in all this? Is it the 6-7 months (until after election) that is a big deal or the throat cancer that was first known and reported by the BBC? In any case, when BABA JAMAL, a deputy minister in this same government went to tell foreign diplomats that the ex president Mills was suffering from Throat cancer, nobody denied it from the wikileaks reports. He was not even removed from office by the same living president. So why try to crucify someone else who is not even the primary source of that same information after his death? This is why Some of us cannot understand what all this loud noise about the comments of former President Rawlings after the death of ex president Mills is all about? Government has even made further effort to manipulate and mislead the family of the late president for cheap political gain-all in a bid to cover up their own 'crimes' against the late President Mills. Anyways, Ghanaians are anxiously waiting for the autopsy report. And don't let them tell us they want to bury the man without telling Ghanaians what killed him since government spokespersons have already denied reports of throat cancer. In America, JFK was shot by a gun-man. everybody saw it but there was still an autopsy report to confirm it. Ghanaians need to know now - even before he is buried- what killed our dear president Mills!!!.?

LET'S SET SOME RECORDS STRAIGHT!!!

There is a bogus and a porous argument in town. It is coming from people within the NDC. These people either have rickets of the mind or they suffer from historical amnesia and they need to deal with it with a sense of urgency.

Here is a remedy for that malady.

What is their argument? That the NDC founder and former President H.E Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings did campaign for candidate Mills in the year 2000 and 2004, and yet, the man lost. Therefore, it goes without saying from that warped logic that with or without President J.J Sitting president Mills will win 2012 elections.

First of all, in the year 2000 the loss was caused by the recalcitrance of Prof. Mills himself. Over 60 constituencies fielded candidates that were unpopular not because the party didn't know but because candidate Mills himself had chosen against the wise counsel of President Rawlings- who was so sure that if these candidates were not replaced, the NDC will lose both parliament and the presidency- to keep these 'unwinnable' candidates in place just to prove that he was 'in-charge'. This is on record- documented or not.

So if ultimately, the NDC and Prof. Mills lost the elections in the year 2000, it was his decision to loose and president Rawlings who is on record to have been unwell at the time didn't even campaign much for him once Prof. Mills had chosen to lose!

In the year 2004, the NDC did not loose the presidential elections. The election went into a run-off and everybody with a half-brain cell know about this. President Kufuor got 48 % against Prof. Mills who got 46%...Prof. Mills chose to give up the presidency against the very will of the people of Ghana. The EC never declared J.A Kufuor a winner in 2004. It was Jake Obetsebi Lamptey and his cohorts of the NPP.

And When Prof. Mills decided to timidly accept defeat instead of allowing for a second round, he consulted no one- at least not president Rawlings who was away in CONGO at the time and who has continued to insists that the NDC did not lose that election.

Prof. Mills gave up a second round in 2004 ostensibly because Kofi Annan and co. gave him pressure to allow President Kufuor a second term in office even though Kofi Annan did not campaign for him. One wonders what Mills may have benefited personally from such a cowardly decision.

So: the effort of president Rawlings in the year 2000 campaign was rendered useless by a self-seeking decision by Prof. Mills to maintain Parliamentary candidates that were bound to bring down the NDC..

And in 2004, President Rawlings' campaign efforts sent the elections into second round- and we know that no incumbent ever wins a second round- and yet, Prof. Mills gave it up on a silver platter.

Therefore those who remain wise in the NDC must use their good sense toward the founder and stop the ignoramuses from continuing to derail any chance of having the founder near the 2012 campaign on the bases of this bogus, porous and uninformed argument!!!

SaCut Amenga-Etego