One of the most innovative if not creative political advertisement I watched on TV during the 2008 electioneering period in Ghana was this: somebody knocked a family's door; they opened; and, a soldier's boot made the entrance…
It's a response to the then candidate Prof. Attah Mills' 'door –to- door' campaign at the time. The message is that the NDC's sober presidential candidate knocks the door and the soldier you know unexpectedly enters.
More explicitly, Prof. Mills' opponents put it, "A vote for Mills is a vote for Rawlings"; and, with a political sales boosting irony, "buy Attah and get Rawlings free" they reiterated the 2000 and 2004 messages, which glued him to Dr. Rawlings in a servant and master posture.
Matters got worse for the aspiring president when in response to a question he said he would consult his former boss or seek his advice every other day. Since nobody wanted Dr. Rawlings to rule Ghana from the ex-presidents' office, journalists and people from the general public continued to seek prof. Mills explanation to that otherwise harmless statement.
So hard, he tried to convince Ghanaians that he is, and would be his own man in government. But, not even did his exhibition of positive defiance via the appointment of his vice, John DramaniMahama against the wish of the Rawlingses persuaded people enough.
Today, the sober melancholic president is now uncomfortably situated between his promise of consulting his former boss on issues; and, the promise of being his own man.
The real problem here is that the current and former presidents are some miles away in character; and in the varied personalities impacting their leadership styles, thereby, making it extremely difficult for the two to dance in their tiny room of compromise.
The soldier, by his nature and training is radical; he is an employer of the unconventional approach of doing things; and, the professor, by his intellectual exposure and his very nature is sober. The latter seems to be more concerned with fulfilling those moral promises of being his own man; of being a father for all; and, of not being vindictive, with the ultimate purpose of leading his Better Ghana agenda.
According to the Rawlingses, President Mills isn't doing enough to throw the so many former government officials the NDC perceived to be corrupt into our choked prisons.
As reported on the front page of the Daily Graphic of Tuesday, 7, 2011, by Della RusselOcloo, the former president in his speech at the 32nd edition of the June 4th celebration in Kumasi recently said that leading members of his party's government had gone into a pact with officials of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime to overlook corrupt practices on both sides.
Government officials, he said, were dipping their hands into state resources in their attempt to amass individual wealth at the expense of Ghanaians who elected them to serve their interests.
Early on, former president Rawlings has made a lot of passion concentrated criticisms against the president he campaigned for vigorously for not 'listening' to him; and, he has condemned virtually all those around the president.
Knowing the ex-president background, some might wonder if he isn't simply painting everybody black to prepare the ground for another adventure, which not even his children and FONKAR members would allow.
But, what is more conspicuous here is the modicum of correctness in the NPP's assumption that former president Rawlings had plans to remote his ex- subordinate in government. Paradoxically, those who would be languishing in prisons were President Mills forcing them to eat a piece of TsatsuTsikata's pie are rather talking at him for not listening to the founder of his party; the pathological untruth talker who now has become a truth talker to them.
Meanwhile, should he obey him and carry out his measures unedited, their message would be,' we told you so! Rawlings is controlling him". And, even now, if the law gravitates towards them heavily, they would still have a convincing message: the president is now making efforts to please his former boss.
But, are president Mills and his men in government not to blame too? They supported Dr. Rawlings anytime he came out with serious allegations against J.A Kufour and his men in government. Even when he disrespectfully insulted former president J.A. Kufour; comparing him to AtaaAyi, the notorious armed robber, they cheered him up.
Which evidence did the ex-president showed them before they supported all those wild allegations he made against former government officials? Anyway, maybe, the old professor, having learned from former vice president Arkah's experience, kept his good counsels in those days to avoid taking some resounding cheek beatings and heckles. No wonder his boss loved him so much.
But, on a more serious note, Ghana's longest serving foreign minister, ObedAsamoah, a former confidant of Ex-President Rawlings who fell out with him in a power tussle in 2005, seems to understand the ex-president's attitudes towards President Mills better than most people do.
In an interview with Stephen GyasiJr, published in the November, 2010 edition of the Africawatch magazine, DrObedAsamoah expected Ghanaians to, "understand Rawlings, in a way, because he invested a lot in the person (Prof. Attah Mills, for emphasis) and he must feel sorely disappointed that the person is perhaps not performing the way he thinks he should perform."
According to Dr. Asamoah, perhaps Mills is denying Rawlings certain things; he is not bringing him into the picture the way he expects it to be; so naturally, he is frustrated. "Basically he (Former president Rawlings, for emphasis) is somebody who is very individualistic and it's his nature," the former Attorney General said.
Then President Rawlings unilaterally announced Prof. Mills at AgonaSwedru in 1998 as the party's candidate for the 2000 presidential election, according to the former foreign Minister, without consulting any of them. "We all were sitting on the platform and then out of the blue he made the announcement…And, thereafter he sought to consolidate the position and fought relentlessly and vehemently against anybody who thought otherwise," Dr. Asamoah recalled.
Certainly, the former president wouldn't do all that for nothing. He had both easy to, and difficult to perceive motives at the time. Nobody could tell whether the two men agreed on something before the Swedru declaration. So, only the two of them understand what is going on better than Dr. Asamoah.
Dr. Rawlings, now a frontline critic of the Mills administration is vehemently supporting his wife, just the way he supported Prof. Mills from 1998 to 2008. He believes Nana Konadu could better do what Prof Mills doesn't want to or is unable to do for him, the NDC party and for Ghana. He doesn't believe in president Mills anymore and would find it extremely difficult to campaign for him for the 2012 elections.
Nonetheless, the Professor as usual has maintained his sober self. On a few occasions he told journalists, the former president, as an experienced man, has every right to criticize him as if he doesn't see the venom with which his former boss spits the wild allegations on him. And, with an attitude fit for the pulpit, he has called for a clean insult-free campaign.
But, could Dr, Rawlings and his people give Prof. Mills and his men samples of the painful political injections they gave Dr. ObedAsamoah, KwesiBotwe and their supporters at Koforidua in 2005? Maybe, no; not this time.
Would they support Prof. Mills should he come out victorious? Well, they have told us they have nothing good to campaign about, so the answer is close to obvious. And, would they stay in a stale political marriage? Perhaps, they would prefer separation if not divorce.
Prof Mills wouldn't like even mere separation but it seems the NDC is dancing vigorously towards political divorce in Sunyani. If they escape divorce then this whole thing could be stage managed as some dreamingly want to believe. And, if its stage managed then they deserve a global award for such a sophisticated political stage management.
Writer: Raymond Ablorh
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