Mills, Morality & Justice

This week, the newly appointed Head of the Catholic Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, and a delegation from the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference paid a courtesy call on President John Evans Atta Mills.

As is usual, the President used the opportunity to deliver a pep-talk to the assembled clergy. I would not have had problems with the things he said, which, on the face of things, were good things, if not for the hypocrisy that our President keeps on demonstrating.

Words are nothing if we do not back them up with actions, and increasingly, it is becoming clear that we have a President who has the ability to mouth fine sentiments without expressing any commitment to these sentiments.

For instance, the President told the assembled clergy that there was a need for a 'national moral revival' and the need for Ghanaians to pursue things of lasting benefits.

By a 'national moral revival' I presume that our President is talking about allowing morality to guide and guard us in our actions. If that is what he meant, then surely, the President has failed woefully, because, surely, it is not moral to sack people from their legitimate jobs just to create employment opportunities for our friends and family members?

The President also spoke on the need to 'resolve to chart a new life and set good examples'. I agree with the President on the need to resolve to 'chart a new path and set good examples' but I ask, what good examples has he set since he came to power? In every single aspect of public life, he has breached every single boundary that he criticized the previous government for breaching. He has created a huge government, increased the size of public expenditure, failed on all his promises, and allowed members of his government to go on a vindictive spree that has created fear and panic across the length and breadth of the country. That is not charting a new path, and it certainly is not setting a good example. And it is certainly against all that he campaigned for when he was in opposition!

The President would also like the people of Ghana to believe that he believes in justice and peace.

Listen to him; "Where there is no justice, there is no peace and no development."

This is certainly a fine quote from the President Mills. Again, and again I can't agree with him more. But how can he talk this way, when he allows Muntaka Mubarak to go free whilst prosecuting Asamoah Boateng? In Ghana today, there are two laws, laws for the NDC members and other laws for the rest of us. Any President who believed in justice and peace would have ensured that there is an even application of the laws of our land.

Our President, as I keep on stating, is a hypocrite of Herculean proportions. To listen to him speak, one would think that salt would not melt on his tongue. He is constantly preaching virtue whilst allowing all around him to practice vice. He claims that he is a man of peace, yet everything he does demonstrates that peace is not something that he appreciates. He speaks of justice and dishes out injustice and he speaks of equity whilst sponsoring the deliberate impoverishment of his fellow Ghanaians!

What a man! What a hypocrite