“’PROF”’ ATTA MILLS – THE PETTY AND OPPORTUNISTIC POLITICIAN

I will be very shocked from now onwards if people including the likes of Kweku Baako do not desist from, and keep on referring to Prof. Mills as a “fine gentleman”. I am of the strong conviction that it is about time people revised their notes on their perceptions of this man, dissect him well, and get to know his true identity.

After a careful study of recent actions and inactions of this supposed “Asomdwoe Hene”, I dare say without mincing words, that he has lost that accolade of a fine gentleman (that is if he had it in the first place). Not just that, he is attempting to throw professorship to the dogs and marines, and it is about time he is checked. Have you had a close look at the man of late? Is it true that he is not sick?

The Professor has of late assumed a campaign of lies, pettiness, and populism. After being told at the infamous Coco Beach meeting to “go get it by force” he has resorted to desperate attempts to prove to his “masters” and breadwinners that he can be a perfect “boom man” or can as well call a chemical interrogator when given the chance to do so.

In the wake of the seemingly crisis that is rearing its head on the University of Ghana campus, reigning Ghana's most popular opportunistic dinosaur, Prof. Mills, has waded into something that if students have good memories would realise that he has no moral justification to comment on.

After having a meeting with the university authorities, who were generous enough to grant him audience and brief him on a number of issues, including the genesis of all such problems, which emanated from the time he was Vice President, he went out of his way to meet students only to incite them against the government whom he referred to as “our common enemy”.

According to the thrice defeated flagbearer of the NDC, government had lost its priorities and that instead of expanding residential facilities to accommodate students, it was wasting huge sums to build a Presidential Palace. What a mischievous and populist stance?

Does this man who says he is not sick but is only undergoing a slimming course, such that he drinks only water, think Ghanaians have short memories? Were we not in this country when the then NDC government, the party of which he is now the leader (heaven alone knows whether it is just the title he has or the real mantle of leadership) sunk so much money into buying a Presidential Jet, and a flying coffin at that, at the behest of one man who needed it only for his pleasure?

Do we still want to keep on using the castle, an edifice that make people reminisce slavery and torture, as our seat of government, after fifty (50) good years of nationhood? Ah, well, coming from a bloody party and people whose leader and founder handed down identification hair cuts to friends of his daughter, and who wasted no time in throwing hefty slaps at Vice Presidents and Ministers, it is not so much surprising. Have you heard that Rawlings signed the 1992 constitution with blood?

While it is important for government to heed to calls for expansion of accommodation facilities, I believe that if we are to be realistic we will admit that we can't have students sleeping in single rooms when there are no lecture and academic facilities and enhanced conditions of service of lecturers. Lately, lecture halls are springing up on all university and polytechnic campuses in this country and objective watchers will attest to this.

Professor Mills and the vampires in his party who will stop at nothing to devour people, including open-minded ones from within their ranks e.g. Hon Haruna Iddrisu, should give us a break and concentrate on how to offer constructive suggestions (if they have some left anyway) in moving the nation forward. This is what is expected of a serious and credible opposition party and its “decorated leader”, Prof. Mills.

What serves him right, and which I believe will go into his ears (I hope he is not slimming his ears too) is the rude wake-up call given him by the authorities of the university and student leaders. The Pro Vice Chancellor of the university has asked him to refrain from inciting students to rebel and to desist from trying to gain political points out of the situation.

In the same vein, the SRC Secretary is quoted by one newspaper as saying “no way to NDC politics”. The SRC President of the university couldn't have said it better when in an interview on Radio Gold, a pro NDC station, stated categorically “we made him understand that this is not a platform for any politician to score any point. But if there is anyone that would want to help us to solve our problems, that person, irrespective of where you are coming from, we will accept you.”

I believe the NDC and Prof. Mills are listening. They should wake up to the realisation that the 2008 elections is not going to be fought on empty rhetorics and propaganda, but on proven track records and achievements. It is there and then that issues like the following will come for mention: Capitation Grant, School Feeding Project, Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), National Youth in Employment Programme (NYEP), Inflation ever declining to below 10% for the first time in over twenty years (March-April 2006), Black Stars qualifying for the first ever World Cup of the nation, NHIS, unprecedented construction of roads, the country's foreign reserves crossing the two billion dollar mark for the first time ever in the nation's history (as at the end of October, 2006), Construction of two more befitting stadia to host CAN 2OO8. Don't you also know that for the first time ever, the minimum wage is above the two dollar ($2) mark? Do you perchance know that the NDC is the only party that recognises the position of a Propaganda Secretary? That is for the records anyway.

KOBLA NUVIADENU