Ex-Presidential Privileges Tale of the Tape NDC's bad faith against Kufuor

That the leadership of the National Democratic Congress deliberately acted in bad faith and against all sense of decorum and dignity in their dealing with ex-President Kufuor over privileges due him as an exiting President is revealed in correspondences The Statesman is privy to.

Documents also seen by our reporters have indicated that those comparing Kufuor's privileges with that offered Jerry John Rawlings failed to get the true picture of the value and quantum of assets that both former Presidents were officially offered.

Whilst the controversy, if any, in the case of Mr. Rawlings as a former President involved a dozen different type of cars, in the case of Kufuor, it was 3 BMW saloon cars.

That is also aside of the decency that surrounded the Kufuor Transition in dealing with former President John Rawlings as against the lack of tact and diplomacy surrounding the actions and inactions of the NDC Transition Team and as a ruling administration.

One document dated February 26, 2002, for instance, opens with a statement indicating that the Office of Jerry John Rawlings sat down with the incoming administration to agree on what Mr. Rawlings should be entitled to.

The correspondence begins: "As agreed with you last week, I am returning the underlisted vehicles into your custody.' It initially mentions seven cars and says the Office wants to keep five cars out of the total 12.

The Office of President Rawlings stated in the letter that it would request "that the following vehicles are allowed to be retained for use by the former President for his household chores.'

The letter signed by Victor Smith, Special Assistant then to former President Rawlings, then spells out the number of vehicles the Office of Mr. Rawlings was returning - 12 in all, minus two others, one of which was said to have been allocated to Warrant Officer Patrick Kuntor by the Transitional Team.

That level of communication and decency in the NDC"s dealing and relationship with Kufuor, however, is missing in another correspondence released by the Minority in Parliament on Tuesday in respect of the withdrawal of State vehicles assigned to the former President.

The three-paragraphed letter read passively in its opening paragraph: 'It has been decided that three BMW salon cars currently in the custody of the former President JA Kufuor should be returned to the Office of the President [Professor JEA Mills]'

The letter was written on a letter head of the Office of The President and signed by JH Martey Newman, Chief of Staff.

That Head of Government's Transition Team, MR. PV Obeng, also expressed surprise at the raging debate over the propriety of ex-President JA Kufuor's acquisition of State property for his private office, is evidence of a clear intention on the part of the Mills administration to embarrass former President Kufuor, if the documents seen by The Statesman are anything to go by.

A myjoyonline.com report, quoted PV Obeng, head of the Mills Transition team as stating on Accra-based Asempa FM that former President Kufuor 'officially informed President Mills of his desire to use the office and received the President's due blessing for its use.'

That consigns to the dustbin of falsehood and bad faith any intention or agenda on the part of the spin doctors of the Mills administration to explain away the attack on President Kufuor, who not only is the butt of a planned attack by GaDangme activists on his person but also the wicked propaganda machinery of the NDC.

In May 2002, Office of then President Kufuor wrote to former President Rawlings after discussions on his resettlement. The language, again, was civil and diplomatic, assuring him of his comfort and reminding him that those formalities were a mandatory constitutional exercise as it is in the case of the report constitutionally prepared by a constitutionally approved body.