SEGBEFIA REPLIES RAWLINGS! …Slow Or Not, Mills Will Go For Another Term!

Deputy Chief of Staff Mr. Alex Segbefia has declared emphatically that President John Evans Atta Mills has every intention of seeking another term, in spite of the heavy criticism directed at his style of governance by his party's bigwigs such as former President Rawlings and Majority Leader Alban Bagbin.

Former President Rawlings has been saying that things are moving slowly in the wrong direction with the Mills Administration and that the President has surrounded himself with some 'greedy bastards', whilst Majority Leader Alban Bagbin says that the President is surrounded by sycophants and bootlickers, suggesting that they are opposed to a Mills' second term.

But Alex Segbefia has called on all Ghanaians to disabuse themselves of the notion that President Mills may not vie for a second term.

“You are saying that 'in case Professor Atta Mills stands' and I am saying that there is no 'in case' as it stands now. I don't want anyone to create the impression that it is on Professor Atta Mils' mind not to go again. I want us to be clear on that point, that Professor Atta Mills as it stands now, will contest in 2012 and would be looking for a second term as President of this country,” Mr. Segbefia said.

Mr. Segbefia was speaking on Newsfile, a political analyses program broadcast on Joy FM every Saturday.

According to Segbefia, the current problems facing the party, where leading officials in the NDC such as former President Rawlings and Majority Leader Bagbin had turned their guns on the President, as an internal party problem arising out of the current race to select party leaders at the national level, and to select a presidential candidate in future, but all should disabuse themselves of the notion that the President would not vie for a second term.

He said that it is too early in the day for anybody to be criticizing Professor Atta Mills because it is too early.

“Let's be clear, this is a government that has been in power for only ten months, and it is totally unfair for anyone except two people to comment in any derogatory manner about this government after only ten months,” Segbefia said.

He named these two exclusive people as former President Kufuor and President Rawlings, justifying this by saying that this is because they have the benefit of having occupied the presidential office before and can recognize right or wrong decisions.

“It is too early, for the criticisms,” he said in an indirect attack on the likes of Alban Bagbin and others.

On the criticism by Alban Bagbin that that the President has surrounded himself with people who do not reflect his character, Segbefia insisted that it was an internal matter, but added that she cannot agree with Bagbin.

“This is because at the end of the day that is the prerogative of the President. He chooses his ministers. Are we going to make a judgment on the President on his choices when the whole country have voted that he should be President?” he said.

He said that there are those who may agree or disagree with the President's choices, but at the end of the day, he was the President who had been chosen by the people.

He said that to his knowledge the Majority Leader has not been denied anything he had requested, and neither had he made any demands that had been acceded to, and so far, there had not been any major disagreements at cabinet level, leading him to wonder about the complaints that were being made.

On the President's reaction to the on-going brouhaha, he said that the President had called on members of his team to remain focused because