MILLS GOES WILD

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu& Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Sunyani
Friday July 15, 2011.
President John Evans Atta Mills is reported to have gone haywire on Tuesday over attempt to pin him down to the raging gay issue in the country, cutting short his re-election celebration.

The president was said to be wild over an article published in Ghanaian Times soon after massively defeating the wife of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) founder at the Sunyani congress of the party.

President Mills is said to have personally telephoned the Acting Editor of the Ghanaian Times to reprimand him over a recent publication in the state-owned newspaper of the raging homosexual issue, even though story was originally a Ghana News Agency story.

According to sources at the Castle, the President called Charles Neequaye, because he was not happy about the paper’s Tuesday July 12, 2011 banner headline “We’ll stop the Gays – President”.

The news article which had no by-line quoted the President as saying that the government will institute measures to check the menace of homosexuality and lesbianism from gaining grounds within the social fabric of the country.

At a thanksgiving service on Sunday at the Sunyani Central Ebenezer Presbyterian Church of Ghana, after the President’s resounding victory over former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings in the NDC national delegates’ congress in Sunyani, the Minister-In-Charge of the church, Rev. Joseph Bosoma took advantage of the President’s visit to table four pressing social issues which in the view of the church needed to be tackled by the government.

He particularly appealed to the President Mills to help to address the issues of homosexuality, indecent dressing among the youth, Ghana’s porous borders and the Fulani herdsmen menace.

Responding to the concerns raised by the Reverend Minister, the President according to the report promised to tackle the issue of homosexuality by stating that the acts were contrary not only to the word of God, but also the cultural norms and values of the Ghanaian society.

“The word of God is clear and unambiguous, what is right is right, what is wrong is wrong”, President Mills was quoted by the paper as saying.

Daily Guide learnt that Mr. Neequaye was in his office on Tuesday when a phone call came through from Koku Anyidoho, Communication Director at the Presidency, asking him to ‘hold the line’ for the “old man”.

Mr. Anyidoho was said to have handed over the phone to President Mills who complained bitterly about the publication and told the Editor that he did not make those comments attributed to him by the newspaper. Attempts to speak to Koku failed.

The Ghanaian Times has no option but to retract the story and apologize to President Mills on its Wednesday July 13, 2011issue.

The telephone conversation according to sources was facilitated by a colleague Editor at the Ghanaian Times who was disqualified recently by the NTC board when the commission interviewed applicants for the post of a substantive Editor for the paper.

The said colleague Editor who is seen as a sympathiser of the NDC is allegedly been lobbying in the corridors of power to become the substantive Editor.

It was the same colleague Editor who ‘liaised’ with the Castle for the publication of a recent story that sought to create the impression that Okyeman had endorsed President Mills for a second term sparking heated political debate over what was actually said by a chief when President Mills toured the Eastern Region recently.

The man is said to be the eye of the Castle at Ghanaian Times.

Meanwhile, the Minister-In-Charge of Sunyani Central Ebenezer Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Joseph Bosoma, has stated that President Mills at the said church service promised to do something about the homosexuality menace in Ghana.

Rev Joseph Bosoma told DAILY GUIDE on Thursdsay, that President Mills however did not categorically mention that he was going to institute laws to outlaw homosexuality which is creeping into the Ghanaian society.

“He only promised that he will do something about it when I raised the issue before him. But as to what he was going to do he did not mention it here,” Rev Bosoma told DAILY GUIDE.

The reverend minister further stated that the president however issued a strong worded statement against the menace and further assured the congregants that he will do something about it.

“The entire church members were happy because the president responded positively to my request,” he added.

The Mills administration is yet to make its official position on homosexuality despite the numerous calls on the government to come out with stringent laws to ban the menace.