Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday September 6, 2011.
Revelations by Wikileaks, a notorious whistle blower website has dropped a series of ‘cluster bombs’ setting fire on the political landscape as political party activists struggle to defend their party in the latest damning revelations.
The diplomatic cable which has been released from the archives tackles all political parties in the country from the years 1997 -2010, exposing especially issues affecting personalities of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) with a few trickles here and there on PNC’s Dr. Edward Mahama and CPP’s Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom.
The leaks have also brought two journalists on head on collision, with Ben Ephson of Daily Dispatch and Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko of Danquah Institute trading accusations,
According to Wikileaks, a cable of the US Embassy diplomatic correspondence uncovered that “while President Mills has struck the right rhetorical tone regarding his commitment to combating narcotics,” Akrasi Sarpong Executive Secretary of Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) told the US official that the Mills Administration “has so far failed to provide adequate resources to NACOB.”
“He underlined that the force is understaffed, underfunded, and under-resourced…Sarpong implied that police are open to corruption because of their personal financial situation,” the leak quoted.
Another explosive issue that has come up is excerpts of opinions by then Netherlands Ambassador and his wife who after a week-end rendezvous with ex-President Jerry John Rawlings and his family in 1997 at the ex-first family’s yacht in the Volta Region reported that Mr. Rawlings has six children and was on drugs.
According to Wikileaks, Ambassador Hein Princen's wife after their meeting concluded emphatically that Mr. Rawlings is a drug-user.
“Periods of high-level energizing were followed by Rawlings' disappearance for thirty minutes, and upon his return he was subdued and even mellow. He perspired profusely at short notice, and consumed large quantities of non-alcoholic drinks.
Princen reinforced my own impression that Rawlings' attention span has shortened of late but the Princens found the president open, indulgent towards his children, and extremely deferential - even obsequious - towards his spouse (Mrs. Rawlings).”
The leak also said “Mr. Rawlings may have some medical problems -- he trembles slightly and loses his thoughts frequently. He called on his colleagues for opinions and then insulted them in front of us. His raw outbursts and scattered ideas are typical, and as bizarre as ever.”
“His views of a coming violent convulsion contrast with the much more moderate, democratic views of many others in the NDC party. Rawlings can however still whip up his own people to cause trouble if he chooses.”
According to Wikileaks any encounter with Rawlings “has an element of the bizarre,” adding “he booms forth his opinions (which are often overly emotional and difficult to follow)...He loses track of his thoughts, grabs people around him (he grabbed the Ambassador's arm on several occasions), and fumbles with the two pairs of glasses dangling from his neck.”
It said the World Bank and IMF officials complain that Mr. Rawlings is “uninformed” on economic matters and his Minister of Finance seen by financial experts inside and outside Ghana as “alarmingly incompetent.”
World Bank and IMF visitors complain that Rawlings seems profoundly uninformed on economic matters, even as his minister of finance is seen by financial experts inside and outside Ghana as alarmingly incompetent. Into the vacuum has moved Anthony (Dr. Tony) Aidoo, whose conspiratorial demeanour encourages dark speculation about his malign influence on Rawlings.
Aidoo is known to us principally for his entrenched leftist leanings, his anti-imperialist rhetoric while a professor at Cape Coast University, and his affection for the likes of Qadafi and Castro.
NANA AKUFFO-ADDO
Wikileaks said Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, flagbearer of the NPP during conversations with American diplomats in 2008, stated his abhorrence for illicit drug trade and pledged to fight the menace when he becomes President.
Nana Akufo-Addo, then Foreign Minister indicated his readiness to commit resources to the law enforcement agencies including Police, Narcotics Control Board, Ghana Navy and Defense and their allies to motivate them to “drastically reduce the illicit trade.”
According to Wikileaks, the US Embassy was approached by two advisors to the then opposition NDC candidate Professor John Atta-Mills, in the persons of Edward Nunoo and Sylvester Tamakloe, who told Political Office that Electoral Commission (EC) Chairman Kwadwo Afari-Gyan was being pressured by then ruling NPP “to announce false results that would be supplied by the NPP.”
Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the EC told the Ambassador that the allegations of rigging leveled by the NDC were "utter nonsense."
WikiLeaks (sometimes Wikileaks) is an Australian made international website headed by a journalist, Julian Assange that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of otherwise classified documents while preserving the anonymity of sources. Its website, launched in 2006, is run by The Sunshine Press but it has gained worldwide attention with major news outlets cashing in on the vast information it makes available.
These are some excerpts of the report:
[2006] According to Obed Asamoah, Rawlings was actively working against Atta Mills, making it impossible for him to gain the party's nomination for president.
Palestinian Ambassador Omar portrayed both Rawlings and his wife Nana as out-of-touch and having an insatiable appetite for power. Omar said Rawlings cannot endure psychologically having lost the reins of power and should have sought a post-presidential identity earlier. "He feels defeated," Omar said, adding that if it were not for Rawlings' advisor, Captain Kojo Tsikata, Rawlings never would have stepped down.
GABBY VRS BEN EPHSON
The Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Mr. Otchere-Darko has strongly denied offering Ben Ephson $20,000 to skew pre-election 2008 opinion polls in favour of the then governing party.
Wikileaks reported Ephson said the NPP had tried to bribe him with at least $20,000 to produce a poll favorable to them and named the party official offering the money as Gabby Otchere-Darko.
He also said, although without presenting the evidence he claimed to have, that the NPP tried to get the names of polling agents for other parties.
Ben Ephson said the NPP wanted to use this information to bribe agents, and was willing to pay $1,000 for polling agents to collaborate with vote rigging.
Ephson said that in the six weeks leading up to the conversation, the NPP had spent large sums of money in ten swing constituencies, trying to secure the parliamentary seats.
Asked by the US Embassy’s Political Affairs Officer (POLOFF) where the money was coming from, Ephson said it was coming out of the government's coffers, primarily from kickbacks on government-awarded contracts.
Gabby Otchere-Darko has described the allegations as false.
He revealed that it was Ben Ephson who rather informed him of an opinion poll he had conducted on the upcoming poll.
“I never tried to bribe Ben Ephson with any money whether with $20,000 or anything. Ben is alleged to have said and I think that it is only fair that he comes out to say what he said or did not say. I never got in touch with Ben Ephson about any opinion in favour of the NPP.”
Gabby asked if Ben Ephson was then paid for declaring the polls for Nana Akufo-Addo in the second round.
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