Wikileaks! NDC Stabs Mills

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

It has emerged that two senior National Democratic Congress (NDC) members described President John Evans Atta Mills as surrounding himself with mediocre advisors.

According to Wikileaks, the notorious whistle blower website, Johnson Asiedu Nketia aka General mosquito NDC General Secretary and Alban Bagbin, Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing told United States Embassy officials that “Mills has surrounded himself with inexperienced advisors who are providing poor counsel”, confirming Jerry John Rawlings, former President and NDC founder assertion the president’s appointments are mediocre.

The NDC gurus went on to tell the US Ambassador Donald Teitelbaum on December 10 and 11, 2009 that the mediocre advisors are “failing to ensure inter-ministerial coordination”.

So far, names like Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry; Baba Jamal, a deputy Minister of Information; and Fiifi Kwetey, a deputy Minister of Finance, and others have popped up as having made statements to diplomats probably for political expediency without recourse to political repercussion.

The rest are Akrasi Sarpong, the Executive Secretary of Narcotics Control Board; Ben Ephson, a self-acclaimed pollster and Editor of Daily Dispatch; Kwesi Pratt, Managing Editor of Insight with latest batch of loose talkers being Asiedu Nketiah, Bagbin, and Mahama Ayariga.

After meeting President Mills on December 9, 2009 in a crucial meeting at the Castle the cables said “both Nketia and Bagbin said that the NDC's success in the next election will be based on its performance in government, and that the party must overcome its current divisions if it wishes to remain in power.”

Alban Bagbin
“Bagbin said participants voiced concern that Mills has surrounded himself with young and inexperienced advisors who are not providing good counsel. Bagbin was particularly critical of the President's communication team, singling out Spokesman Mahama Ayariga and the Information Minister (Zita Okaikoi) as ineffective (reftel).”

“Bagbin noted that as Majority leader (as he was at the time) he is responsible for carrying out the government's agenda in Parliament, but said that there has been poor coordination between the government and Parliament.

“Bagbin also cited poor coordination between different ministries, and said the exclusion of the Information Minister from the Cabinet has aggravated the government's inability to present a coherent message.”

Johnson Asiedu-Nketia
The cable said “NDC General Secretary Nketia, who sits in the Mills Cabinet, told POL Chief that he felt the Mills meeting was successful. He also said Mills' communication team was failing, and noted that this contrasted with the successful communication operation that the NDC ran in opposition and during the 2008 presidential campaign.”

“Nketia was particularly critical of the President's Chief of Staff and two Deputy Chiefs of Staff. He said he had been surprised by Mills' hiring decisions for these positions, and said that none of the individuals in those positions had adequate political experience.

“Nketia cited former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings' decision to run for a party vice chairman position (in the run up to the NDC congress in Tamale to elect executives) as a challenging development that could prove either problematic or positive for the party as it looks toward the 2012 election.”

“Both Nketia and Bagbin said that the NDC's success in the next election will be based on its performance in government, and that the party must overcome its current divisions if it wishes to remain in power.”

“Nketia acknowledged divisions within the party, and said that the party would have little chance to retain power in 2012 if it cannot overcome this problem…Nketia conceded that the Administration has had governance problems of its own creation, but said that another significant problem was managing the expectations that were raised during the campaign, particularly given the difficult fiscal and economic situation” the cable said.

“Nketia said that the NDC is struggling to define itself as a party independent of personalities, and that they must find a way to manage the political force of Rawlings without making him irrelevant adding “in dealing with NDC divisions, Nketia said that for many years the NDC has revolved around the personality of its founder, and that this has created lingering questions of loyalty for many party leaders who served under Rawlings but now identify with the current president”.

Mahama Ayariga
Mahama Ayariga spokesperson at the inception of the Mills administration before he was moved to the Ministry of Trade and Industry and now in Education as deputy minister conceded that the Mills government has been vulnerable to criticism as it has not done a great job explaining itself to the Ghanaian public.

“This has allowed critics - including some within the NDC such as former President Rawlings - to take the initiative in criticizing the pace of the Mills Administration,” the cable said.

“Ayariga admitted that personality problems between members of the President's communications team have adversely affected coordination. Ayariga specifically noted strained relations between himself and Director of Presidential Communications Koku Anyidoho, and Information Minister Zita Okaikoi.”

NDC’s ‘dirty’ politics
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 believed to be the son of General Nunoo-Mensah, Mills’ National Security Advisor and Sylvester Tamakloe, a presidential staffer at the Presidency who told Political Officer 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."

“They said that their information was coming from two of the NDC’s polling officials representing the party in the EC's strong room where election results are being tabulated. They identified them as Victor Smith, a former Rawlings aide, and Larry Adjetey, another NDC high official. They also said that the NPP was providing false provisional election results to radio and TV stations to give the impression that Akufo-Addo had more votes than the actual case.”

According to Wikileaks, the Ambassador managed “to put a quick end to these allegations by placing a call to Afari-Gyan, who called the charges utter nonsense and said that he felt no threat to his life.”

“He added that he still moves around Accra freely without escorts or bodyguards. He thanked the Ambassador for passing along the information,” the cable said.

The cable said the Ambassador later spoke with NDC’s Director of Communications (Hannah Tetteh), who distanced herself from the allegations, saying that she knew both Nunoo and Tamakloe, but they were not speaking on behalf of Atta-Mills.

“She confirmed that Victor Smith was a party representative in the EC’s strong room, but inferred that he sometimes spoke without conferring with the candidate and his closest advisors.”

In the Ambassador’s comment, he described the allegation as “one more instance of the NDC playing dirty politics.”

“It (NDC) has already issued a premature press release claiming victory, which resulted in celebrations in Tamale which police were required to disperse. It held jubilation ceremonies at party headquarters in Accra that had to be contained by police, and later claimed that the celebrations were being held only for some of their parliamentary winners.”

“And it has been accusing the NPP of malfeasance in at least three parliamentary elections without providing concrete evidence. Its behavior is not helping its cause, and seems ill considered in the face of the good showing it has been making in the elections. We suspect these two men were free-lancing.”

“So far, these efforts have not grown beyond the level of irritation, but we will monitor the situation carefully.”