Posted
on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw owusu
Tuesday,
December 02, 2015
Former Attorney General and Minister of
Justice Martin Amidu says he does not have any personal scores to settle with
President John Mahama and his NDC government, revealing that it is rather the President
who has been sending emissaries to him.
Mr Amidu said the President sent not less
than three emissaries to apparently get him on board the present government,
explaining that his criticism of the Mahama Administration was not out of envy
or jealousy but purely on principles and service to country.
Some NDC apparatchiks had been accusing the
onetime NDC running mate to Prof John Evans Atta Mills of criticising the current
administration because of jealousy, having lost the running mate slot to John
Mahama ahead of the 2008 polls.
However, he said any disagreements he had
with President Mahama were purely “on professional grounds and never personal”.
Mr Amidu, who has come to be known as
Citizen Vigilante for his anti-corruption exploits, in his latest article, said
he had always insisted the President run a very transparent government, and
that position was non-negotiable.
Emissaries
He said President Mahama had been sending what
he called ‘emissaries’ to placate him and possibly get him to join his government,
but “on each occasion I was candid on the need for the President to run a
transparent and accountable government in accordance with the core values of
the NDC as condition-precedent for my unflinching support and participation in
his Government.
“After Mr Mahama succeeded President Mills
in July 2012, I received Sule Gariba on 23rd August, 2012 as an emissary from
President Mahama inviting me to the Kumasi congress ostensibly upon the advice
of Former President Rawlings.”
Sule Gariba was Senior Policy Advisor to
President Mahama after his electoral victory in 2012 before he became Ghana’s
High Commissioner to Canada.
Mr Amidu added: “On 24th November, 2012 I
received Alfred Mahama, the President’s senior brother, who was led by Chris
Dugan to my house with a message from the President. I have also received other
emissaries who claimed to have been sent by the President after the 2012
elections.”
On Monday, July 1, 2013, to
give but one example, Mr Amidu stated that “Chris Dugan again brought one Ali
Seidu to introduce to me as an emissary of the President who was to liaise with
me when necessary. It turned out that Mr Seidu whom I had not known until then
was from Bawku.”
A quick cross-check by
telephone on Seidu’s identity after they had left, the former Attorney General
explained, established that he was the son of a late friend generally known as “Seidu
Country” of Bawku-Natinga.
“I never saw him again,” he
stated.
Mr Amidu said, “I saw President Mahama’s
Presidency as icing on the cake after the contributions of Mohammad Mumuni and
myself to the NDC’s efforts to come to power and wished him to uphold the
values of the NDC and not let our collective efforts to be in vain.”
E.O.
Group Saga
Mr Amidu said, “When I reluctantly joined
the Mills/Mahama Government in 2009, I had no problem with the Vice President (Mr
Mahama) except the manner in which he and Oteng Adjei (then Energy Minister) sought
to push my hand into agreeing not to prosecute the E.O. Group case by getting
President Mills to grant an executive consent to the Group to sell their shares
and for me to grant them indemnity from prosecution.
“I always told Prof Mills that: ‘I will
never do anything today which I cannot defend tomorrow when I am out of
office’. When I appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission I was
alone.”
Matters Of
Principle
He said since he served as President Mills’
running mate but lost the 2000 election, he had not had any ambition to be Vice
President or President and added that since he came out of the NDC government
in January 2012, he had declined “all persuasions to go abroad at government’s
expense for the impasse to blow over.”
“I
normally try to be informed by matters of principle, belief, values and norms
in waging a conflict with anybody. I consciously engage in reflective thinking
and practice in my conflict dynamics and the practice of law. I therefore get
surprised when I am accused of hating or envying anybody in conflict.
“I do not allow emotions to becloud my
judgment of conflict analysis and dynamics. As a matter of history and fact
there is no basis for the blame and attributions ascribed to my disagreements
on principles and/or values with the NDC Government.”
Constitutional
Principles
“I disagree and I have disagreed with the
NDC Government on matters of constitutional principles, beliefs, values and
policy issues but never on personal matters. I served the PNDC from February
1982 to 7th January, 1993 before serving under the NDC 1, 2 and partly in NDC 3.
I have been unable to discard principles, and values I have internalised and
lived with since my childhood and through my adult socialisation over the years
including the 31st December Revolution to adapt to the new disvalues of the NDC
Government since 2009.”
He said anybody who knew him personally
would attest “that I have not changed in my leadership role of always insisting
on justice and fair play for the ordinary person at all times. I am just living
out my character.”
Praise Or
Approbation
“In my whole life I have never courted
praise or approbation in playing out my character. I would rather stand for
what I believe to be the truth even if it means I stand alone. No insults or
name-calling will change that after more than 64 years of my existence.
“I should be able to tell my Maker when I
get out or up there or wherever it may be, that I served Him or Her to the best
of my ability; I served the Holy Catholic Church to the best of my human
ability; I served my nation truly and served my people.”
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