Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The Progressive People’s Party
leader, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, has chided President Mills for not showing good
leadership by reacting to national events, especially the negative ones now
erupting to threaten social cohesion. And he is right.
How can a President seeking
re-election make himself so invisible in national affairs, especially when
social/ethnic/religious strifes are tearing apart many communities all over the
country?
What sort of weird leadership
style is this one? If he doesn’t leave any lasting positive impact on the
citizens’ minds before his first term in office expires, why should they re-elect
him?
It is not often that countries
get Presidents of Atta Mills’ type. Since being mandated to rule the country,
President Mills has given some of us to know that he won’t be the overbearing,
overweening, and autocratic type to be constantly deferred to or feared,
depending on his mood at the Presidency. But his style is more alarming than
soothing.
Does he have any means to know
what public sentiments are? What are the intelligence and security institutions
doing to inform him about PUBLIC REACTION to his style of leadership? Or is he
so stubborn as to pooh-pooh such reports or not to know from them how his fate
will be determined at Election 2012?
Truth be told, President Mills’
leadership style is doing more harm than good. Laid back he may be, but that’s
his bane. Many aspects of this weird leadership style are already in the public
domain—he is perceived as indecisive, too slow to act, unnecessarily flexible
and malleable, uninspiring, uncharismatic, and boring!!
His opponents have the harshest adjectives
for him—vindictive, wicked, ungrateful, lax, and incompetent.
I see him as too “soft” for the
good of his own government. He may not want to exhibit the obnoxious characteristics
of his predecessors (which Ghanaians know all too well); but he is taking
matters to an astonishingly dangerous level for himself. He is behaving as if
he doesn’t know where he is.
He hasn’t been travelling as much
as some in his position (with all the vast opportunities at their disposal) would
do; but he isn’t active enough to register the kind of presence in the country that
will endear him to the hearts of the people.
Simply put, President Mills is
more satisfied with life at the Osu Castle (receiving foreign dignitaries) than
anywhere else in the country (to interact with those who put him in office and
will determine his fate at Election 2012). Maybe, that’s why he can’t go on
nationwide tours, even in this electioneering season to reconnect with the
people. He is fast disconnecting himself from the people, which won’t work to
his advantage at Election 2012.
That is why Dr. Nduom’s
observation is right on target. President Mills has been too silent and
invisible, which gives the wrong signal that he is “lost” in the workings of
his own administration. He has a tough call ahead of him.
In his particular case, the odds
stacked up against him are enormous:
1. The
Woyome judgement debt scandal
This sordid act of thievery is
definitely a major campaign issue that will hurt President Mills, more so if
the case is not disposed of for the money to be retrieved and lodged in the
national coffers; but from the manner in which a “nolle prosequi” twist has
been given to it and new but amorphous charges filed against Woyome, I am left
in no doubt that the case is a non-starter. The President must brace himself up
for the negative backlash.
2. Division/cracks
in the NDC
Unlike the previous
electioneering period when the party was solidly united behind the Presidential
Candidate. Rawlings’ anti-Mills campaign is damaging and will further erode goodwill
for President Mills, especially as those supporting the Rawlingses tear away
from the Mills camp
3. Socio-economic
issues
Living standards haven’t
appreciably picked up to instill confidence in the citizens that they have a
brighter future under him. I stand to correction, but that’s the impression I
have gathered from public complaints here and there.
4. President
Mills’ own awkward leadership style
It is unusual for a President to
be so invisible even though present in the country much of the time. What would
have happened if he had also resorted to senseless foreign travels as Kufuor
did?
5. Inability
to fulfill the 2008 electioneering campaign promises
Based on development projects
that his government is pursuing in many parts of the country, he may thump his
chest; but the government hasn’t yet fulfilled the promises that the NDC’s
bigwigs and leading campaign officials made to the electorate all over the
place to win the mandate at the 2008 elections.
The tons of complaints and
threats that have emanated from many parts of the country indicate that the
citizens are unhappy at the government’s inability to fulfill those promises.
No matter what anybody in government says, their anger cannot be allayed all
too soon, which means that it will translate into an electoral decision.
6. Social
strifes
There are too many conflicts all
over the place, which suggests that the government isn’t in full control of
affairs, more especially when the President hasn’t been up-and-doing to stamp
his authority on the situation. The impression being created is that President
Mills ins’t firm, decisive, and proactive enough to instill confidence in the
people. That is a dangerous impression for the people to have at this time.
7. Improprieties
in government
There is much public concern
about corruption in government circles without anything concrete being done by
the President to allay public suspicions. The more the people perceive the government
as corrupt, the better chances are that they will turn against it at the polls.
On this score, any optimism framed
around the claim that President Mills is not corrupt will be the most foolish
one to have ever been nursed in government circles. What has that
incorruptibility meant in the administration of affairs by President Mills? If
he can’t bring his own personal trait of uprightness to bear heavily on his
administration, any reference to his uprightness is more than hollow. The
situation now is deplorable.
Added to that, there seems to be
a climate of unclouded arrogance on the part of those government functionaries
who have allowed their youthful exuberance to take the better part of their
politicking and are shooting their mouths anyhow to incur the contempt of the
citizens.
Those displaying yawning
sycophancy aren’t helping President Mills in any way at all. They are all over
the place, acting with impunity and creating credibility problems for the
government. There are many of them at the Presidency.
President Mills’ inability to
discipline his errant appointees is a huge liability for which he will pay a
heavy price. There are many appointees who aren’t fit to continue in office,
but President Mills seems not to recognize that fact and has retained them to
continue messing up and creating very serious credibility problems for him.
President Mills’ strategy of
self-effacement has given his appointees (especially Koku Anyidoho) the
undeserved elbow room to fool around. Having created numerous credibility
problems, one would have expected Anyidoho to be removed from office. But he
seems to have also developed a tap root and is not only appropriating powers
but is also consolidating them to act with impunity. Such a character is the
chief grave-digger for President Mills.
Maybe, President Mills is
relaxed, hoping that the development projects initiated by his government will
do the trick for him. But that will turn out to be his gravest mistake. No
matter what the government constructs, the people need to be assured that they
have a President who has a “human face” to put on the affairs of governance;
that they have a President who is quick to relate to them; and that renewing
such a President’s mandate will be the best decision to make at Election 2012.
For now, I have serious doubts if
he is well poised to enjoy the goodwill that ushered him into office. He is too
invisible and detached from where the votes lie!! No last-ditch manouevres will
undo the harm being done now.
As he continues to enjoy the
comfort of the Osu Castle while pockets of conflict erupt to threaten social
well-being and erode confidence in him and the government he heads, I wish him
all the best. More grease to his elbows, then.
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