Mills’ Slogan Crashes

The pre-election “President For All” slogan of the then Candidate John Evans Atta Mills has fallen flat on the face as more Ghanaians are shown the exit at their places of work so that National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists can take their place. Even public servants who are perceived not to be NDC-friendly are being affected by the typhoon of dismissals on the labour scene, a move that has been justified by spokesperson to Vice President John Mahama, John Jinapor.

These are stressful moments for the NDC as the government is compelled to apply the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities, one of which is the freeze on public sector employments for a two-year period. The decision to replace some staff with a different batch of Ghanaians is a way out of the rather difficult situation government finds itself, some observers have noted.At a recently organized meeting by a District Chief Executive and the Member of Parliament for the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District Assembly in the Central Region, a typical NDC style dismissal was enacted when a number of NADMO workers were offered the standard gratitude for their services followed by a request that they resign their appointments. Present at the meeting were the DCE and NDC regional secretary, Peter Light Koomson, the MP, Ato Forson, the NDC Constituency Chairman, Kobina Quansah and a certain Mr. Awuah, a CPP parliamentary candidate for the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam constituency.

The resignations were necessary, according to the conveners, since the NDC activists who helped the party to come to power were fretting and needed to be given jobs. An Assistant Disaster Management Control Officer IV, a public servant employed in July 2002, is one of the 18 staff to suffer from the typhoon of dismissals of late in the district.The subject of dismissals has remained on top of the chart of media discussions for a long time now. The position by some Ghanaians that it is a government policy to replace those perceived not to belong to the ruling NDC appears to be gaining a certain credibility, considering the fact that neither the President nor the opposition has countered the perception even as the trend continues.

A few months ago in the Northern Region, some NDC elements marched to the offices of the National Youth Employment office and the National Health Insurance Office, demanding that the workers therein vacate the place so they too can take their turn at working. In the Asuogyman constituency in the Eastern Region, the same story was enacted when some NDC members descended on the National Health Insurance offices, ordering the workers there to leave.There was an intervention of sorts before order could be restored. The trend of NDC supporters taking over establishments commenced with the seizure of public toilets as soon as the Mills administration took off.

The ongoing trend is therefore a progression of the seizure fever, prompted by those who wrongly think a ‘coup’ of sorts preceded the change of government. Meanwhile, the President’s silence on the mayhem of take-over continues to amaze many Ghanaians who are questioning the sincerity of the ‘Father of All’ mantra.John Jinapor, the newly-appointed spokesman for the Vice President and an aspiring NDC national youth organizer, was on air yesterday defending the seizure of public institutions by NDC activists, an indication of endorsement of the anomaly by the party leadership.