When The Goal Post Shifts On The President�s Gift

The goal posts have moved. On Monday, when news broke out that the President of the Republic, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, has extended his property at the Regimanuel Gray Estate with a new building, his communication team went into overdrive. Koku Anyidoho, Communications Director at the Presidency, called into an Accra Radio station and told the nation that the property complained about was meant to make the security personnel at the Head of State�s private residence comfortable. It was to house a toilet, shower, and a place to rest the limbs. On top of that explanation, the man who speaks for the President said categorically, that the new building was a gift from Regimanuel Gray, the estate developers, as a gift to the father of the nation. Earlier in the morning, a Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, had given a vivid description of the building as a small edifice to make security personnel at the residence comfortable. He did not fail to add that the property being developed was a gift to President Atta Mills. Yesterday, the Presidential tune changed. The Castle Press Corps was taken on a tour of the premises, where it emerged that the accommodation is a two-bed flat, built at the request of the President on rental basis. Correspondence to that effect was released to the media yesterday. As we stated yesterday, The Chronicle is not worried that the President of the Republic is extending his property. Every human being aspires to improve on what he or she has. For President Atta Mills to construct whatever edifice he likes, is nothing for any Ghanaian to worry about. Our beef, and it is a very serious worry, is why the President�s communication team should lie about something as fundamental as the Head of State extending his property. At a time a deputy Minister of Information is asking workers of the Information Services to magnify the achievements of this administration, the lie told on the President�s property calls the credibility of the President�s communication team into question. Why would the communication outfit fail to be truthful on the President�s property? Is there anything to hide? The Chronicle recalls the white lie the Communications Director of the President told the nation when Prof. Mills returned from a state visit to Switzerland in August 2010. Mr. Koku Anyidoho called a press conference at the Kotoka International Airport and told the nation that the President had been given permission by the President of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Joseph Sepp Blatter, to probe the activities of the Ghana Football Association. Barely one week after the press conference, GFA President, Kwesi Nyantakyi, was hauled before the Serious Fraud Office, now Economic and Organised Crimes Office. It turned out later that the FIFA President never gave any blank cheque for government interference in football. We are getting the impression that the President�s communication team could not be relied upon to be truthful and factual. On a number of occasions, President John Evans Atta Mills has had to call media houses to explain himself, when his communication team failed to deal with issues at stake. The President must have cause to worry about the credibility of his communication outfit. As it is, we are beginning to nurse the feeling that there is not much credibility about communication from the President�s office. It should be food for thought for those who think the Presidency should be insulated from the propaganda that seems to be driving this administration to the ground.