Hold It Mr. President!

President John Evans Atta Mills should have looked elsewhere for an antidote to the rising tide of insults in our political culture given the uselessness of his �efforts� so far. We are not too sure about the sincerity of his calls for a stop to the aberration; this accounts for our cautious use of the word �efforts.� His attempts in that direction have so far ended in fiasco, perhaps because he is not approaching the subject with sincerity. A joke was bandied around recently to the effect that while encouraging his boys to fire insults, he condemns the vituperations under TV cameras as he hosts the clergy, Imams and other important segments of society to, as it were, parley over the aberration. His boys have not spared anybody who attempts expressing their views about national issues, especially when these appear to indict the Presidency. Is President Mills unaware about the insults heaped upon the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, the Conference of Catholic Bishops and political leaders such as Nana Akufo Addo and many others? Haven�t some of these boys been elevated by him on account of their ability to insult Ghanaians on the other side of the political divide? After trying a parley with Christian leaders and Imams, he has turned his attention to the National Media Commission (NMC), engaging the leadership in a discourse intended to rein in the likes of the Otukunors, Hannah Bisiws, Kobby Acheampongs and others. On face value, that is what the meeting sought to present to Ghanaians but we all know that more can be achieved when the President turns his attention inwards. All the President�s anti-campaigns have been PR stints intended to present him in good light but had he gone further to reprimand his hounds, the deference such interventions should attract would have come, regardless. We are beginning to see in the President, a gentleman confused about the scary effects of an agenda set within the confines of the Castle but gone haywire. It is regrettable that so far, he appears to be wallowing in useless attempts at stopping a kite he has released already into the firmament, out of his reach and too late. Engaging the NMC at this time is interesting; coming on the heels of last week�s heightened display of indecorous conduct by the likes of Hannah Bisiw and Otukunor. President Mills would have done his image some good had he spared some moments to reprimand the lady and others who fouled the political atmosphere last week. In the absence of such action, anything he does, such as inviting the NMC, the clergy and Imams, would amount to a waste of precious time. The NMC, under the circumstances, is unable to do anything to stem the tide of nonsense on air and on the pages of rags called newspapers. There is no doubt that the insult template is the most preferred election option in the ruling party, sanctioned by the President. His Spokesperson, Koku Anyidoho, when most Ghanaians complained about his outburst against the flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), said clearly that he was speaking for his boss. It was an opportunity for the President to dissociate himself from the remarks if the attribution by Koku was not right. In the absence of this, we can safely conclude that the President is behind the insults. Let him first stop his hounds before engaging the NMC in such useless parleys.