The Storm That Never Was

There is going to be a storm on the political plane, one which would consume Nana Akufo Addo. That would happen when details of a certain judgment debt involving the 2012 flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are released during a press conference on Monday at 2pm. That was the import of the announcement Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa spewed out shortly after the bruises he suffered at the hands of Martin Amidu. The glee with which he made the announcement did not show much nuance from the one which accompanied the Isofoton case. Many wondered why it took the gentleman this long to release the so-called bombshell. The many who wrote off the bombshell as another prank from that political novice laughed last when Ablakwa failed to impress Ghanaians yesterday. No wonder he and Fiifi Kwetey slugged it out with a Citi FM reporter. The Mills/Mahama government has been overwhelmed by the backlash of the judgment debt improprieties, compelling the embattled players to seek alternative damage control mechanisms. The time-wasting press conference was a knee-jerk reaction to the frontal attack from the former Attorney General and by the time it was over, it was clear that the young deputy minister had failed to redeem his beyond-redemption image. No wonder journalists who turned up for the earth-shaking press conference asked questions which bordered on whether the engagement was worth the trouble, especially when he admitted that Nana Akufo Addo did nothing wrong regarding an action he undertook in the 1990s. The press conference was a disappointment which did nothing to make good the integrity shortcoming the government is battling with. Honestly, we must be serious in this country. How can a country progress when, for several months in a year, all government is doing is rifling through archival stuff in search of something with which to repulse the largest opposition party�s position that the Mills/Mahama administration is not doing well with the management of judgment debts. Such a government does not find anything untoward when a deputy minister pleads on behalf of a foreign company for the settlement of a judgment debt which is still in court. We do not know what Ablakwa would come up with in the next few days, having suffered another blow to his battered face. We take exception to the time and money wasting pastime of the deputy minister and especially with nobody in government pulling the brakes over the crap. The NPP is challenging government over the management of a number of judgment debts during its tenure. Indeed, the NPP is not fighting as it were with the NDC but government. The impression which Ablakwa seeks to create that the NPP is fighting NDC is misplaced, completely erroneous. For Ablakwa and those who authorised the use of the state�s resources to organise the unproductive press conference to prosecute a war against the NPP, they should be held accountable for wasting public funds in this manner. There was no storm and Nana Akufo Addo came out unscathed.