<<Print>>

The issue of President John Evans Mills�s flirtation with soothsayers appears not to be going away anytime soon. With politicians, particularly on the other side, now asking questions pertaining to the spiritual enterprise, we are in for interesting times, especially since the President would not respond. Not that the President is a new man in the world of prophets or even witches but the recent attempts at using the name of God to, as it were, throw dust into our eyes was perhaps one of the most reckless in the history of state propaganda, a blasphemous dimension. It comes on the heels of the cacophonous noise of the man being a man of peace and appearing Godly even though this has not been proved practically. The insults and other negatives impacting dismally on an already dangerously polarised Ghanaian society have rarely attracted his attention. The closest he got to commenting on the political insults was when he hosted clergymen and the National Chief Imam at different times to express his ostensible disagreement with the trend. That was all and nothing ever happened again. Ironically, the spate of insults has rather increased and it makes us wonder whether the President has not urged his hounds to continue. As for reprimanding his aides whose stock-in-trade is insults and running down others by labeling them as cocaine peddlers, he has never done that before and might never do. No wonder a political commentator has stated that President Mills is behind the insults and the now politicisation of cocaine in our body-politic. We have no reason not to agree with this accusation, given the deliberate silence on the part of the President to issue statements condemning some of these anomalies. He hides in his corner in the Castle, unleashing his hounds to muddy the political waters with insults and unsubstantiated allegations. Blasphemy, which is what he has committed lately, is not restricted to oral renditions but actions. Hiding behind the name of God to undertake diabolic and, in our case, political projects under the pretext of seeking the nation�s interest is a lie of the highest order, a spiritually iniquitous act. In the insincere world of propaganda, especially where the very young and immature operatives are involved, the subject can particularly be dicey. With the prophets� project backfiring in their faces, they have quickly jumped to former President Kufuor who they recently congratulated for winning the award of the World Food Prize Foundation. At the time of the message of congratulations to the winner of the internationally coveted award, we stated our doubts about the sincerity of the gesture. We have been vindicated by Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa�s useless efforts at tainting the quality of the award in his latest show of his puerile recklessness. The young man has described the World Food Prize Foundation award laureate as a hypocrite and sought to, as it were, question the quality of the decision of the committee members to bestow the honour on President Kufuor. Shortly after the announcement of the winners of the award and the statement of congratulations by government to that effect, we had cause to probe the sincerity of the effort. We have been vindicated. The continuous refusal to answer the many questions being posed to the President is nothing but a show of arrogance on the part of a man who disregards such probes as worthless and unworthy of response. The hounds shall continue to howl and attach all manner of mischievous labels on political opponents, even as President Mills pretends not to have heard them. He is in charge and should be held responsible for all these, his shortcomings notwithstanding.