President John Mills and Koku Anyidoho
The confusion which has dogged communications management at the presidency under Mills reached a crescendo last week, leaving in its wake a Koku Anyidoho stripped of his schedules and a President groping in the darkness.
The confusion as alluded to in the foregone paragraph aptly epitomizes governance in its entirety under President John Evans Atta Mills.
It appears however that we are not out of the woods yet, given the ambiguity in the statement regarding the veiled dismissal of the man who has earned notoriety for hurling vitriolic insults to persons whose face he and his boss do not like.
The finesse in the Chief Of Staff-authored correspondence did not veneer the confusion plaguing the presidency. It points at a fundamental flaw at the seat of government, a situation compounded by the amateurish response to media queries yesterday morning by Information Minister Fritz Baffuor.
Why would the minister try to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians in broad daylight and in a manner steeped in hubris? Terminating a radio interview abruptly the way he did on two networks yesterday was not only a mark of arrogance but crudeness at variance with civility and decency.
Fritz would have to learn the ropes of hosting the media in times of crisis such as we are in now. What is this nonsense that Koku is still at post performing his normal schedules?
Various interpretations have been given to the statement as should be expected, with correspondences which are anything but clear in their import.
It is a fact that the recent “heads are rolling” and the firing of the ECG boss in the Ashanti Region and the “President Is Upset” faux pas have embarrassed the Presidency. Many are asking whether Koku Anyidohu was not making appointments on the blind side of the President, given the segment of the correspondence which asked that releases about appointments should emanate only from the Chief of Staff or the Secretary to the President.
President Mills’ kid’s glove attitude on the Koku affair is an endorsement that he is a weak personality at the helm, who cannot be trusted to provide the kind of robust leadership needed in times of crisis. In Koku’s case, speculations are that the President is treading with caution lest he activates the adrenaline in the man who knows too much about him.
Having earned notoriety for composing obscene stuff in the comfort of the Castle and under the nose of President Mills, the crap about his being relieved of his functions should not amaze us at all.
The excitement that one bad nut has been dealt with in this subtle fashion means nothing in reality, because even if Koku leaves the schedule for which Ghanaians have become dissatisfied with, there are several others in Mills’s stable ready to fill the vacuum.
President Mills deserves a Koku Anyidohu because the man’s demeanour and profile matches his requirements; there is nothing that Koku does without his knowledge. From heaping unsubstantiated allegations against former President Kufuor to Nana Akufo Addo, he has won the heart of the Number One Gentleman of the country. The situation speaks for itself.
