The Presidential Spokesman Mahama Ayariga confirmed this morning to PeaceFM Kwami Sefa Kayi that President John Evans Fiifi Atta-Mills, has arrived in London for his first official UK visit as Ghanaian president.
The presidential spokesman who said he had been in the United Kingdom ahead of other members of the delegation and for this reason was at large in clarifying the actual number of the entourage hinted however that Mills has arrived with some nine government officials and media practitioners who are yet to be confirmed.
President Mills, who, according to his spokesman, has a long list of dignitaries to meet and to do political and diplomatic business, is said to be currently, residing in Royal Garden Hotel, down here in London.
Back home in Ghana, while Dr Hannah Bissi of the Housing and Water Resources Ministry, is lamenting over the state bungalows, whose furniture and fittings are said to have misappropriated by some former government officials, Mr Asiedu Nketia- the General-Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), is also wailing over gradual encroachment of what he termed as “vote buying and tribalism” in the Municipal and District Executive selection process, which he told PeaceFM, was initiated by NPP in 2006.
But it is not only NPP National Youth Organizer John Boadu, who doubted these allegations. Questioning the current exercise and why it has taken too long for a government which had earlier on given former ministers, 7 April 2009 ultimatum to vacate state houses, Boadu argues that “vote buying” had been with the country for decades, even in school politics, and for that matter Asiedu Nketia could not be right.
Malik Kwaku Baako- the Managing Editor of the Crusading Guide had earlier on shared this position. Expressing no surprise about the alleged 25- member presidential delegation that followed Mills to UK, but doubting Mahama Ayariga for not having any idea about a list of people travelling with the President, the veteran media man argues that the NDC members/sympathizers are victims of their own propaganda.
“Even in Nkrumah’s time- which had radical policies towards Britain, sometimes he travelled to the United Kingdom with some 40 or 60-member delegation,” the Convention Peoples Partyman said.
JusticeGhana would be monitoring this debate, alongside the Ghanaian Government’s engagements and activities here in UK, and promises its readers with their outcomes as they unfold and become available.
