When the Government of Ghana, then headed by former President Kufuor, decided to sell 70% shares in Ghana Telecom to Vodafone, almost all the opposition parties and civil society organisations protested against the decision. They argued that the government was selling the company very cheaply just to raise money to shore-up the economy. Whilst the debate was going on, then candidate Mills joined protesters and went to the Parliament House to express their abhorance to the deal. Despite all the noises that were made, Parliament, then dominated by the ruling party, went ahead to ratify the deal, which is now legally binding on the government and people of Ghana. Now, the then candidate Mills, leading then the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was vociferious about the whole transaction, are now the President of Ghana and the ruling party respectively. President Mills and his Communications Minister, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, who was also against the sale, are in a quagmire as to whether they should recognise the sale and purchase agreement or not. Some hotheads in the ruling party are also putting pressure on the government to abrogate the contract. In order to satisfy their followers, Haruna Iddrisu announced recently that the government had set up a committee to review the whole agreement, and find out whether some fishy deals went on. Though the government has every right to review the deal, The Chronicle thinks she is treading a dangerous path, and must immediately quit. To us at The Chronicle, so long as the transaction was ratified by Parliament, which is a legitimate body, it is a done deal. Somewhere in 1996, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Jones Ofori-Atta, met party supporters at the Methodist Primary School at K.O., a suburb of Kumasi, where he was asked whether the NPP would abrogate contracts for all the state assets that were sold by the NDC government. His reply was that so long as the agreement was ratified by parliament, there was nothing the NPP could do, and to quote him, "those assets are gone forever." The NDC may have opposed the deal, but now Ghana Telecom is gone forever. A review of such an international deal, just to let the people know that you still oppose it, would send wrong signals to investors who are planning to invest in Ghana. What Mr. Haruna Iddrisu must do now, is to tell the teeming supporters of the party that yes, we protested against the sale of Ghana Telecom, but our advice was ignored, there is nothing we can do now. We believe that if this is done, it would take off the pressure from the government to do something about the sale at all costs. It is the hope of The Chronicle that the government would listen to our advice and stop the review process, unless there is incontrovertible evidence that some underhand dealings went on. Source: Chronicle