- To the Charge that I wish to intimidate President Atta Mills into giving me a Cabinet position, and I am peeved that he has not appointed me to such a post. It may disappoint my detractors and surprise many Ghanaians to learn today that in the 14 or so years that I have collaborated politically with Prof John Evans Atta Mills, I have NEVER once asked him for ANY Cabinet appointment. If so, it would be interesting to learn where and when I may have made such a request and what portfolio I asked for. In 1996, I was invited by former President Rawlings to come down from the USA where I was Ambassador to assist the NDC in its election efforts. After Prof Mills was selected as Vice Presidential running mate to President Rawlings, I was asked to Chair the Publicity Committee of the NDC. In that position, I worked quite closely with both President Rawlings and then Vice Presidential running mate Prof Mills. The Committee worked very hard and contributed to the electoral victory of 1996. Not during that campaign or after the electoral victory did I approach either President Rawlings or newly sworn-in Vice President Mills for a Cabinet appointment! In the year 2000, then Vice President Mills appointed me as Director of Communications in his campaign team for that year's Presidential elections. I did not take advantage of my close proximity and friendship with President Mills to ask him for any appointment should he win that year's elections. In the year 2004 elections, I was based in London at the CTO, and although I supported then Prof Mills and the NDC in various ways, I did not ask Prof Mills for any appointment whatsoever should he, by the Grace of God, win that election. On the other hand, at a reception at Kuku Hill in July 2003, to coincide with his birthday and also my impending departure to assume the office of Chief Executive Officer of the CTO (being the first African to hold that position in over 100 years of that organization's history), President Mills himself announced voluntarily to the more than the 100 guests at that function: "When we win the 2004 elections, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah is the first person I shall appoint as a Minister in my government". I did not ask Prof Mills to make that statement, and to this day I have never asked him why he made it. I am aware that some of my current detractors were unhappy with that statement. On that occasion, Prof Mills' statement made it clear to all that he had a high regard for my integrity, competence and capability and as someone he could work with. He could not have made such a statement so publicly if he considered me as someone who was not a team player, or who was vain, arrogant, etc and with whom he could not work. Nor could then Prof Mills have said this if he believed that I have been spreading scurrilous rurnours about him since 1993, as my senior colleague would make Ghanaians believe. Towards the 2008 elections, I campaigned with Prof Mills on several occasions and had numerous opportunities to ask him for a Cabinet appointment if that was my singular objective in life--as someone would have Ghanaians believe. However, again, I never took advantage of my easy access to him during the last electoral campaign to ask for a Cabinet appointment, or to seek through others to lobby for such a post. Since the NDC won the elections of 2008, I have again NEVER asked President Mills for a Cabinet appointment to this very day. The statement, therefore that the main purpose of my article in the Daily Graphic was to seek a Cabinet appointment, and that I am peeved by not getting such an appointment, is a bald lie. The notion also that the article was part of the start of any Presidential campaign is also totally false. The NDC government under Prof Mills is less than one year old and many of us here all helped it to come into existence. All NDC members, including myself, need to assist this government to succeed. If President Mills succeeds as a President, all Ghanaians-including myself-will share in that success. If the Mills-Mahama government succeeds in improving the school system, the health system or the road infrastructure of Ghana, all Ghanaians-irrespective of political affiliation--will benefit. There is no reason, therefore, not to wish this government all success. Indeed, my article was intended to help the government to become even more successful than it has been to date, by urging the spirit of urgency.
- By referring to Team A and Team B in his article, Spio-Garbrah has condemned all appointees in the Mills-Mahama government. In order that we deal properly with this particular charge, we need to refer to the specific language of my article, as published in the Daily Graphic. I wrote in the relevant section that... "Large segments of the public have been asking on radio stations why the government may have chosen to field SOME players from its Team B when many Team A players are available and ready to play." So first of all, I was quoting a comment I heard made by some people on radio discussion programmes. Second, I did not write that ALL the President's appointees were Team B players. Most of the current Cabinet Ministers and their deputies are my friends and collaborators, and so I could not have made any such wholesale judgment. Indeed, I did write specifically in my article that... "Many appointees are mature, capable and well-meaning ...” Furthermore, the difference between scoring an A in an exam and a B is not that wide a margin. The difference between players in a First Division League and a Second Division League is not that great. In any case, a Minister who is not part of a Cabinet, or any deputy Minister in any administration who has not been selected as a full Minister for the time being is playing in a Team B capacity, anyway. So in all administrations around the world, not just in the Mills-Mahama government in Ghana, there are Team A and Team B players. Therefore, being in Team B is NOT an insult as some commentators have tried to imply. My concern in this matter was simply to address the central issue of how urgently government can act or not. In any case, someone like myself, who is neither in Team A or Team B and has been told will never be a Cabinet Minister in a Mills government, could as well be in Team C or D. And that does not bother me. Nevertheless, if as a result of the misrepresentation of this allusion by NPP or NDC commentators, some of my colleagues in the government are aggrieved, then I apologize to them for any hurt they may feel. According to the Constitution of Ghana, the question of team selection for the government is a matter solely for the President prerogative, to decide which of the various players he wishes to field in a particular position at a specific time. However, each Ghanaian, including myself, has a right to express a view as to whether a particular minister selected by the President is a Team A player or not. I see no insult involved in expressing such opinions, just as many football fans are known to comment on any coach's selection of players, without intending to insult either the coach or the players. After all, don't our elders say a person cutting a path through the bush may not know how straight or curved that path is, and it takes those standing behind the person to advice on how straight it is?
- Spio-Garbrah is responsible for rumours about Atta Mills’s ill-health: The biggest untruth of all the various propaganda pieces circulating about me is the often repeated falsehood that I am the source of information regarding the health status of then candidate Prof Atta Mills. We have a copy of a news clipping here from the Daily Graphic to show that on June 1st 2006, the Prof Mills campaign tearn, controlled by the very persons who are charging me with the offence they themselves committed, issued a news release to the whole world that Prof John Evans Atta Mills was ill and had travelled abroad for treatment. Like millions of other Ghanaians who may have read the story in the Daily Graphic and in other media, that is how I myself learnt for the first time that Prof Mills was ill and had flown to China and South MTica for treatment. Upon hearing this news, I decided to travel to South Africa to visit Prof. Mills, who is a long-time friend I have known for nearly 40 years, who is a senior brother and also a political colleague. How many of the so-¬called new friends of President Mills bothered to visit him when he was sick? Did my esteemed NDC colleague who is now claiming to be virtually in charge of all appointments in the Mills-Mahama government undertake such a journey? The Daily Graphic is the largest circulation daily in Ghana. It is difficult to believe that any single Ghanaian, even if they so wish, could be more efficient than the Daily Graphic in spreading any kind of news. So I wonder how I could be accused of being the source of information on the President's ill health, when the President himself in 2006, after his return from South Africa, also chose to engage in an interview with Kwame Sefa Kayi on Peace FM during which he spoke openly about his illness. If NDC members wish to know who in their Party cares for their leaders when they are not well, they should find out which senior Party or government officials have bothered to visit the Regional Chairman of the Party from Brong Ahafo, who has been on admission for 4 months at Korle Bu hospital, right here in Accra, and who has had one of his legs amputated. Many of those who did not go to South Africa to visit Prof Mills (if that was considered to be too far away) have not visited their colleague at nearby Korle Bu either.
- Spio is not a Team Player: This particular charge rings very hollow, as no evidence was adduced by my detractors to substantiate this. Fortunately, I have had a lot of opportunities to study and work with a large number of Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians in various fields, both in Ghana and overseas-in the teaching, advertising and marketing, banking, diplomacy, government and international organizations occupations. At the World Bank Group, for example, I was able to work effectively with the nationals from more than 100 countries. Similarly, there are nationals from more than 70 countries at the African Development Bank. I do not think I could have achieved what I have attained, even at the CTO in London, if I had any difficulty working with people, either as a subordinate, a colleague, a manager or as a leader. However, the problem is that some people assume that when they work with you, and even though they are not your bosses, you must remain in a supine and subservient position in your dealings with them So, if you insist on your basic human equality and your God-given and constitutional right to freely express your opinion, then you are described as vain, arrogant, conceited or ambitious. That is a problem in many offices in Ghana, which is hindering the progress of this country, and we must root out this claptrap. The situation in many parts of Ghana is worse if you happen to have a lot of ideas and are genuinely interested in the development of an association, company, organization or the nation and are not as motivated by money as others, and therefore insist on the right thing being done. This may be why some people mistake my vision for ambition, and my candour for arrogance. Maybe, if enough Ghanaians who work at the National Fire Service had complained sufficiently (and even publicly) about the inadequate facilities available to them, our whole Foreign Affairs building would not have burned down to ashes. Would it not have been better for a few people at the Fire Service to have been "too known" if that could have saved the nation a major edifice and the entire valuable documents that have been lost in the fire?
- Spio is going around with a fake PhD: I have never pretended at anytime that I have acquired a doctorate degree based on any programme of study. The honorary doctorate awarded me by the Middlebury-College in the U.S.A. in June 2001 was published in the Daily Graphic in July 2001. Mind you, I received this honorary degree when NDC was out of power and I was simply an ordinary Ghanaian citizen. So such false allegations that I lobbied for such a title or even bought it are simply ridiculous. There has been no secrecy about this doctorate being an honorary one. My CV and all references to me make it abundantly clear that this degree is Honoris causa ... meaning that it was given for honourable deeds. As to why I use it, again this was not a choice I made but rather a decision of the panel of the CTO Council which interviewed me in May 2003 for my current position in London, and who thought that the honorific title (which by academic norm, I had the right to use anyway), would be good for the CTO. They therefore arranged to print my first business cards that way. It must be noted that Ghana is a member of the CTO, and at no time has any member government, represented by their ministers and other high officials, queried my use of this honorific title. Everyone who knows me is aware that I prefer to be called simply "Ekwow", although some people may refer to me as Honourable or H.E. (for His Excellency), due to my previous work as an Ambassador and Minister). As to whether I could have acquired a PhD or not through academic study, it is best to refer that to my classmates at Achimota School, where I graduated at the top of my class at 16 years old from Upper Six. Those interested in this matter can do their research on my performance at the University of Ghana or Ohio University, where I earned my academic degrees, or at Temple University and Syracuse University in the USA where I was offered full scholarships in 1979 to read for academic PhDs, but I declined the offers.
- Spio did not perform well as Chairman of the Social Sector Committee in the Transition Team: One of the allegations made against me by the staff member of the President's office is that I did not perform well as Chairman of the Social Sector Committee of the Transition Team, and I abandoned my work and returned to London. Ghanaians may remember that when the Transition Team was announced earlier this year, a number of Committees were established and I was named as Chairman of the Social Sector Committee. Unlike other Committees, such as Legal or Energy, which had to deal with the affairs of just one Ministry each, the Social Sector Committee had to deal with the affairs of some ten Ministries. After establishing the work programme of the Committee and chairing its meetings from January 4¬9th, I sought permission from H.E. the President to return to the UK to attend to my primary responsibility as CEO of the CTO. It is worth noting that I was not consulted prior to being placed in charge of the Social Sector Committee, nor was my time availability sought. Nevertheless, by appointing a Vice Chairman and alternate Vice Chairman of the Social Sector Committee and agreeing with the Committee members that we shall work mostly on line, I was able to fully supervise the work programme and output of the Committee and to oversee the completion of the Committee's work and its handover to the Chairman of the Transition Team, Mr. P. V. Obeng. At no time was I advised by Mr. Obeng, the President or any other person in authority that they were dissatisfied with the work of the Committee. I can understand if some people who lack the necessary international exposure are not aware that in this ICT era there are numerous global committees that do almost all their work on-line, with very few face-to-face meetings. It is incorrect and ludicrous for anyone to suggest that I failed to perform the task of a Committee Chairman, as delegation and on-line oversight are very acceptable contemporary aspects of effective management.
- Other untruths:
In addition to the above specific untruths, a number of other statements have been made by various commentators and paid serial callers which need to be rebutted.
- It is untrue, for example, that I nominated myself as Chairman of the Transitional Committee. Anybody with evidence of this should produce this or else stop lying.
- It is untrue that the President offered me several ministerial appointments and I rejected all of them, or insisted that I wanted only the Foreign Ministry.
- It is untrue that I told the President that I needed three months to unwind my affairs in the UK if I were given an appointment and that is why an offer of a ministerial appointment was withdrawn .
- It is most untrue that I have been sending or organizing the sending of various text messages about the President's health in recent months or even during the 2006 NDC leadership contest.
- It is not true that I have been speaking ill or negatively about Prof Mills since 1993, as alleged by one of my detractors. In fact, in 1993, I was a management official of the Mrican Development Bank in Abidjan, I was not involved in Ghanaian politics and Prof Mills was Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.
- It is a total fabrication that I have wished for the death of President Mills, when indeed I was one of very few NDC members, Ghanaians or his own family members who went to South Africa to visit him when he was ill .
- It is also untrue that the reason why I have not been given a ministerial appointment by President Mills is because of the allegation that I have been spreading false stories about him. Prof Mills has told me on two occasions, once in the presence of other officials, his reason for not appointing me at this time as a Cabinet minister (even though as indicated earlier I have not asked him for such an appointment). The reason he has given to me has nothing to do with anything I am alleged to have done against him. Those associates of the President who have stated in public that the President will not appoint a capable man or woman to a job if that person is alleged or believed to have said anything unfavourable about the President, are painting the President to both Ghanaians and the international community as a very vindictive person, and they should be advised to stop that line of commentary.
- STRENGTHENING THE NDC PARTY:
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