Who Are The �Senior Persons� That Take Decisions For Mills?

Communications Director at the Presidency, Koku Anyhidoho, Saturday confirmed the widely held belief that some invisible and invincible �senior persons�, other than President Mills, call the shots at the seat of government, with regards to the running of the country. In a desperate bid to undo the damage he caused when he stated that heads would roll, as a result of the lighting failure at the Baba Yara Stadium last Friday, during the Ghana-Lesotho World Cup qualifier, Koku inadvertently spilled the beans on what was a jealously guarded Castle secret. According to Koku, some senior persons in government took the rather hasty decision to suspend the Ashanti Regional East Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana and not President Mills. Mr Anyidoho told Joy FM news analysis programme, Newsfile, he was with some senior persons when the decision was taken in the heat of the moment. This unravelling saga has called into question the weight and influence of President Mills who is supposed to be exercising the mandate entrusted into his hands by the entire nation. It has been widely reported that investors in Ghana�s oil and gas sector, especially, complain that they do not know who is in charge of the country. �You sign an agreement that you think is complete. The next moment, you hear that same contract brokered by another power bloc in government has been done,� lamented a foreign investor who spoke to the New Statesman on condition of anonymity. It is also reported that oil blocks are being sold over and over to different companies. The three-year delay in the development of Ghana�s gas infrastructure project has also been blamed on the jostling by power blocs at the seat of government. At one time, an energy minister returned from a trip to Trinidad and Tobago to see that the gas infrastructure project had been offered to a different company, instead of what had been agreed upon. The contract allegedly had the President�s seal of approval, but he allegedly knew nothing about it. It is recalled that Ex-President Jerry Rawlings in March 2011 accused the chairman of the Council of State, Kofi Awoonor, of usurping the powers of President Mills. Narrating one of those instances, Mr Rawlings said: �He (Mills) wanted to put some efficient person in some organization. The person went to inspect the place, only to go and discover that somebody had already been put there. Who put him there? Prof Awoonor. That man had done his own appointment without reference to even the president. The man comes back and reports it to the president and the president says Prof Awoonor �ore haw me��, to wit, the Prof is worrying me. There are also several instances where heads and board members of institutions had gone to the President to thank him for appointing them, only to find out that he knew nothing about the appointments. Also in September 2011, President Mills, in an interaction with a section of the media upon arriving from the UN General Assembly, raised doubts about claims by the Minority that the government had breached an agreement with the IMF on borrowing, saying he was unaware of any agreement with the IMF that restricted Ghana on the amount of loans it can access in a year. "I am surprised that people are putting a spin on this. They [IMF & World Bank] are very supportive. They know we need the assistance for infrastructure development. I haven�t spoken to the Minister of Finance, who would be the best person to sign such an agreement, I really don�t know their (Minority) source, so I cannot firm, or even deny�.if there was any such development, it would have been brought to my knowledge,� President Mills said. However, a �Letter of Intent, Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, and Technical Memorandum of Understanding� dated May 12, 2011 and signed between the International Monetary Fund and the Republic of Ghana exposed President Mills� lack of knowledge of what his government agrees to with donor agencies and countries.