�Orders From Above� Unmasked

Matters arising from the national embarrassment that accompanied the power outage at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium last Friday during the Ghana-Lesotho game have afforded us the rare opportunity of peeping into the workings of the Castle under President Mills and his Spokesperson, Koku Anyidoho. Now we know that some directives do not emanate from the President himself, although such �orders from above� are given the flavor of his authority. The origin of such orders has always eluded Ghanaians, regarded as they are, with political mysticism. That notwithstanding, these directives are so powerful that they can get the Police to detain political elements from the other side of the partition beyond the time allowed by the Constitution. Koku Anyidoho, the man who said he hates former President John Agyekum Kufuor and does not like his face, following the power outage, sacked the Ashanti Regional Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and opened an unpleasant can of worms about Mills� style of governance. He does more traducing than polishing the image of the President that his name is now synonymous with intemperate and vitriolic language. His marching off orders to the Regional ECG director could not have attracted a worse opprobrium from Ghanaians. When the President�s spokesperson dismisses public officials on the airwaves and even directs the security agencies on how to do their work, thus overshooting his remit, another symptom of an ailing government is evident. No sooner had he �sacked� the gentleman than the truth was laid bare, rendering him a moral wreck. All he said after the episode was that he would bear the consequences for the embarrassment emanating from the mess. Unfortunately, that is not enough given the enormity of the embarrassment thereof. In democratically advanced dispensations, this is enough for the President to crack the whip. But would he, knowing his caliber? Koku Anyidoho is responsible for a myriad of orders from above, all of which have cast the presidency in a bad light unfortunately. But with the President never seeing anything unusual about such gaffes, we can only shed tears for the downward spiral of the presidency�s esteem under the present crop of politicians. Even more dismaying were the remarks which went with the dismissal order from Koku. �We won�t take this any longer�, which he uttered, suggests that the guy suspected a certain political sabotage. When sobriety later returned to his agitated body, he pointed at emotion as being responsible for his misguided and irresponsible action. Have emotions replaced heads in governance? We recall a similar impulsive directive from the same source, ordering that the country�s borders be closed, lest NPP personalities would flee the country, when the lie about Limping Man singing like a canary after his arrest, was released on the political plane by NDC propagandists. The need for the return of decency in governance in this dear country of ours cannot be over-emphasised. Governance appears to have been reduced to a big joke, with clowns on the political terrain playing out their parts in the name of managing the affairs of the country.