<<Print>>

THE ASHANTI regional youth wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has descended heavily on President Mills over his statement in the infamous Wikileaks report that he was terrified by the great �Ashanti project�. President Mills, according to the released Wikileaks cables released, stated that politics was very polarized and ethnically divided in the country and that he was terrified by the great �Ashanti project�. Then candidate Mills, as captured on the cable with the subject �Ambassador meets opposition NDC leader John Atta Mills�, made the remarks when he met the then American ambassador to Ghana Pamela Bridgewater, on March 7, 2006. The Ashanti regional youth wing of the NPP contended that the remarks purportedly made by then candidate Mills to the former Ambassador was not only unfortunate but demonstrated his dislike for the people of the Ashanti Region. Addressing a press conference in Kumasi on Monday, Gideon Boako, the Ashanti regional youth organizer of the NPP, said President Mills showed his dislike for the people of the Ashanti region with his unsavory comments. He said it was not surprising that then candidate Mills made those comments in the said interaction with the former diplomat as all along the law lecturer had explicitly confirmed his distaste for the people of the Ashanti region. Boako indicated that because President Mills abhorred the people of the Ashanti region, he told the people of the Central region while on a campaign tour there in September 2008 that then President Kufuor had sited all the big cold stores in the Ashanti Region whilst he had sold and collapsed those in the Central Region. He noted that because then candidate Mills wanted to incite the people of the Central Region against their countrymen from the Ashanti region, he lied when indeed the cold stores in the Central Region were collapsed and sold during his tenure as vice President of the country. Mr Boako pointed out that the appointment of Prof Kofi Awoonor as the chairman of the Council of State further stressed the anti-Ashanti feeling in President Mills because the renowned politician wrote in his book, �The Ghana Revolution� that Ashantis were seeking to create a hegemony in the country. �Ladies and gentlemen, if we may ask, is the terrifying great Ashanti project indeed not a reechoing of Prof Awoonor�s sentiment that Ashanti�s were seeking to create hegemony in the country?� he quizzed. Another sign of President Mills� hatred for the people of the Ashanti region, Mr. Boako noted, was the fact that when then deputy Minister of Tourism Kobby Acheampong made unsavoury comments about people in Kumasi, he kept mute. Instead, he said, President Mills rewarded Mr. Acheampong with a deputy interior minister position, a cabinet portfolio. Mr. Boako noted that it had now become clear that the Mills-led government had abandoned major development projects in the Ashanti region because President Mills was terrified about the �great Ashanti project�. Noting that Ghanaians did not know what the great Ashanti project was, the NPP youth organizer demanded an explanation from President Mills. He indicated that the silence on the part of President Mills and the government as a whole on the issue had confirmed that the former vice president actually made those uncomplimentary comments. Stressing that the NPP was duly aware of the calculated neglect of the Ashanti Region by the government, Mr Boako noted that the NPP youth wing in the region would take every legal step to ensure that the region claimed its rights. The press conference, which was attended by constituency youth organizers in the region, was graced by the Ashanti regional chairman of the party, Fred F. Antoh, and the national youth organizer, Anthony Abayifaa Karbo.