THE LYING GANG OF 3

It is beginning to look like lying as a political concept is a pathological case in the body politic. The more the President of the Republic, John Evans Atta Mills, admonishes party faithful against lying, the more lies are told.

That is why The Chronicle is running this crusade to get the President to put his feet down. We are of the opinion that if the head of state takes tougher action against his lying officials, we are likely to reach somewhere.

Last Monday’s event at Parliament House, where Mr. Emmanuel Victor Smith admitted, at his vetting as Eastern Regional Minister-designate, that he lied in the series of publications he caused to be made against former President John Agyekum Kufuor and a dubious oil deal in the Middle East involving $5 billion was a white lie, offers the President a great opportunity to set a very good example.

Victor Smith’s nomination should be withdrawn to redeem the sinking image of the President and his government.
Yesterday, former President Kufuor, who is recuperating after undergoing an operation on his spine, spoke from his sick bed. The former President feels vindicated by the admission by Victor Smith that all those stories about an oil deal were lies.

The Chronicle wishes the ex-President speedy recovery. We hope the fact that Victor has come to terms with his false claims at the House of Parliament, shouldcheer up the immediate past head of state.
The ego of the former Ambassador to the Czech Republic though is in tatters, The Chronicle wonders how the Minister-designate could tour the region appealing to citizens to be decorous and believe in working hard to help rejuvenate the economy, when he is so tainted.
In the year 2009, when Comfort Ama Benyiwa Doe faced the same Vetting Committee, she left with rotten egg all over her face. Ama ‘Chavez’, who spewed the juiciest lie against the 2008 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo was dealing in cocaine, had no shred of evidence as proof. For her, all was political talk.

There was another comedy in the appearance of Fifi  Kwetey before the same committee. As Propaganda Secretary of the National Democratic Congress in opposition, Mr. Kwetey made a name for himself, when he went on and on about gold bars that had vanished from the vault of Bank of Ghana, in which President Kufuor and some officials of his government were implicated.
Before the vetting committee, Fifi Kwetey had his tail in between his legs. He had no evidence at the time he was spewing those allegations. All the same,

President Mills hired the services of both Benyiwa-Doe and Fifi Kwetey to man strategic locations in his administration.
Ms. Benyiwa-Doe represents the President at Cape Coast as Central Regional Minister. Fifi Kwetey is Deputy Minister for the beleaguered Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. In the two instances, The Chronicle believes the President missed the opportunity to set a good example when he hired the services of lying Benyiwa-Doe and Fifi Kwetey.
We hope and pray that the President will get it right in the case of Mr. Victor Smith by withdrawing the nomination of the former Ambassador to the Czech Republic as Eastern Regional Minister-designate.
He is tainted and would not be a good example to the people in the Eastern Region.

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