Dear Mr. President,
This is just a friendly reminder. Just in case you’ve forgotten, your ultimatum – issued through your spokesman – for the ‘Weekly Standard’ to retract a story about your alleged shady dealings with a Kuwaiti oil firm has expired. It expired on October 31.
Many of us have been waiting with bated breaths for you to show us that it wasn’t just another empty threat. The newspaper had reported almost a month ago that you had been engaged in a shady deal with an oil company in Kuwait. According to the paper, the deal went awry and as a result you are now saddled with a debt of five billion dollars. Gosh! That’s a lot of money. How many presidential mansions can we build with that? And how many hotels can you buy with that?
I suppose you don’t want to leave any doubts in our minds that you’ve had nothing to do with a Kuwaiti company and you don’t owe any company in the Gulf a dime. That’s why a few days after the publication of the story in the ‘Weekly Standard’, you ordered your spokesman, Andy Awuni, to call an emergency news conference, where he vehemently denied the allegation and issued an ultimatum, demanding – on your behalf behalf – a retraction of the story and an apology within 14 days. If the paper failed to meet those demands, Mr. Awuni warned, you could go to court to have your name cleared.
“There are many options open to us, including legal options,” he said. “So we will wait and see how they react to our request.”
The owner and editor of the ‘Weekly Standard’, Victor Smith – who happens to be a former ‘boy-boy’ (or special assistant, as he prefers to call himself) – to ex-President Rawlings has since refused to meet your demands. Can you believe the guy’s impudence? He behaves as if he is not the one who was sacked with a mere text message. Even though he concedes that he may not have any evidence to prove the allegations, he has called your bluff with such remarkable bravado.
Everything Mr. Smith has said and done (or failed to do) seems to create the impression that you haven’t got the balls to take him on.
Mr. President, I believe that you’ve got a solid pair. In one of my many idle moments, I thought long and hard about this Kuwaiti oil case and came to the conclusion that if you muster the courage to take Rawlings’ former errand boy to court, you may win the case hands down.
I know you hate to be reminded of this but the fact remains that you will be leaving office very soon. I am aware of the fact that you are looking for a job, which will keep you occupied after your retirement. I don’t want you to end up like Jerry Rawlings – unemployed and always courting needless controversy. Your alleged indebtedness to this Kuwaiti firm doesn’t exactly enhance your job prospects. That’s why it’s imperative that you take some action to clear your name before you leave office.
I also don’t like the way Victor Smith has been calling your bluff at every turn. The guy insists that he hasn’t got any evidence yet he has the temerity to insist that you can take him anywhere you want. I know you are not particularly fond of Mr. Smith and his former boss so now that he has brought himself, please don’t lose the opportunity to teach him a lesson or two. I have heard people say you might have something to hide and that if you take this case to court other dirty linen you don’t want to wash in public will be brought out of the closet. I want to believe that this is not the case. So Mr. President, do something. What on earth are you waiting for?
Mr. President, you must be aware that the longer it takes for you to make up your mind the more emboldened Mr. Smith gets. Members of his party will also feel they have the ammunition to bring you down. If you don’t act immediately, they will think that you don’t have balls and they will start piling all sorts of spurious ‘cow dung’ allegations at your doorsteps.
Finally, Mr. President, I want you to know that it’s not such a bad thing to be in debt. I would like you to clear your name but I also want to know the truth. If for any reason you actually owe a Kuwaiti company you don’t need to be shy about it. You are our president and if you inadvertently miscalculated the risks of a business venture, I don’t think Ghanaians will leave you to hang dry. If you come clean, we will gladly help you to clear your debts… even if we can’t help clear your name.
Your noble citizen,
Kwamena!
