[ 2015-12-01 ]

I have nothing personal against Mahama – Martin Amidu
Former Attorney-General Martin Amidu has clarified
that he has nothing personal against the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) government or President
John Mahama despite his persistent criticism.

In a statement released on Tuesday December 1, Mr.
Amidu rubbished suggestions that his criticism of
the administration is borne out of hatred for the
John Mahama administration.

“I shall not commit the major sin of envying or
hating or being bitter against any creature of God
Almighty or Allah.”

Mr. Amidu, who has earned the nickname ‘Citizen
Vigilante’ for keeping a close eye on corrupt
practices and saving the country millions of cedis
in the Ghc51 million Woyome judgement debt
scandal, has criticized government for doing very
little to tackle corruption.

Following the recent release of government’s
white paper report on judgement debt payments,
Mr. Amidu accused government of shielding cronies
and hunting down political opponents.

Mr. Amidu recently criticized the decision by the
NDC to allow President Mahama to contest the
party’s presidential primaries unopposed
describing the act as “undemocratic.”

Below is the full statement

I HAVE NOTHING PERSONAL – ENVY, BITTERNESS OR
ANGER – AGAINST THE GOVERNEMENT OR THE PRESIDENT
BY THE GRACE OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD: BY MARTIN A. B.
K. AMIDU

“Apart from his being a team player, Mr. Amidu
is also bold and fearless and a fighter when
necessary.” – Vice-President (Prof.) John
Evans Atta Mills, 5th September 2000.

Conflict does not reside in the person but in the
interaction so it should never be personal
Conflicts do not reside in persons, they reside
in the interaction or what we say in communication
in conflict studies – the conflict is in the
between and not in the persons in conflict.
Unfortunately while conflict is a pervasive and
inevitable phenomenon of social life very few
people have the learning and training to
disaggregate the human emotions generated by
conflict from the real issues in controversy. So
we call a violent conflict in the north, “a
guinea fowl war”, forgetting the underlying
basis of an intractable conflict.

I normally try to be informed by matters of
principle, belief, values and norms in waging
conflict with anybody. I consciously engage in
reflective thinking and practice in my conflict
dynamics and the practice of law. I therefore get
surprised when I am accused of hating or envying
anybody in conflict. Of course it is trite in
conflict studies and research that blaming is a
dynamic of conflict which satisfies emotions and
escalates conflicts.

Unfortunately constituents of people in conflict
worsen and escalate them with unproductive tacit
interventions than the persons in direct conflict.
I do not allow emotions to becloud my judgment of
conflict analysis and dynamics. As a matter of
history and fact there is no basis for the blame
and attributions ascribed to my disagreements on
principles and/or values with the NDC Government.

Working for John Mahama’s interest without his
knowledge

Former President Rawlings had a few days before
the 2007 Christmas asked his then personal
assistant, Victor Smith, to invite me for a
conversation. We discussed amongst other matters
the prospects of the NDC in the coming
Presidential and Parliamentary elections. The then
Hon. John Dramani Mahama, was the preferred choice
but there were doubts whether Candidate Mills had
indeed formally spoken to him about being his
running mate and made any offer. We concluded that
former President should speak to Mr. Mahama
directly on the matter to clear the air once and
for all.

I was assigned the task of going abroad as an
emissary of former President Rawlings to reiterate
to a longstanding friend of mine who had assumed
the Presidency of another country that Mr. Mahama
was a preferred and competent candidate. With a
return ticket arranged by Victor Smith which I
picked up at the airport on the day of my
departure, 26th December, 2007, I went abroad and
returned on 30th December 2007.

I did not meet former President Rawlings on my
return because of the season’s festivities. When
we eventually met close to the middle of January
2008, I learnt that things had not gone well on
the former President’s visit to Mr. Mahama’s
residence in my absence. Nonetheless my mission
for going abroad had been accomplished. I learnt
from the President abroad that Candidate Mills had
himself visited and mentioned Mr. Mahama as a
possibility which I confirmed as instructed by
President Rawlings. It was subsequent to this
return meeting that the former President bounced
Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu’s name on me for the
first time as a potential running mate.

As I was not available to attend the burial and
funeral ceremony of Madam Memunata, Alhaji Mahama
Iddrisu’s very respectful, irreplaceable and
beautiful deceased wife on 30th December 2007, I
had to look him up upon his return from Wa to
explain my absence. I informed him about the
mishap that had taken place when former President
Rawlings had sort to hold a conversation by
visiting Mr. Mahama’s residence and asked him as
a senior brother to have a word with Mr. Mahama to
render an apology to former President Rawlings. I
also spoke to Mr. L. K. Molbila to team up with
Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu to find a way of bringing
harmony between the former President and Mr.
Mahama. I relayed the same message to Hon. Moses
Asagah (at the Veterans Club House opposite the
Ghana Immigration Service) whom I learnt was a
classmate to Mr. Mahama at Ghanasco.

I agreed to run with Candidate Mills on 3rd
September 2000 only after he had secured Alhaji
Mahama Iddrisu’s personal concurrence for me to
run with him. Alhaji Iddrisu knows the full facts
and story of how I behave strictly in accordance
with our customary tradition in this matter at the
time. I had no ambition to be Vice-President or
President since I lost the elections with
Candidate Mills in December 2000. The NDC had
decided at a meeting Chaired by Dr. Obed Asamoah
in Kumasi that Candidate Mills’ next running
mate must be both a northerner and a Muslim.

I am Roman Catholic by baptism and confirmation.
It would not have been feasible with me, for
Candidate Mills to have nominated me again as his
running mate for the 2008 even if he had decided
to pick a northern Christian again. President
Rawlings if he wishes may confirm that when Dr.
Tony Aidoo and I were invited to meet him in
London, arriving the morning of 10th to 16th May
2002, I had no ambition to be running mate to
Candidate Mills. Former President Rawlings made
efforts in December 2002 for me to take up an
international appointment for four years beginning
2003 which could not materialize because of my
other very personal family commitments that did
not permit me to leave Ghana for that long.

Election 2008 and Government 2009- beyond

Eventually Candidate Mills nominated Mr. Mahama as
his running mate over Alhaji Mohammad Mumuni. I
played my part in the 2008 campaign by leading the
team to the Upper East Region’s campaign as Mr.
Molbilla was unavailable at a point in the
campaign. I contributed financially to each
constituency and the regional party headquarters
for the campaign as well. The results in the Upper
East Region were exceptional for the NDC.

When I reluctantly joined the Mills/Mahama
Government in 2009 I had no problem with the
Vice-President except the manner in which he and
Oteng Adjei sought to push my hand in agreeing not
to prosecute the E. O. Group case by getting
President Mills to grant an executive consent to
the Group to sell their shares and for me to grant
them indemnity from prosecution. I stood my ground
and refused to grant the indemnity as the
Attorney-General. Any other disagreements were on
professional grounds and never personal. I always
told Prof. Mills that: “I will never do anything
to-day which I cannot defend tomorrow when I am
out of office.” When I appeared before the
National Reconciliation Commission I was alone.
Out of Government in January 2012 I declined all
persuasions to go abroad at Government expense for
the impasse to blow over. After Mr. Mahama
succeeded President Mills in July 2012 I received
Sule Gariba on 23rd August 2012 as an emissary
from President Mahama inviting me to the Kumasi
congress ostensible upon the advice of former
President Rawlings. On 24th November 2012 I
received Alfred Mahama, the President’s senior
brother, who was led by Chris Dugan to my house
with a message from the President. I have also
received other emissaries who claimed to have been
sent by the President after the 2012 elections. On
Monday 1st July 2013, to give but one example,
Chris Dugan again brought one Ali Seidu to
introduce to me as an emissary of the President
who was to liaise with me when necessary. It
turned out that Mr. Seidu whom I had not known
until then was from Bawku. (A quick cross-check by
telephone on his identity after they had left
established that he was the son of my late very
bosom friend generally known as Seidu
“Country” of Bawku-Natinga with the addition
that his mother, whom I knew, was at that moment
living with Alhaji Awudu near the Rev. John Teye
Memorial Institute on the Achimota-Pukuasi road).
I never saw him again. On each occasion I was
candid on the need for the President to run a
transparent and accountable government in
accordance with the core values of the NDC as
condition precedent for my unflinching support and
participation in his Government. I saw President
Mahama’s Presidency as icing on the cake after
the contributions of Mohammad Mumuni and myself to
the NDC’s efforts to come to power and wished
him to uphold the values of the NDC and not let
our collective efforts to be in vain. Being my
true self I disagree and I have disagreed with the
NDC Government on matters of constitutional
principles, beliefs, values and policy issues but
never on personal matters. I served the PNDC from
February 1982 to 7th January 1993 before serving
under the NDC1, 2 and partly in NDC3. I have been
unable to discard principles, and values I have
internalized and lived with since my childhood and
through my adult socialization over the years
including the 31st December Revolution to adapt to
the new disvalues of the NDC Government since
2009. Dr. Ambomaje, in a recent article on the
internet reminded me of the character testimonial
that then Vice-President Mills who had been a
personal friend of mine for over 30 years at the
time gave me on 5th September 2000 when he
introduced me to the public at the NDC
Headquarters thus: “Prof. Mills described Mr.
Amidu as someone who shared his personal values,
adding that his nominee has character, integrity,
experience and sound judgment. ‘Apart from his
being a team player, Mr. Amidu is also bold and
fearless, and a fighter when necessary,’ he
said. Prof. Mills said he saw in his former
student as ‘someone who will work for the
ordinary people of this country, not the powerful
with a high sense of social justice, fairness, and
above all truthfulness.’” Cows do not beget
goats. My late (English basic education
illiterate) father, GC 13131, Sergeant-Major Amidu
Kanjarga, then of The Gold Coast Regiment was
described as follows when he was awarded the
Military Medal on 10th June, 1948: “During the
period under review, 16th November, 1944 to 15th
February, 1945, Sergeant Amadu (sic) Kanjarga,
whilst acting as Platoon Sergeant in the Arakan,
displayed powers of leadership, and initiative far
above average….His conduct in all respects
demonstrated African leadership and gallantry at
its highest.” – Citation in respect of the
award of the Military Medal to GC 13131
Sergeant-Major (then Sergeant) Amadu (sic)
Kanjarga, 81st (WA) Division, Reconnaissance Bn.
(The Gold Coast Regiment: Ceremonial Parade and
Investiture,10th June, 1948.) Everybody who has
known me from childhood through Half Assini,
Takoradi, Lawra, Bawku, where I attended primary
and middle school to Tamale Commercial Institute,
later known as Tamale Commercial Secondary and now
Tamale Business Secondary School, to Navrongo
School and the University of Ghana will attest to
the fact that I have not changed in my leadership
role of always insisting on justice and fair play
for the ordinary person at all times. I am just
living out my character. I am informed that
President Mahama was also fortunate to have
followed my steps to Commonwealth Hall and if he
has done his home-work well he should know from
V-Mates that Martin Amidu is tenacious in his
principles, beliefs and values, no matter whose
ass is gored. I served former President Rawlings
dedicatedly throughout the years of the Revolution
and democracy because whatever his human faults
and failings he was committed to and enforced
ideals to which I was also committed. His pluses
were more than the minuses. Even though I knew
Professor Mills long before I met former President
Rawlings, I did not get to know Mills’
disagreeable side or our friendship blinded me
from seeing them until I joined his Government. As
for President John Dramani Mahama I did not know
him until he joined the NDC 2 Government after the
1996 Elections and became Deputy Minister of
Communications. My attention was drawn to him when
he almost privatized the Graphic Corporation and I
had to write a very strong memorandum calling the
Government’s attention to the fact that if we
commercialized and privatized all the State Owned
Media Houses as he had championed the letter and
spirit of provisions of the Constitution on State
Owned Media and their role under the Constitution
will be rendered nugatory. I did not press the
point as was my usual style and forgot about the
whole matter because I believed sincerely that he
did not intend to violate the Constitution
deliberately. Conclusions In my whole life I have
never courted praise or approbation in playing out
my character. I would rather stand for what I
believe to be the truth even if it means I stand
alone. No insults or name calling will change that
after more than 64 years of my existence. I should
be able to tell my maker when I get out or up
there or wherever it may be, that I served Him or
Her to the best of my ability; I served the Holy
Catholic Church to the best of my human ability; I
served my nation truly and served my people. I
shall not commit the major sin of envying or
hating or being bitter against any creature of God
Almighty or Allah. Always Grant me that Grace oh
Lord!

Martin A. B. K Amidu

Source - Citifmonline

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