It has been revealed that contrary to claims from Dr Ekwow Spio Garbrah that he had been shunned by President Mills the former Vice Chairman of the NDC received an appointment from President Mills to serve as government representative on the Board of AngloGold Ashanti more than a year ago.
The revelation was made on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana on which Dr Spio-Garbrah was a guest.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah was talking about he and other qualified persons in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were not getting government appointments because they were being sabotaged when a viewer sent in a text message to say that he had no justification to complain because he had been appointed to the Board of AngloGold Ashanti.
He confirmed the appointment and said he had been serving and getting paid like any board member since. When asked why he had not told the public about his government appointment, he simply said “because you did not ask me.”
Ahead of that revelation, Dr. Spio-Garbrah ha disclosed that before he left for the UK after the 2008 elections, he held a meeting with President Mills and others where the President promised to appoint him as Foreign Minister but that did not happen because of the influence of what he called “the Fante Confederation” (Referring to the Ahwois) on the president’s decisions.
“At some point they confessed to me that they stopped my appointment to the Foreign Ministry and I still don’t know why – in fact if I become president today, they will be some of the first people I will consider for ministerial positions but they don’t like me, maybe because the president favoured me and appointed me to man his campaign head office in 2006,” he said.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah also said President Mills later asked him to name any organization where he (Spio) wanted to be board chairman and “I named seven organizations but I have not been appointed to any since.”
“What worries me is not that I am not getting appointed or being sabotaged but that the President’s authority is being undermined by people around him – it is worrying to have a president say something to you at one time and in the next moment someone else’s threat changes his mind,” he said.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah also touched on the appointment of young people in the Mills government saying that there were more experienced persons like him and others who could have been Ministers for the young ones to deputize.
He particularly mentioned the Ministry of Information where he said “it was a mistake for the President to have appointed three innocent people as minister and deputies only to change the minister later.”
At the point, Special Communications Assistant to the President at the Ministry of Information, Stan Dogbe sent in a text message to say that Dr. Spio-Garbrah only wanted to be president because he was full of himself and still thought the youth did not deserve a chance.
“Let us see how many of the so-called foot soldiers he claims to be fighting for will vote for him” the text message said.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah insisted that the youth have a place in governance but he felt some of the appointments given to young people in the Mills government were above them.
He said in spite of what people thought that he was creating enmity for himself by speaking his mind about appointments of young people, he still had a huge constituency of young people across the country, and that he would win in many places if he contests to be a Member of Parliament.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah has picked nomination forms to contest the NDC presidential slot in July and he said this is his time.
“Everything happening in the party now should tell you one thing – that it’s Spio time – so if anyone asks you what time is it, you don’t look at your watch and tell them the time, just say its Spio time,” he said with laughter.
Story: Samuel Nii Narku Dowuona/ Adom News/Ghana
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