Hannah Tetteh Killing Vice-President Slowly

Many would have thought, as a Vice-President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur would have been so instrumental and more engaged in the governing system just as did, the late Aliu Mahama and before then, the leverage given Prof. Atta Mills by the then Jerry Rawlings to market him for the Presidency.

In contrast to this perception, the current NDC government seems to have shifted the goal post and to have effectively made the Vice-President a frustrated figure regretting with each passing day why he accepted the challenge at the first place.

We are told that there will be a National Economic Dialogue on Tuesday 13th May, so observers will examine closely the role the Vice Pee plays in that forum.

It has now become an open secret within corridors of power and the NDC apparatchiks that central to the ineffectiveness of the Vice- President is the calculated undercover strategy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hannah Tetteh -Kpoda to make the Vice- President unproductive and to make him look an incompetent person in the eyes of Ghanaians and the NDC leadership. Hannah Tetteh and her “surrogate generals” in government have so far succeeded in frustrating the Vice- President through various anti-establishment schemes aimed at undermining and marginalizing Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur at the seat of government.

Many would recall that, hardly does a week pass-by without speculation in the media proposing a Hannah Tetteh for NDC running mate for 2016. (See:http://elections.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/201403/194752.php or http://www.viasat1.com.gh/v1/vnews/local.php?postId=4628 or http://article.wn.com/view/2014/03/31/Mahama_To_Ditch_AmissahArthur_As_He_Chooses_Hannah_Tetteh_As/ )

In the midst of all these counter-productive speculations, Hannah Tetteh who had formerly served as a communication director of the NDC and therefore knows better how to response to those type of speculations which have the propensity to develop unstable cohesion in government, has been very quiet. The once outspoken Hannah Tetteh has so far remained silent on growing speculations of her intense ambition and underground lobbying to kick out Amissah- Arthur which has dominated the media recently.

So, why has Hannah Tetteh refused to come out to deny these stories gaining grounds if she could have the guts to openly advise in writing a senior party man like Alban Bagbin when the later only expressed his frustration at the inaccessibility of the President. If Hannah Tetteh could also at a time refer to Jerry Rawlings, the founder of the party who brought her to political prominence as a “loose cannon” (See: Rawlings Is Loose Cannon – Hannah Tettehhttp://elections.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/201109/68159.php?storyid=100&…………) then there is more to her silence on her rumoured intention to replace Amissah-Arthur in a “Kick Polio Out” style of campaign.

We wish to inform Hannah Tetteh and her agents that the effect of her continued silence “do or die” ambition to replace the Vice- President is adversely affecting the image and performance of Amissah-Arthur as Veep and therefore the whole Mahama administration. It has become an open secret also as confirmed by families and close pals of the Vice -President that it is because of these persistent rumours and publications that has made Amissah-Arthur loose interest in his job, to the point that when Dr. Bawumia came out recently at Central University with a lengthy negative commentary on the economic performance of the NDC, Amissah-Arthur too was very silent.

This malevolence of Hannah Tetteh has caused supporters and advisers of Amissah Arthur to conclude that since Hannah Tetteh, who until the Mahama era had made no known significant contribution to the NDC, knows so much as to become Vice-President in 2016, then she might as well start debating Bawumia now, rather than leave him Amissah-Arthur to do the donkey work for her, only for him Amissah-Arthur to be dumped in 2016 and for Hannah to have it easy as Vice-Presidential candidate without going through any Party primaries or prior elections which she so much fears.

Even more worrying are other articles that rumoured that should Mahama not stand for 2016, Hannah Tetteh and Kwesi Ahwoi, both ministers in the current government, are poised to replace him. However, neither of these sitting MPs has come out to deny that open speculation in the media. This must mean they are interested, with Hannah Tetteh already rumoured to have started dishing out cash to some youth groups and traditional rulers as well as “fugu”gifts to some Zongo chiefs around the country.

Many Ghanaians will want to know what has been Hannah Tetteh’s singular achievement with the industrial community when she was Minister of Trade and Industry and now Foreign Affairs to give her such impetus to habour such diabolical acts. She simply entrenched the practice of all businessmen in Ghana being interested more in Imports than Exports, leading the weakening of the cedi, dollar shortages and spiralling price hikes. How did she improve Ghana’s export weaknesses, or curtail the importation of rice, poultry, flour, fruit juices, or other very basic communities Ghana should be manufacturing?

Can we therefore say, Hannah Tetteh is covertly causing economic sabotage just to make the Vice- President who is to lead the economic management team of government look incompetent? Many also wonder why the President himself, a former Minister of Communications and NDC Party Communications Chief, is allowing such media speculations to gain root without any response. Could rumors be true that this is due to a previous or ongoing sweetheart relationship between the President and Hannah?

It is therefore a perfect conclusion to draw from the foregoing that, the enemy of the NDC is right within and the failure of government so far to win the debate on the economy should rest on Hannah Tetteh.

Many will attest that it is only Fiifi Kwetey who is trying to counter Dr. Bawumia, Akoto Osei and others on the economic front but Fiifi’s abrasive and haughty style and inadequate economic knowledge, experience and analysis does not help NDC carry the day. Ideally, NDC could have a stronger team if Amissah-Arthur, Terkper and Fiifi Kwetey could collaborate and strategize, with the help of Deputy Finance Ministers, Cassiel Ato Forson and George Griffiths-Hagan.

But Hannah Tetteh’s ambition for the Vice-President slot and eventually Presidential slot is making it difficult for this collaboration to take place–as the current Vice-President is marginalized and feels unappreciated. In conclusion, President Mahama and the NDC as a party would have a lot of questions to ask Hannah Tetteh, if government fails in its promise to meet with the Better Ghana Agenda. For we in TEIN shall not forgive Hannah Tetteh if we fail to win election 2016.