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Ghana: Asantehene, Rawlings Warn Mills - Beware of Sycophants

Kofi Agyepong

10 November 2009

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Accra — The Asantehene, Otomfo Osei Tutu, has warned President John Evans Attah Mills to be wary of the people around him.

Receiving the President at the Manhyia Palace as part of his three-day "Thank you" tour of the Ashanti Region last week, the Asantehene said to the President:, "Beware of sycophants."

The Asantehene said people around the President would do and say all manner of things to win his favour but, "be careful how you get along with them."

He said until former Presidents Kufuor and Rawlings left office, no one knew that some of their Ministers and people around them did not mean well for them and the nation.

The Asantehene's advice follows closely on the heels of a similar advice given to the President by NDC founder J.J. Rawlings. President Mills, Mr. Rawlings said, will succeed only if he avoids the company of sycophants motivated by parochial interest. The NDC founder said, although the government meant well for Ghanaians, the advice of sycophants within the Mills administration can derail the party from attaining its objectives.

Mr. Rawlings was addressing a durbar of Chiefs and people at Aflao in the Volta Region at the 42nd Godigbe Festival.

"If we tend to put up sycophantic behaviour and always say the party is straight for personal favours, we are bringing doom to our people," Rawlings said.

There were a massive turnouts to greet President Mills everywhere he went in the Ashanti Region. Some of the places he went were Sokoban Wood Village, Kumasi Zongo and, Ashanti Mampong where he paid a courtesy call on the Mamponghene, Nana Daasebre Osei Bonsu II, after which he visited the Ejura Farms.

It was during his visit to the Kumasi Zongo that he took a swipe at Ghanaians for complaining too much. He said those complaining of severe hardship were not being fair to him as a person, and his administration as an institution, because the government was only 10 months in office.

"I get worried when I hear people complain that they haven't seen anything yet and that they were suffering," the President is reported to have said.

A year before leaving office, former President Kufuor also made similar remarks when he said Ghanaians know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Mr. Kufuor received a lot of bashing from the then opposition party, NDC, which the current President, John Evans Attah Mills was leading. The NDC criticized Mr. Kufuor for what they termed as showing little respect for Ghanaians.

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