Martin Amidu
Special Prosecutor Martin A. B. K. Amidu has described as ‘irredeemable lies’ peddled in the book titled: ‘Working with Rawlings’ authored by Professor Kwamena Ahwoi.
He said some of the things the professor talked about in the book were “shoddy and unscholarly.”
Prof. Ahwoi’s book has made some scurrilous allegations against the National Democratic Congress (NDC) founder, former President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, his wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, and some other bigwigs in the NDC, and the situation appears to be causing uneasy calm in the opposition party.
Mr. Amidu, who served in the NDC government under both Presidents Rawlings and John Evans Atta Mills, was one of the latest personalities mentioned and has come out to debunk Prof. Ahwoi’s claims.
Rawlings Reluctant
Prof. Ahwoi had claimed amongst other things that former President Rawlings did not like Mr. Amidu to be the running mate for the NDC during the 2000 election when he was exiting power after 19 years in office.
Mr. Rawlings was reluctant for Mr. Amidu who was the then Deputy Attorney General to partner the then Vice-President John Evans Atta Mills and preferred his Attorney General, Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah, according to Prof. Ahwoi.
Amidu Bait
He said in the book that it took himself (Ahwoi), Prof. Daniel Ohene Agyekum and Kofi Totobi-Quakyi to convince Mr. Rawlings that it was not ideal for Dr. Asamoah to be on the NDC ticket with Prof. Mills, who had been handpicked by the NDC founder to replace him.
He said Mr. Amidu was one of the founding cadres of the revolution and was very much respected by the young ‘revolutionaries’ who were leading the Reform Movement which was happening in the NDC at the time.
Amidu’s Movement
“His name had also been linked to the movement, though never openly, and he was rumoured to be attending meetings with them. At the suggestion of Kofi Totobi-Quakyi, we made the following calculation: ‘why not dangle the running mate bait before Martin Amidu? If he swallows it, he is likely to deflect the reform defection or at worst to split their ranks’,” Prof. Ahwoi said in the book.
“This calculation was put before Professor Mills who agreed that it should be tried. President Rawlings was informed, and he reluctantly gave his blessing. Martin Amidu was informed and he excitedly swallowed the bait. So Martin Amidu became the NDC vice-presidential candidate for the 2000 elections,” he stated.
Amidu Reacts
However, Mr. Amidu has rubbished Prof. Ahwoi’s claims in a critique of the book.
“I have avoided reading books written by my former colleagues reporting on their observations or experiences in the governments I served with them lest some contents in the books put temptation in my path to attempt a rejoinder or critique of the book and earn the displeasure of such a colleague,” he said.
He said an autographed copy of the book was left at his house, saying “word was left alongside the book that portions of it narrated on the authority of rumours, if ever rumours now constitute a source of authority for ‘Professors’ that the late Mr. Paa Kwasi Amissah-Arthur and I were members of the National Reform Movement.”
“I was identified and baited by the author and Mr. Kofi Totobi-Quakyi, then the Minister for National Security, with the vice-presidential candidacy in the 2000 election to breach the ranks of the movement. I am reported to have excitedly swallowed the bait,” he fired, adding “the narrative is an irredeemable lie because I can say and prove authoritatively in due course that neither the late Mr. Amissah-Arthur nor I was an associate or member of the National Reform Movement.”
Figment of Imagination
He said he was tempted “to refute and expose its subjectivity, figments of imagination, delusions and breaches of all the ethics of acceptable standards of scholarly research and report writing.
“I have always hated laziness in any professional work, not to talk of the work of persons who hold themselves out as scholars, academics or mainstream professionals subjected to disciplinary proceedings by their professions for unethical products.”
Mr. Amidu said that “baiting me with ‘Working with Rawlings’ is the real bait of the author I have willingly and knowingly decided to swallow like a fish to give rise to this exposition and critique.”
Shoddy Work
“I served under the same regimes as a ministerial appointee and longer than the author served, played critical roles in them, lived them, kept some records of my observations and lived experiences,” he said, adding “I can and will, therefore, contest some of the author’s or authors’ shoddy and unscholarly reported outcomes.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu