A doomsday awaiting President Mills? Be the Judge – Part One By Dr Michael J.K. Bokor

The writer, Dr Michael J.K. Bokor
In response to an article (“How will you remember President Mills?”) that I wrote, and which was published by the online media on Friday, January 6, 2012, many readers spontaneously made random comments that I thought shouldn’t go unnoticed. I. therefore, set out to do a qualitative analysis of those random comments to throw more light on the public perception of President Mills, especially as we approach the major electioneering campaign season for Election 2012.

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Mine is not an opinion poll nor is it intended to be viewed as anything empirical. It is just an attempt to assess President Mills’ estimation in the eyes of those who “respond” to anything said or written about him. Such an assessment has its limitations but can help us know how the diverse impressions that people have about President Mills shape attitudes to him and how such impressions may influence electoral decisions.
It will also provide opportunities for a sneak peek into the near future as far as his political fortunes are concerned. Reaction to other articles on President Mills also inform us about such perceptions. The larger picture may lie elsewhere; but, at least, we can see a part of it at this time through the opinions of these respondents.

Even if the corpus of data used for this analysis is too small to be accepted as a credible representation of voter sentiments against President Mills, it does reflect reality to a limited extent to make us know how people feel about him. We must, therefore, not dismiss such opinions as a mere bother or as misplaced sentiments of hatred on the part of frustrated political opponents.

I acknowledge that in an election year, an analysis of this sort is relevant because it will help us begin to weigh issues to see how the tide flows. Of course, President Mills is seeking re-election and we need to know how he stands in the estimation of the people. That’s why it is important to test the pulse with issues of the sort that my article raised to stoke the fire of public discourse. The conversation goes on and we need to pause for reflection even as we continue to monitor the ebb and flow of the discourse on Election 2012.
After all, fetish priests and other Messengers of God have already blazed the trail to forewarn us of a violence-prone election period even as they claim to know in advance who the winners will be but won’t tell us. Our own analysis of issues can lead us to better conclusions than what appears to be coming from a spiritual realm that has nothing to do with general elections!

It is commonly said that a physical problem is solved physically and a spiritual one spiritually. A general election is a physical issue, not a spiritual problem to be solved spiritually. But our Ghanaian Men of Spirits think they know better. I won’t allow myself to be hoodwinked into believing them and will use evidence from the people’s sentiments to gauge the political temperature.

THE CORPUS OF COMMENTS

In all, 87 comments came from readers who accessed my article at the major Web sites (Ghanaweb.com, Myjoyonline, PeacefmOnline, ModernGhana.com). About 24 hours after the article was published, a visit to those Websites showed the following: PeacefmOnline recorded 41 comments from visitors; Ghanaweb.com, 44; MyjoyOnline, 14; andModernGhana.com, 1. In addition, I had one personal e-mail from a reader.

Although that article was carried by other Web sites (including AfricaNewsAnalysis.com, Okromouth.com, VibeGhana.com, IndepthAfrica.com, SpyGhana.com, among others), it didn’t attract as many vitriolic comments as came from the major Web sites mentioned above.

I recognize the fact that the article also attracted comments on Facebook and personal blogs that carried it. Other possibilities such as readers e-mailing the article to their friends and relatives could also be considered, even though responses were not available to gather and assess. It is possible too that not all readers commented on the article or because of censorship by the moderator (Myjoyonline.com, for instance), not all comments were published. I will, therefore, concentrate on only comments gathered from the major Web sites as published verbatim.

THE RESULTS

Three main categories of comments were recorded: negative, positive, and a mixture of negative and positive (middle-of-the-road) comments. The latter may not necessarily qualify as “neutral” because of hidden implications suggesting the presence of something negative or positive, even if not pronounced.

1. NEGATIVE COMMENTS

I qualify as negative any comment that disparages President Mills and doesn’t suggest any positive appreciation for him (as a person), his office (the Presidency), or performance (acts of omission or commission). High on the list of comments in this category are outright insults (whether directly framed, using the obvious expletive or pejorative language), aspersions, insinuations, innuendoes, or metaphorical expressions that undermine and not give positive reinforcement.

Some of the words and expressions highlighting this stance included “incompetent,” “hypocrite,” “visionless,” “powerless, “sick,” “useless,” “foolish,” “timid,” “weak,” “insensitive,” and “feckless.”

This category also included comments that sought to blame President Mills for whatever lapses the readers noticed in his government. Of all, direct/outright insults dominated. Examples included:

• “as the most hypocritical, vision-less, powerless, sick, useless president we’ve ever had in ghana…. Foolish man….”;

• “… it is very simple the president has done something great we will always remember him as ecomini and omama .infact he is the most useless president ever in this world”; and

• “He will be remembered as the worst president Ghana has ever had. He is weak mentally and practically ineffective, he has wasted our time” (PeacefmOnline).

Other comments verged on ill-wish for President Mills, as we can see from this example: “…I also be happy seen him in hell fire burning with his coleagues like Abacha,Idi Aminu,Mogabe,Kwaku Bonsam and some of the pastors around the would who are fucking people’s wives and extorting money from innocent people to enrich themselves… and those from NPP who also stole from the poor Ghanaian tax payers… Fire Burn them all.”

1. POSITIVE COMMENTS

Comments that qualify as positive are identified as words (adjectives, especially) and other forms of language use that project President Mills in a positive light. Such words/expressions (descriptive) sought to ensure a positive face-marking for him. They concluded the following:

• “… as father for all. oppositon go shy”;

• “People say Mills is a Failure but I think it was not all his fault. The Greedy Rwalings made him fail as he took his eyes off the ball to deal with JJ greed. NDC will go out but Mills will be remembered as the peaceful one” ; and

• “A president that has preserved the peace in our dear country. A president who has been able to acquire funds for development when Europe couldn’t. Jehovah’s blessing on him. More wisdom to ran the affairs of the country. God bless Ghana” (PeacefmOnline).

The one e-mail that I received from a reader had this: “oh that is good to hear, the massive infrastructure development economic growth, inflation, ssss, sada and ultra modern hospital in the north in tamale assembly hole complex which is near finishing…. infarct president mills is one of the best leader we have.”

2. MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD COMMENTS

There was another category that is a blend of both negative and positive. In such comments, the readers made disparaging comments but tended to tone down on them by injecting some positive elements into them. They were mixed feelings, for example:

• “i will remember Atta Mills as a visionless president. he is unable to articulate his vision and dreams and stir up the citizenry for a common good or purpose. indeed for someone who is striving for a better Ghana Agenda, no one seems to know what he means by that much more to understand him. his lack of control over his ministers and other government appointees is sickening. my conclusion is that Atta Mills might be a good man but he is not a good leader.”

• “I’ll remember him as the good man in the wrong party. It’s difficult to be the white sheep among a predominantly black sheep party.”

This middle-of-the-road category also showed that some respondents didn’t take sides but rather sought to comment on the comments being passed. For example, “Please have respect for the elderly,stop the insults its not helping us as a nation. No one knows the future can u guys insult your parents the way u doing to this man? pls pls pls lets stop now” (PeaceFmOnline)

Continued in the next installment…

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The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or have the endorsement of the Editorial Board of www.africanewsanalysis.com and www.africa-forum.net