Anyidoho indicates he was not powerful when Mills was president
Anyidoho insists he never disrespected John Dramani Mahama
Samuel Koku Anyidoho, founder and CEO, Atta Mills Institute, has for the first time opened up on his relationship with the then-Vice President, John Dramani Mahama, during the time that the two worked at the Presidency under the leadership of the late President, Prof John Evans Atta Mills.
According to him, he had not had a ‘good’ relationship with Mahama and it is was wrong for the Vice President at the time to feel that he was powerful than the President.
He explained in a TV interview that as the Head of Communications at the Presidency, he never disrespected Vice President John Dramani Mahama.
“I wasn’t powerful, I had work to do and I operated on a "double P" principle i.e. protect and project the President and there was only one President of the Republic and at any given point there shall be only one President in any Republic. If you are a Vice President, and you think and you believe you are more important than the President, it is wrong...
“I state for the records that I never disrespected the Vice President and I mean Vice President John Dramani Mahama; I never disrespected him,” Koku Anyidoho told Joy News’ Evans Mensah in an interview monitored by GhanaWeb.
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He dismissed claims that, he used to prevent the Vice President from entering his office.
“Was I a janitor? Did I hold keys? Even the keys to my own office were not with me,” he said.
“I am saying that I never disrespected him, I couldn’t; they said I stopped him from seeing the President, it’s not possible. Anybody who knows how the Castle is configured, the topmost floor – the President, the Vice President, the Cabinet room are up there – me I’m down there somewhere, I’m not even there and there is a dedicated corridor between the President and the Vice President and at any point in time the Vice President wants to see his President, he walks on that dedicated corridor - me, I’m not allowed to walk there… how could I been stopping you from seeing the President when I’m not even on that floor; it’s not possible.
“In fact, the most ridiculous one I heard was, they said, I used to slap the Vice President; oh! An executive Vice President, me, I’ll be slapping him and President Mills allowed it? Sir James Bebaako Mensah, the Secretary to the President, John Martey Newman, Prof Kofi Awoonor, Chairman of Council of State; who is going to allow you to disrespect the Vice President?” Koku Anyidoho quizzed.
Touching on the relationship with John Dramani Mahama, Koku Anyidoho said, from his side, looking at the age difference between the two and the position he was able to climb to, he was ever ready to work with John Dramani Mahama.
“I was ready to work for him, so, where is the bad blood from? I cannot and I am not in any competition with him but the truth of the matter is that there was a President at that point in time, we all hold it a duty to him to walk up to him but not to disrespect the Vice President. I never disrespected the Vice President,” he stressed.
“He owes me a duty of care to tell the world that I never disrespected him, because that was not true,” he said.
Anyidoho noted that, after President Mills passed, he never met John Dramani Mahama one-on-one because he didn’t work closely with him “so, I ended up at the party headquarters as a deputy General Secretary.
“When he [John Dramani Mahama] moved to the Flagstaff House, in the early days, I was made to understand that I was a pariah and so, I didn’t have to come to the Flagstaff House; and so, I didn’t go to the Flagstaff House. So, for the four and half years he was the President, I never entered his office; I never met him one-on-one,” Koku Anyidoho stated.
