Mahama’s corruption index led to his downfall ……. IGP John Kudalor should sack himself!

  Ebo Quansah in Accra.. After eight years of roaming aimlessly in the bush, the Elephant is back in town. On January 7, 2017, after the formal inauguration of the next leader of this society, the Elephant will formally occupy the Golden Jubilee House on the Independence Avenue in Accra. It is the result of […]

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Ebo Quansah in Accra..

After eight years of roaming aimlessly in the bush, the Elephant is back in town. On January 7, 2017, after the formal inauguration of the next leader of this society, the Elephant will formally occupy the Golden Jubilee House on the Independence Avenue in Accra.

It is the result of the overwhelming endorsement of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) by the long-suffering people of Ghana. Wednesday’s poll was a momentous occasion, in the sense that the people of this country, overwhelmingly, voted in both the presidential and parliamentary elections of December 7, 2016, to recall the Elephant home from its tortuous journey into the bush.

The vote has liberated Ghanaians from the hands of a group of people who made looting of state resources a national policy, and confined the good people of this country to a hopeless life of misery. In plain language, Ghanaians have suffered under Pontius Pilate for the last eight years.

The spontaneous burst of joy on the streets of cities, towns, villages and even hamlets, tell the story of the joy of the people.  To quote a woman celebrating Black Stars’ 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, “it is like the second coming of independence.”

From East to West, South to North, the NDC votes collapsed. Greater Accra and the Brong Ahafo Region provided the platform for the collapse of the once dominant party that propped up President John Dramani Mahama. The Central and Western regions performed the coup de grass with nine seats each (a total of 18 seats) changing hands in the two regions.

Yesterday, President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa took his Muslim running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, to the Ridge Church in Accra to thank the Almighty for his resounding victory. Accompanied by his wife, Rebecca, the President-elect was offered special prayers by the officiating clergy, Rev. Kobina Aryee.

As he prayed, a transitional team he has put up was lacing its boots for the first encounter with its counterpart from the National Democratic Congress today. The NPP team is led by Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, a Cabinet Minister in the Kufuor regime, famous for leading this nation into the HIPC initiative in 2001, and getting Ghana out in a record time of two and a half years.

An engineer by profession, Mr. Osafo-Maafo studied banking and economics and headed the Agriculture Development Bank before venturing into main stream politics. The former Minister of Finance and Economic Planning will be assisted by Ms. Frema Osei Opare, former Member of Parliament for Ayawaso West Wuogon in Accra. My own Viking colleague, Gloria Akuffo, Minister of Aviation in the Kufuor regime and spokesperson for the legal team of the NPP in the Electoral Petition in 2013, is also in the team.

In transition, matters of finance issues usually dominate. The NPP team includes Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, Chief Executive Officer of Data Bank, to unravel difficult issues pertaining to the national treasury. There is Hajia Alima Mahama, a former minister, who has been rather quiet throughout the NPP’s time in opposition.  Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, one-time Minister of Energy, Interior and Defence, who has been on the national radar since leaving Parliament and his role as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

On the NDC side, the Transitional Team is led by Chief of Staff Julius Debrah. In the supporting cast are Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, outgoing Attorney-General and Minister of Justice who annoyed many Ghanaians by failing to pursue Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome to collect the GH¢51.2 million, almost US$35 million at the time. Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Seth Emmanuel Terkper, whose borrowing spree has led to a deep debt hole in state finances, and outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms. Hannah Serwaa Tetteh. It tells at lot about how low Ms. Tetteh has dipped in the acceptance rate of Ghanaians that many are still celebrating her electoral defeat in Awutu Senya West. The list ends with outgoing Local Government Minister Alhaji Collins Dauda.

In the midst of the euphoria heralding the NPP victory at the polls, a number of Ghanaians were angered by a report on the elections by Cable News Network (CNN) of the United States of America, suggesting that Ghanaians have to queue for food and other basic items.

Reporting on Nana Akufo-Addo’s victory, CNN had claimed: “The national economy will be Akufo-Addo’s main challenge. Oil reserves were discovered off the coast of Ghana in 2007. But Ghanaians struggle to obtain food and day to day services. Rolling black-outs are common, and citizens are often in long lines to obtain products.”

This report is obviously captured from a beclouded racist stance of the otherwise respected television station.  For the records, Ghanaians have never queued for anything since Jerry John Rawlings’ crazy revolution reduced this society into a nation of destitutes in the early 1980s.

With the return of multi-party politics, this society has begun to restructure, and although the eight year mal-administration of the NDC brought about the ‘create, loot and share’ policy nearly brought this nation into its knees, we never got to the stage where basic amenities were in short supply.

This society’s main problem is how to deal with corruption. Under Mahama’s watch, corruption was promoted as a state policy. Unfortunately for this country, the leader himself led from the front in the corruption index.

The moment it was revealed that the President of the Republic of Ghana had accepted a gift of a Ford Expedition four-wheel drive car from a Burkinabe contractor who had executed a contract for the state in Ouagadougou, I concluded the President had lost his mandate to lead this society.

The bribery allegation was serious. But what annoyed most Ghanaians was the fact that the Burkinabe contractor, Jibril Kanazoe, was handed an outrageous amount of US$650,000 from scanty state resources to build a dwarf fence wall around four plots of bare land in Ouagadougou.

Men without balls sat at the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice and let the President off the hook with findings and recommendations that shamed every Ghanaian. In the opinion of these CHRAJ bosses, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, broke his own presidential code on gifts, but was not culpable for an offence of bribery.

I am in no doubt that President Mahama lost the vote the moment it emerged that he had accepted the car gift from the Burkinabe contractor, and that it took four solid years for Ghanaians to know of that fact. What is more worrying is the fact that information on the scandal was made public as a result of a young journalist’s adventure.

In spite of all the protestations from the Presidency, I am inclined to believe that a chunk of that $650,000 cash was returned to the Head of State of the Republic of Ghana together with the car bribe.  Why for the construction of a dwarf wall one should be paid US$650,000, tells every story of the huge loss at the polls. It is one reason why former President Jerry John Rawlings’ congratulatory message to President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo interests me so much.

“I write to extend my warmest congratulations on the occasion of your election victory,” said a message released from Boom Junction yesterday. “Your victory is a manifestation of the people’s desire for new leadership, and comes with enormous responsibilities, including a commitment to pursue an anti-corruption drive across board,” wrote Jerry John Rawlings.

In the words of the former President, “Ghana faces huge challenges which you promised to tackle during your campaign tours.  You have been elected as President because the electorate believes you have the ability to confront these challenges.”

Flt-Lt Jerry Rawlings’ message tells everything about what Ghanaians expect from Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his new team ready to occupy Golden Jubilee House. I wish the new President the best of everything.

In the interim, it would be in the interest of the Inspector General of Police to sack himself before the axe falls on him. Mr. John Kudalor has so far failed to exhibit the carrot and stick approach to law and order.

I shall return!

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