The Okyenhene of Akyem Abuakwa, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori-Panin has rebuked Ghanaian leaders for stealing State funds and giving it to men who once abused citizens through colonialism.
“The thing that bothers me is how do you steal the monies from here and give it to the man who once colonized you?” Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori-Panin said this in his address at the International Sheroes Forum which was held at the Labadi Beach Hotel Thursday.
Speaking on the theme, “Women’s Leadership: Honouring the Past, Treasuring the Present and Shaping the Future”, he observed that Ghanaian leaders have be blinded with greed, selfishness and corruption just to amass wealth for themselves at the expense of society and the country at large.
"We don’t want to change, we are here because most of our leaders have been the ones who defend the status quo. We are here because we have picked up this disease, greed, induced mental illness of accumulating material wealth more often with no regard to that accumulation or consequence on the rest of the society,” he stressed.
According to the Okyenhene, monies meant for development projects in the country are being stolen and transferred to accounts in Dubai, Switzerland and other countries for personal gain.
He said, “When we get to power, we deep our hands in the public purse expunge monies and have the monies taken, flight destinations Switzerland, New York, Dubai.”
He blamed the lack of infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and the inability to provide better conditions of service to public servants including teachers and nurses on the looting of the public purse by politicians.
“The negative corruption is what we have here in Africa, we take the money, money that that build bridges, that can build schools, that can build hospitals, that can pay teachers and nurses and take it away from the economy. How dare we?” he asserted.
On women leadership, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori-Panin, noted that the continent has been led by men for the past 60 years and so it is time women be given the opportunity to rule.
"It is us men who have led this continent for 60 years maybe it is time for us to look at our mothers and sisters and trust them enough to let them run the ship because everywhere you look when women are educated, its most likely their children are going to be educated," he said.
