President Akufo-Addo has zero commitment in fighting corruption – Bernard Mornah

A recent survey conducted by the Center for Democratic Development -Ghana (CDD) indicated that 62 percent of Ghanaians doubt President Akufo-Addo’s commitment to fighting corruption.

This seems unacceptable by the former National Chairperson of the People’s National Convention (PNC), who believes the President has no commitment to fight corruption.

According to Bernard Mornah, President Akufo-Addo has made no attempt to prosecute or fire anyone riddled with corruption and has surprisingly become the hub for clearing corrupt officials.

He cited that the President after corruption allegations are made, only sets up committees consisting of friends of the accused, whose only mandate is to exonerate the guilty party.

“Give me a single attempt made by the President to prosecute or sack anyone riddled with corruption. The president himself has become a clearinghouse and sets up committees at the presidency made up of friends of the accused to investigate allegations levelled against the person. People called for these investigations are sometimes the wrong people,” he noted.

Citing the Australian visa scandal as an example, he noted that the Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports Pius Hadzide was held liable for the scandal when the substantive Minister at the time was the one supposed to be dragged before the committee for investigations.

“Pius was cleared from the Australian visa scandal but he did not lead it. He was the wrong person to be dragged before the committee for investigations. Who then led this scandal? Is the gov’t trying to tell us the scandal never happened?

Between us, if I say my horsewhip is missing and I accuse you but it is not found on you then who took it? Because it is still missing,” he posed the question to Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show.

The politician went on to mention the BOST fuel contamination saga where a contract was issued to an unregistered entity. “A company which was yet to be registered got the contract, which was against the basic requirement for receiving such a contract. The owner of that company was then sponsored for an election and is now an MP,” he revealed.

The recent Sputnik V scandal is what irritated Bernard Mornah the most. According to him the Minister of Health initially denied claims of having paid for the vaccines only for it to be revealed he had made a 50 percent down payment to a middle man.

With most Ghanaians enraged by this, Bernard indicated that that president did not take any drastic measures against the minister but together with the Minister of Finance, joked about the Health Minister’s state of mind and exhaustion.

To him, these scandals and a lot more only prove his point and cause disgrace to Ghana globally.

Background

A survey conducted by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) has revealed that the majority of Ghanaians lack confidence in President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to fight corruption.

62% of 2,400 Ghanaians interviewed in a post-election survey conducted between May 23 and June 3, 2021, say they do not have confidence in the ability of President Akufo-Addo “to protect the country’s financial resources and curb corruption in the next four years.”

“While Ghanaians are split (48% vs. 48%) on the government’s ability to ensure that rule of law is upheld in the next four years, a majority [of them] are not confident in its ability to protect the country’s financial resources (53%) and curb corruption and official impunity (62%).”

President Akufo-Addo’s biggest critics, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), have consistently chastised him for superintending over what they say is massive corruption, notwithstanding that the President has insisted that his fight against corruption is unprecedented.