By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
The Herald newspaper report that at the launching of the 2012 Manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta regional capital of Ho, recently, President John Dramani Mahama dared his main political opponent to substantiate allegations linking the former Atta-Mills lieutenant to rank corruption is sheer hogwash (See “Prez Mahama Dares Nana Addo” Ghanaweb.com 10/6/12). This is what may be aptly called “Trokosi Journalism.”
In sum, if, indeed, Mr. Mahama did call on the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to cause the former to be arraigned before a panel of forensically empowered investigators to prove Nana Akufo-Addo’s widely known and largely undisputed allegations in his capacity as substantive President of the Democratic Republic of Ghana, knowing quite well that he is fully protected by constitutional immunity, then, of course, the former Member of Parliament from Bole-Bamboi was not only being criminally disingenuous but, even more grievously, Mr. Mahama was simply putting forth a faux-brave face before a largely unsuspecting party audience.
In essence, what we are saying here, in plain English, is that if Mr. Mahama half-believes in – or is candid about – his innocence from the corruption charges leveled against him, then the logical path that he ought to follow is to promptly waive his executive immunity from prosecution and face his accusers and critics in a legitimately constituted court of law. Better yet, Mr. Mahama could choose to promptly resign the presidency, waive his prosecutorial immunity, thereby voluntarily denuding himself of all privileges pertaining to the status of a retired commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, and face his accusers.
Of course, nobody really expects this inordinately ambitious man who is as guilty as sin itself, to comply with either of the preceding alternatives. But what is even more intriguing here is the fact that Mr. Rawlings, the man who ran the most corrupt and extortionate system of governance in postcolonial Ghanaian history, and who also, incidentally, happens to be the founding-patriarch of the National Democratic Congress, firmly believes that whatever passes for the Mahama-Arthur government is nothing short of a veritable and incorrigible fraud. For instance, at the same venue where Mr. Mahama allegedly dared his primary political opponent to prove charges of corruption against the president, Mr. Rawlings also publicly called on his former minion to open his eyes widely enough in order to thoroughly and unreservedly weed out what the Patron-Saint of Anloga termed as “old evil dwarfs” among the ranks of the key operatives of the National Democratic Congress.
Needless to say, cavalierly asserting that his most formidable and ardent critics could be likened to a bunch of ignorant radio call-in commentators does little to mitigate the fact of Mr. Mahama’s epic and incontrovertible involvement in the $10 billion STX Scandal, among three or four other corruption scandals and allegations which Nana Akufo-Addo is reported to have referenced in a campaign speech in Kumasi. Of course, Mr. Mahama is also fully aware of the fact that the administrative spearhead of the Aveyime Rice Scandal suffered absolutely no remarkable punitive sanctions whatsoever, short of momentary personal embarrassment, assuming that, indeed, the late President John Evans Atta-Mills was morally imbued with a remarkable sense of shame.
At any rate, the President’s electioneering campaign promise to build both a hospital and a university college in the Eastern Region, while welcome, is really nothing to write home about. Indeed, what Mr. Mahama ought to have fully and publicly acknowledged before all else, is the fact that the very establishment of the country’s flagship academy, the University of Ghana (of which he is himself an alumnus) and which, by the way, was uniquely championed by the putative Doyen of Gold Coast and Ghanaian politics, was originally located in the Eastern Region. Likewise, the oldest and most prestigious teacher-training college in modern Ghana, the Presbyterian Teacher-Training College at Akuapem-Akropong, is also located in the Eastern Region. In other words, we “Easterners” have an in-depth appreciation of the cultural significance of education that is second to none among residents and citizens in the ten regions of the country.
In brief, deliberate and spiteful attempts in the recent past by the erstwhile Mills-Mahama government, and now the Mahama-Arthur government, to punitively withhold our fair share of the proverbial national cake, may properly be likened to a mild drizzle on the back of a duck.
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: [email protected].
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