Finally John Mahama is beginning to own up to his own corruption and that of his depraved government by his latest move to admit that indeed his administration is heavily laden with the canker of corruption. The scales have suddenly fallen from the eyes of President John Dramani Mahama and he has woken up to his sins and that of his government. He has now directed the Attorney General and Finance Ministry to “do all in their power” to "retrieve all judgment debts paid foreign firms including Waterville and Isofoton".
Indeed the President has hit on three key words that have been lacking in his government and which have characterised his own corruptive practices. He said "It also takes transparency, accountability and leadership—all of which, as President, I am committed to giving our nation and our people. I do this not because it is required of me as President. I do this because I am first and foremost a Ghanaian—and like any other Ghanaian from Bawku to Berekum, from Kumasi to Axim—it is my civic duty," he said.
John Mahama and his government have from day one lacked transparency in their dealings, lacked accountability and certainly shown no leadership. The speed and the lack of clarity with which they have been paying judgement debts suggest all these. President Mills in the Woyome Scandal EOCO report is said to have told the Betty Mould's Attorney General Dept. on two occasions not to pay Woyome. However we all know what happened. This is not the first time John Mahama has asked the Attorney General to retrieve the judgment debt money. An entire Supreme Court has ordered the retrieval of the money but what did John Mahama do about that? Is John Mahama now bigger than Supreme Court, which just ordered the legitimacy of his own government on 29 August this year? John Mahama's so called directives will end as far as the echo of his voice disappears - nowhere.
John Mahama is a phoney president. He does not intend to live by the principles of accountability, transparency and leadership. He came with his band of 40 thieves to kill, steal and plunder Ghana and he is on course.
Accountability can only materialise if the government publishes last year's Auditor General's Report and explain how the 6.8 billion of the 8.7bn deficit was spent, outside of the 1.9bn on wages. Transparency will happen only when there are full blown independent inquiries before the Isofoton and Waterville, and leadership will happen if there are proper prosecution of offenders in acts of corruption. John Mahama's phoney tactics came to play in the run up to the last elections when questions were asked about these judgement debts. His diversionary response was to appoint the Judgement Debt Commissioner to look into Woyome etc. immediately after the election, what has been the focus of this Commissioner? He has gone on an equalisation trip and instead of dealing with Isofoton, Waterville Woyome, and SUBA etc. Judge Yaw Apau has gone on a wild goose chase for 2001 sale of drill ship. Are we in a state of amnesia?
We also need to watch his phoney tactics when he says that he has directed the “scrapping” of the policy “that allows public officers to purchase state bungalows allocated to them as official residences” what he has not disclosed is the same policy that AMA is using allocate new market stalls from the burnt Kantamanto and Makola markets to NDC officials and party functionaries. The vindictiveness and resentfulness that characterise every NDC decision is showing its ugly head here. He had the name "Jake Otanka Obetsebi Lamptey written all over his mind when he made that empty statement. They live by "Rule by Law" and not "Rule of Law".
On the The Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) programme, the president is lying when he states that he has “asked the Ministry of Youth and Sports to suspend with immediate effect all payments under all GYEEDA contracts except payments of arrears to workers, beneficiaries, up to the end of the year". If he wants to get to the bottom of the GYEEDA rot, why has he blocked any full inquiry into the report itself. How independent is EOCO as far as NDC government investigations are concerned? They used the same EOCO to cover up their dirty dealings in the Woyome affair, and they are going to use them again to whitewash GYEEDA.
These so called "directives" will not solve any problems. It is just another diversionary tactics to cover up even more profoundly what he and his government have stolen, prey on the minds of the ever forgetful and forgiving minds of Ghanaians and playing with words to get through the distracting Christmas break. Directives can never and will never fight corruption. The best antidote is to build a public consciousness against it and remove the source of it. The source is John Mahama and his million dollar aspiration team.
The consistent lying phrase of John Mahama and his government is "I am committed to..." The moment he uses that phrases it means he is not going to do anything about it. Even as I write Daily Graphic has reported President as stating once again that "the government is committed to improving the lives of Ghanaians, even though the challenges are enormous." What does this mean?
Mr President should tell us about Embraer, Cuban Medical School Scholarship, SSNIT debt and the sale of Merchant Bank, SUBA, Amajarro, STX and what he has accomplished with our billions of dollars from oil proceeds.
And please Mr President the geographical description of a Ghana as Bawku to Berekum, from Kumasi to Axim is even wrong. The proper description of the four corners of Ghana should be from Pusiga to Axim, from Hamile to Keta.
That "boy Dramani" must be watched.
I will be back...
Kwesi Atta-Krufi Hayford.