J.B. Danquah would’ve campaigned for Mahama to be out of office – Nana Addo

• Posted on February 5, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, has asserted that the several cases of corruption involving public servants and government appointees in the last few years, would have resulted in an avalanche of criticism being poured on President John Dramani Mahama by one of the country’s statesmen, J.B Danquah because the latter abhorred “misuse of public money at any circumstance.”

According to the three-time NPP Flagbearer, the late member of the ‘Big Six’ would not have tolerated the wanton dissipation of state funds under the current government.

“In his day, his typewriter was always handy to write letters to those in authority and beyond to see that some wrong was righted. He argued passionately that the public money ought to be managed by people who are committed to the country’s interest….

“….I wonder what he would have made of Woyome, GYEEDA, SUBAH and SADA and all the reports of the blatant misappropriation of public money for private ends today. One thing I can assure you is that If Danquah were alive today President John Mahama would be receiving letters or probably emails from him all the time. And so with the minister of finance on how the country’s resources should be put to better use,” Nana Addo said this at the J.B. Danquah’s Symposium on Wednesday on the theme; “Danquah – The Unfinished Agenda.”

Nana Akufo-Addo further argued that if the late “Big-Six” member were alive today, he would definitely have campaigned for the booting out of office of the Mahama-led NDC government.

Quoting from J.B Danquah’s observation of the governance during independence era – “up and down the country the picture is dismal everywhere. What this means is that, that dismal form of administration must come to an end” – a situation which Nana Addo noted rather sadly exists today, he called for the strengthening of mechanisms to check corruption.

“We need to strengthen the institutional mechanisms for dealing with corruption to promote this end…Above all we need the personal examples of our political leaders especially the president of the Republic to demonstrate the public service is exactly that public service. Those who seek wealth in public service have no place there. Their place is in the private sector where the making of money is a legitimate and necessary activity,” the NPP flagbearer said.