Show leadership in fighting corruption – Alfred Thompson to Prez. Mahama

• Posted on May 23, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Hon Alfred Kojo Thompson has challenged the president to clean his government of corruption and show leadership in fighting the menace to the latter. Speaking on a radio discussion, he vividly stated that to say NDC is synonymous with corruption is charitable but rather they are the embodiment of corruption.

He expressed that the spate of gross dissipation of public funds under this Mahama Amissah-Arthur government is very alarming. Quoting a Ghanaian maxim, he said, “No matter how hungry a child is he does not eat with both hands when served with a bowl of food”, but to his amazement these crop of NDC cabal of leaders have shown Ghanaians no mercy by eating with both hands and emptying the bowl without leaving any bone for the hungry dogs.

He said, it is not surprising a committee was set up to investigate a sitting vice president over the purchase of an Embraer because of its stinking deal as accused by a former Attorney General under this same NDC government and till date, no rebuttal or report has been shown to clear the then Vice President of this deal. According to him the cartel that facilitated the payment of a whooping sum of 51m Ghana Cedis (that is 510 billion old cedis) to Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome is still an unraveled mystery. To him the gross defiance of court and Presidential order not to pay the said judgment debt, but still found it way into the account of Mr Woyome with impunity can only be described as an attempt to deprive the citizenry of Ghana what is legitimately ours.

He described as shambolic the STX KOREA deal which did not see the light of day a clear intent of government to siphon from the public purse. However, to buttress his point on corruption charges against the government, he sighted examples such as GYEEDA, SUBA, and the infamous SADA where massive embezzlement were detected and till date no single person had been charged and prosecuted. When talking of corruption, they try and use the ongoing doggy prosecution of the national service secretariat as their case study. A situation we all know has not been up to the task.

He expressed disappointment over President Mahama’s recent response to a question by a BBC reporter on whether he has ever taken bribe before and how he swiftly failed to divulge such response which would have somehow exonerated him of wrong doing but he wasn’t man enough because it is said, “If you don’t keep dead bodies in your house they don’t ask you for skeletons”

On Kasapa fm, he mentioned litany of projects under this government that have had their prices inflated to enrich themselves at the detriment of the majority. Such projects he mentioned as Adomi Bridge repair works, Atuabo gas deal, Smartys bus branding, Takoradi Railway, Komenda sugar factory AMERI Power deal and a host of others that always put the state at a disadvantage. A situation he described as machiavellian.

He finally used a fanti proverb that “If a fish is getting rotten, it starts from the head” stating that if the President wants Ghanaians to see his fight against corruption, he should not transfer Ministers to the office of the President but start a house cleaning right from the Presidency where budgets are over expensed at people whims and caprices and nobody is querried for that over expensed budget. If a house cleaning is done, this would deter others from practicing same corrupt actions going on now. He further made a clarion call on all well meaning Ghanaians to have a voice and speak openly and truthfully against this attrition and save this country from further economic doldrums or stagnation that has a bleak future for the unborn generation.

******KUSI AMOAKO ******
Office of Alfred George Thompson