Kofi Wayo Steals Show

Accra, 13 Oct., Chronicle - The New Patriotic Party's 2000 unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for Awawaso East constituency, Mr. Kofi Wayo, (a.k.a. Chuck), last Friday managed to steal the show when he unceremoniously emerged at a book launch authored by Haruna Iddrisu, the National Democratic Party youth organizer at the Golden Tulip.

The vociferous politician caught the eye of Mr. Paul Adom Otchere, Metro TV host of Good Evening Ghana programme, who was the master of ceremony. Paul had no option than to announce the presence of Chuck and asked him whether he would buy a copy of the book.

Majestically, Wayo with a long stick, symbolizing cigarette, demanded to know whether the book catalogued all the alleged corruptions of the previous administrations especially the NDC.

"I like Haruna very much. His articulations and comments are very good to my liking but before I get a copy of the book, I want to know whether the author has written about the corruptions of the NDC officials because corruption is everywhere even in the Bible," he demanded.

When a positive answer was offered, he said, "I would like to buy it from the author himself, I don't want to buy a corrupt item." Wayo's comment diverted attention of the audience, as everybody seemed to focus on him as he took a seat at the front, but the MC managed to bring the programme back on track.

It all happened in the middle of a brief comment by the author of the book titled, "Zero Tolerance; Public Sector Corruption in Ghana." The author, Haruna Iddrisu defined corruption in its simple term as the abuse of power for personal gain or for the benefit of a group to which one owes allegiance.

According to him, corruption does not only hinders economic development, but also exacerbates inequality and undermines the legitimacy and stability of democratic regimes which contribute, to a large extent, to ensuring that fundamental needs such as food, health and education, are not met.

Haruna, the national youth organizer of the NDC, said the problem of corruption has become his personal obsession ever since he conducted his research on the subject between 1999 and 2000 for his M. Phil thesis, stressing that the book is not for any political reasons but for all and sundry so that after studying it, the spate at which corruption escalates would be averted.

"Corruption has been a constraint to the development efforts of many countries for a long time. This book is intended to further the understanding of the phenomenon of corruption, a rather complex and controversial subject. It is primarily written for students of good governance. The book examines the nature and incidence of public sector corruption in Ghana and takes a look at measures to combat corruption."

Haruna, an ex-NUGS president, catalogued several control measures of corruption and the agencies or institutions that are more perceived to be corrupt. The chairman of the occasion, Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Managing Editor of 'Insight', expressed dismay about the rate of corruption in the country, saying, "Those who think that Ghana has changed so drastically within two and a half years, the time has come for them to pause and think properly."

According to him, corruption does not wear party colors as NDC, NPP or CPP and that it is not a preserve of the NPP. "Some of the things that happened in the NDC administration are happening under the NPP and may happen in the new NDC possibly the CPP or others."

He added that the fight against corruption should be a general struggle for social justice with a common aim of deepening democracy to ensure that the standard of living is uplifted. He said sermons over the years of Zero Tolerance for corruption should not be used as a slogan but should be practicalized.

The vociferous CPP activist contended that the fight against corruption should be enforced so that the system of exploitation, which works against the vast majority of the people, should also be relegated.

"The mere setting up of offices is not enough to avert corruption; the public needs to be informed through moral crusade. Let us have a period in our history where we can say good bye to selective justice where leaders would not use corruption as a tool against opponents," he pointed out.

A representative from the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Miss Linda Ofori Kwafo, commended the author for his bold attempt in joining the fight against corruption, saying the book has come at the appointed time.

She said, "The ills of corruption cannot be over emphasized. Infact it is in this direction that Ghana Integrity Initiative and our partners have resolved to continuously create awareness and empower the citizenry to demand responsiveness and accountability from both the public and private institutions in Ghana.

"It is amazing the context to which this social canker is affecting developing countries. In our corruption perception index launched recently, we stated categorically how out of a clean score of 10, about 90% of developing countries scored less that five."

According to Ms. Ofori, the situation, which caused Ghana to drop from a score of 3.9 in 2002 to 3.3 in 2003, is serious and cannot be swallowed up in silence. The book, which was launched by Dr. O. Lisa, a lecturer of University of Ohio, and auctioned by Mr. Adom Otchere, was dedicated to Mrs. Joyce Markham, one of the secretaries to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the Republic of Ghana.