Rawlings to face Ghana on corruption

Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings will soon have the platform to explain his stand on the influence of corruption on the country's development and why he thinks it so important to fight it.

President Rawlings is slated as the main speaker on a lecture titled, “Corruption; a threat to Ghana's democracy and national development”, at the next edition of the Freedom Power Lectures on Wednesday, October 24.

President Rawlings has in recent times bemoaned corruption in government circles, and has indicated that this is one of the main issues preventing him from fully embracing his party's government.

At the party's manifesto launch at Ho, the founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had referred to an unidentified group retarding national development, adding that 'there is nothing more rewarding than when a political leader begins to see the negative actions of these people”.

In reference to President John Mahama, Rawlings had said that “the President needs help and I pray to God to give him strength and courage to put his foot down and do what he needs to do.”

Only weeks earlier, President Rawlings had, in a meeting with Volta Regional traditional leaders, expressed worry over the level of corruption in the government.

“The corruption that is going on is so deep. Some aspects of these... are literally holding your national resources to ransom by just a handful of people,” he said.

At that meeting, he also advanced ideas for fighting the canker: “If you mean well to want to fight corruption if you are not going to devote 30, 40 per cent of your time to fighting corruption from within your own government, you will fail.”

Rawlings has not only complained about the phenomenon, he has also referred to a group of people within government who he believes are guilty of corruption.

He has referred to this group at one time as “babies with sharp teeth” and “evil old dwarfs” at the Ho manifesto launch.

What he has not done so far is to name names, leaving many guessing at the target of his accusations.

The fight against corruption was one of major planks on which President Rawlings stood to seize power in 1979 and it had since made his signature tune.

While views differ on how successful or otherwise President Rawlings was in fighting corruption when he had power, he did avoid ostentation and appeared to privilege merit over patronage during his Provisional National Defense Council days.

His recent attacks on corruption have been particularly remarkable because it has been targeted at the party he founded.

Rawlings Freedom Power Lecture will, therefore, be followed closely on how far it goes in bringing clarity to his crusade against corruption at this time of the country's history.

The Centre for Freedom and Accuracy's (CFA) Freedom Power Lectures are aimed at improving upon the quality of political discourse and to make the 2012 electioneering campaign more issues- based.

It has been running since June this year and will be ending in November.

Speakers at the lecture series so far have been Catholic Bishop Emeritus Akrasi Sarpong of Kumais, Lawyer and industrialist Mr. Akenten Apiah-Minkah and Mr. Franklin Cudjoe of Imani-Ghana.