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Opinions of Monday, 20 June 2016

Columnist: Adofo, Rockson

President Mahama has a proven record of corruptibility

President John Mahama President John Mahama

In the annals of Ghana’s presidency, there is no one like President Mahama when it comes to indulgence in corruption. He has no rival. He is second to none. He is unprecedentedly corrupt. He stinks of corruption and pollutes the air with corruption. Anyone who has a sensitive nose like that of a trained sniffer dog can smell him of corruption from miles away when holding their nose high up in the air.


Was it not alleged that the late President Evans Atta Mills had ordered for him to be investigated over the purchase of Embraer aircrafts for the Ghana military, from Brazil; where he, then Vice President Mahama, had indulged in suspicious dealings amounting to corruption?
He had personally corruptibly profited from that deal, the strongest view about President Mahama by many a discerning Ghanaian.


Has he not been reassigning his appointees found to have committed open acts of corruption and blatant thefts against the State from one ministry or post to the other instead of firing, prosecuting and incarcerating them? What does this tell you about the President himself when you take into consideration the instances where those found to have committed crimes of corruption had threatened to expose him if he dared sack them?


Did Yaw Boateng Gyan, once a guru of NDC, not threaten to reveal all the evils done by President Mahama and the NDC, especially regarding the late President Mills’ death, if they ever ganged up to ensure his defeat during the then upcoming NDC Congressional meeting where new party leaders were to be elected? Did he not claim to possess evidential recorded materials that he could divulge the content to the public anytime any day if he was challenged?


What were the secretly committed evils Yaw Boateng Gyan threatened to lay bare in public? Is it not the usual suspected corrupt practices fondly and inextricably engaged in by the President and his party members?


If the President wasn’t or isn’t corrupt, why is he not bothered about whether or not the infamously crowned Ghanaian swindler of the century, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, pays back to the State the GHC51.2 million he fraudulently took from the State with probably the help of NDC to finance the NDC party and their 2012 electioneering campaign or to construct their NDC Headquarters?


When a credible journalist who knows how to probe, and to inform the public on pertinent issues asked President Mahama during his recent visit to Scotland, if he had ever involved himself in corruption, did we not see how he was stammering, with his voice quivering in attempts to answer that simple “Yes” or “No” question? He asked for the question to be rephrased before he could answer it.

However, from the answer as well as his body language, one could clearly establish without difficulty that President Mahama is awash in corruption. He eats corruption, sleeps corruption, clothes in corruption and behaves corruptibly through and through.


From the most recent exposure of President Mahama accepting a car gift from a Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, as a thank you for awarding him a contract, one can conclusively say that President Mahama is corrupt beyond redemption. He awarded a US$650,000 contract to the named contractor for erecting a perimeter wall around the Ghana Embassy in Burkina Faso. The cost of the contract vis-à-vis the job done, thus, the size of the wall, is highly inflated.


Could then Vice President Mahama not collusively have inflated the cost to get a kickback in the form of the Ford Expedition car at the approximately selling price of US$100,000 as offered to him for a gift?


To those little minds like Kofi Adams, the National Organiser of NDC, please tell me on what condition did the Burkinabe contractor offer that car gift to then Vice President Mahama? Had he offered him any gift before or prior to arranging to get him that contract at that much inflated cost to Ghana? If yes, what gifts were they? If answered in the negative, why so?


For all the subsequent contracts, e.g. the Dodo Pepeso-Nkwanta road contract, worth €25.9 million in 2012, given to the contractor, had then Vice President Mahama not played any role in their award, having been influenced by the gift he had received?

Whatever the reason behind the presentation of the car gift to then Vice President Mahama who was indirectly running the affairs of Ghana due to the obvious indisposition of President Atta Mills, he, now President Mahama, has accepted bribe. Consequently, he is corrupt by accepting the gift; using his influence to gain the contractor further contracts from Ghana government at astronomically inflated cost to the nation and also, directly or indirectly assisting his family and cronies to dubiously get rich overnight.


No matter what President Mahama does or say to exonerate himself from this blame of corruption, the tag and stain can never be removed no matter how far he tries to portray himself as an honest leader. The blemish caused is worse than ugliness which is understood to cut deeper across bones.


Until I write about Kofi Adam’s defence of the President, alleging that nobody will ever think of offering Nana Akufo Addo an old banger for gift, because Nana is not famous and popular, I wish President Mahama and the bereaved family my heartfelt condolences on the death of his beloved mother.


Rockson Adofo