Who woke Daniel Batidam up from his sleep?

Daniel Batidam says President Akufo-Addo's anti-corruption drive is a big joke. I read this on Myjoyonline and paused a few seconds in disbelief. I was not too sure if he was the one. I then listened to the audio attached to the story. True to it, they were his words. Who woke him up?

Yes, it was Daniel Batidam, the Anti-Graft campaigner who abandoned ship, threw away his principles to the dogs, forgot about the fight against corruption and went dead-silent on protecting the public purse for an appointment at the Flagstaff House as an Advisor to the President.

When Prof. Kwesi Yankah exposed his loud-silence on the never-ending corruption in Ghana during the Mahama-regime, he said his silence was a new method of fighting corruption and he need not make noise as he used to do. He again said that he had not thrown away his principles and that we need not pressure the presidency on the fight against corruption. He even said President Mahama is not corrupt and that the Ford vehicle from the Burkinabe contractor was a gift and not a bribe.

Today, he has been healed of his dumbness, he has regained his principles. He says there is an effective means to fight corruption. The means is The National Anti-Corruption Plan and that we must stick to it. To him, the Special Prosecutor is not a solution. This is Daniel Batidam. The man we have known since his days as founding Executive Secretary of the Ghana Integrity Initiative.

The hypocrisy, dishonesty and falsity that come with such calls are so sickening. They are repugnant and stomach-churning. What Mr. Batidam must clearly be told is that, if there is any threat to the fight against corruption in Ghana, it is his kind of character that is threatening. His pretentious character is the biggest threat to the anti-graft campaign. If men like him, who had the opportunity to serve in high offices such as he held, could uphold the principles of truth, probity and accountability, corruption would have been dead and buried.

Nevertheless, Ghanaians have a president in H.E. Akufo-Addo who is incorruptible and committed to protecting the public purse from vampires who are only interested in eating up the flesh and leaving the bones dry.

The question to be answered from the interview granted by Mr. Batidam is simple. Is the Office of the Special Prosecutor incongruous with the National Anti-Corruption Plan? And my answer is NO. Let me tell you why. Paragraph 3 of Section 4.6 of Pages 41 and 42 of the NACP with sub-heading "Improving Investigation and Prosecutions" asks the government to "Adopt prosecution-led investigations". Is the Special Prosecutor not an investigator and prosecutor in his own rights? Will he not have the powers to conduct investigations and same, lead prosecutions with the findings from the investigations on behalf of the state, unlike the Attorney General who relies on state-investigative bodies like the CID, EOCO, etc? Will we not have achieved the intent and purpose of the NACP?

I cannot say he has not read the NACP himself because he was part of the working group that put it up. What I can say is that he has not read the Special Prosecutor's Bill which is before Parliament now and I would ask him, in all humility, to find a copy and read.

But till then, who really woke Mr. Batidam up from his sleep.