The Rise And Fall of Mallam Isa

Barely two months ago, the country had no interest in Mallam Yusif Isa. In fact, not many people knew he even existed. Though he was Chairman of the People's National Convention (PNC), Ghanaians had never heard of him.

Then fate intervened. The President of the Republic nominated him as Minister for Youth and Sports. If there was one appointment that met with much incredulity, and even derision, it was this one appointment.

People openly laughed and joked that his nomination was one of the most uninspired moves by the president. Mallam Isa's own party came out to dissociate itself from his nomination. The Mallam was on his own and had only the president's confidence to face the nation with.

His appearance before the Parliamentary Appointments Committee for confirmation, was most embarrassing and gave birth to a new punch line in the Ghanaian compendium of jokes: "I will consult." The Minister-Designate so resorted to that phrase during the hearings that it became farcical. Was he exhibiting ignorance or just being comical? The dividing line was too thin to observe.

Many people had expected the Appointments Committee to reject him outright. He was not from the ruling NPP nor did he come from the main opposition NDC and his own party, the PNC was not backing him. But in a bipartisan spirit that reflected the new wind of change blowing in the country, parliament went ahead and approved his nomination.

Subsequently, the President swore him in as a Minister of State. Even after that, sceptics still had their doubts and said not much would come out of the Mallam. It was now left for the Mallam to prove himself and shame his critics, but above all to justify the confidence reposed in him by the president or to use a phrase popularised by Ghanaian sports writers, "justify your inclusion." It was not to be so.

The Mallam, both in real and figurative terms was already embarking on a self-destruct journey! The facts are now well known: He lost US$46,000 state money that should have been used to pay Ghanaian footballers who had gone to the Sudan on a national assignment. According to the publicly traded facts, he put that colossal amount of money in a suit case, handed it over to an official, for it to be checked into the luggage-hold of a commercial airliner.

On arrival at his destination, he discovered that the bag was lost. When the bag arrived a few days later, it had been tampered with and the US$46,000 gone. On his return home, he did not make any public statement, he did not even brief the president on the mishap until the media stumbled on the information and exposed it, setting in motion equally farcical chain of events that would eventually end in his dismissal by the president. That was one meteoric rise and ignominious fall.

All of that, we believe is a day in the life of a politician. What we find disturbing is the fact that the Mallam showed bad grace, at times even rudeness and bad manners towards the president, flitting from one radio station to the other trying to justify what, we still cannot understand. The unkindest cut was when he tried to introduce partisan politics into the saga by pitting the NPP against the PNC in one of his diatribes on a radio station.

That was not only dangerous to the good relations existing between the NPP and PNC but most treacherous against the President who had reposed so much trust and confidence in the young Mallam. As the saying goes in Ghana, the Mallam has brought himself. We do not think it is enough to just sack him. We welcome the probe ordered by the president, but all the same we feel that the main issue itself is not in doubt and so must not be belaboured. He must be made central in the quest to find the money, which through his naivete or gross negligence, the state lost.

Zero tolerance for corruption also means just but swift and firm retribution. And so what are the lessons? They are too many to list here. The one that is staring us smack in the face is that positive change can be sabotaged if left in the hands of amateurs and scheming civil servants.

The president must not relent in his crusade. It must be dawning on him that even before the ink has dried on his ministers' appointment letters, he should start pencilling the names to be included in his first reshuffle, which some observers believe must be sooner than later. Another lesson is the fact that if this crop of ministers take things for granted at their ministries, they are in for rude shocks. Mallam Isa's demise points the way to what can happen to each and every one of them.

If they think that just because Election 2000 ended in victory for the NPP, it also ended the vast and vicious network the NDC created in the civil service, security services and state-owned media, then they are not worth their appointments, as Mallam has already proved. Dr. Robert Doodoo, Head of the Civil Service under Rawlings, and a man who should know better, is exhibiting all the destructive tendencies of a civil servant who has decided to put politics before the service.

If at his level he can be putting up the kind of disloyal moves he has been exhibiting then the kicks against positive change in sections of the middle and lower rungs can be imagined. Part of Mallam's undoing was clearly from the fact that he did not introduce any innovations in the modus operandi he met at the ministry when he took over. He went along with the system he met and the civil service devoured him.

For example, he could have insisted that he would not accept cash if the ministry would not procure traveler's cheques, and it would have been left to the civil servants working for him to comply. Victim or villain, Mallam Isa rose fast and fell fast. In that microcosm is the NPP's own fate if it takes things for granted and thinks it is business as usual. There are many minefields to skirt...