Incumbency abuse charge against Mahama senseless - Kofi Adams

Accusations of abuse of incumbency by Professor Emmanuel Debrah of the University of Ghana against President John Mahama "do not make sense", National Organiser of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Kofi Adams has said.

Prof Debrah accused Mr Mahama of abusing his office to recruit personnel into security agencies like the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana National Fire Service as well as using state functions for political advantage.

Prof Debrah's accusation comes in the wake of a recent report by anti-graft body Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) that revealed high levels of vote buying by the governing party and abuse of incumbency by Mr Mahama.

He told Class News' Atiewin Mbillah Lawson that Mr Mahama's inauguration of projects can be seen as a conduit to influence voting decisions of the electorate as he campaigns for re-election.

"The president has not been able to distinguish between his political activities and state activities, and, so, if the president rides in a state vehicle to campaign – and that is what he is doing – he doesn't tell us that he is going to inaugurate [a project] in a community and will not use that opportunity to campaign. That is where we talk of abuse of his office because he is the incumbent who is campaigning and taking advantage of state resources," Professor Debrah stated.

Reacting to the suggestion that Mr Mahama may only be combining his duties as president and flag bearer, Professor Debrah said: "Elsewhere, there is a clear distinction, so if you use state vehicles for your campaign, pay for it. So, you will only go and inaugurate so that at another time when you are campaigning, the system will ensure that you wouldn’t go to the campaign ground using the state vehicle without accounting for that."

"How do you ensure that the opposition candidate also benefits from that?" he asked, adding: "The opposition candidates have been part of the resources that the government is using to run but yet they are cut off in having access to those things."

On the abuse of incumbency through job recruitments, Professor Debrah noted: "If you close employment to certain sectors and you open it up somehow in certain sectors where you gain advantage, that is the conclusion we are going to make. It appears to everybody that those who are recruited come from recommendations from A, B and C and there is no way of saying that was an objective recruitment. … For a pretty long time, the university has not been allowed to recruit but about a month ago we were given a quota. Why will the government stay on all this while and ignore the call to allow the universities to recruit new faculties and then it is only at this time that the opportunity was given in a limited scale. If we see this happening at this time and you are a political analyst, you will always have a conclusion to make."

Reacting to Prof Debrah’s accusations on Inside Politics on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, Mr Adams told Moro Awudu: "… I don't think we should be using your very important platform to discuss a dead mind. I'm very sorry. …I never knew that this is a professor of political science. … I'm not [interested in what he is talking about] because he is not making any sense. Did he make sense to you? … Because we are in an election year, the police should not recruit? … That Fire Service should not recruit? … Why should we waste our time on someone whose brains are possibly almost dead?"