As Ghanaians are about to surrender the national sovereignty to one of the Presidential Candidates in the 7 December 2012 general elections, some of us have been made to believe that our incumbent President, Mahama, is untrustworthy. There have been allegations of corruption and lecherous womanizing against President Mahama. What makes such cyclopean allegations extremely serious is the erstwhile Attorney General, Martin Amidu’s seemingly credible account of the corruption saga. Amidu has come out boldly to tell the whole nation that late President Mills set up a committee to investigate his then supposedly spendthrift Vice President(Mahama) on what he(Mills) believed to be gargantuan dishonesty. Though, Mr. “Nice” (Mills) could not put his foot down, and woefully allowed the committee to turn blind eye to his directives. There are serious questions here that discerning Ghanaians must ask:’ Is President Mahama a scattergood or corrupt?’Was President Mills really unhappy about the conduct of his then Vice President Mahama? Did the Committee refuse to carry out President Mills directives? Please join me in answering these elephantine questions.

First, let us reflect on former Attorney General, Mr. Martin Amidu’s asseverations on the corruption allegations. Mr. Amidu asseverated: “It would be recalled that in July 2011 there was a hue and cry about the prices for the acquisition of five (5) aircrafts for the Ghana Armed Forces”. “Even though on 26th July 2011 the late Prof. Mills attempted to defend the purchase of the five aircrafts, he became convinced of the necessity to set up a committee to investigate those purchases”.

Why? Was late President Mills felt Mahama was trying to rip off the nation? Yes, critical thinkers can conclude that late Mills was not happy with the deal. If that was not the case, why would he set up a committee to investigate Mahama, the architect of the whole deal? In fact, it is an indictment on President Mahama. Therefore it is incumbent upon him to come out and refute the corruption allegations, not just by words, but through actions. That is, President Mahama must do the honest thing by allowing the committee set up by late President Mills to resume its work immediately without any constraints. By doing this, discerning Ghanaians will then take him (President Mahama) seriously.

Mr. Amidu’s averment continues: “A Committee to Investigate the Processes of the Acquisition of Five Aircrafts (5) including Embraer 190 Aircraft and hanger for the Ghana Armed Forces consisting of Mr. William Aboah, Mr. George Amoah, and Brig. Gen. Allotey (Rtd) former Judge Advocate-General was put together”.

Based on the preceding exposition, I have no doubts whatsoever that Mr. Amidu’s story is credible. First, Mr. Amidu has gone ahead and named the members of the committee set up by late President Mills. Secondly, the fact that none of the committee members has come out to repudiate or disassociate themselves from the allegations gives credence to Mr. Amidu’s averment. The big question again is why have they kept quiet? Your guess is as good as mine.

Mr. Amidu further avouched : “The terms of reference of the Committee as I was instructed and drafted them for the late President were: “(i) to investigate the processes adopted in selecting, negotiating, and agreeing on the acquisition of the aircrafts; (ii) to investigate the competitive advantage, prices of the aircrafts and the level of economic and financial due diligence conducted by relevant agencies in the process of acquisition of the aircrafts; and (iii) to investigate any other matter that in the opinion of the Committee is reasonably related to the foregoing terms of reference.” Pressure groups never allowed the Committee to take off”.

“But the very fact that the late President Mills even contemplated this committee meant that he was uncomfortable with and suspicious of the alleged inflated prices of the aircrafts”.

Wow! Did pressure groups interfere with the work of a committee set up by President of the nation? Are these pressure groups from the ruling party? If so, do they have vested interests in the purchasing of the aircrafts? Anyway, whatever their reasons may be, their actions were unlawful, and can best be described as attempt to prevent the cause of justice. Are we really serious as a nation at all? How on earth pressure groups can mulishly and selfishly interfered in a legitimate committee’s work? You see, our problem as a nation is, we have sycophant, incompetent and ‘nodding yes men and women’ who are only interested in amassing wealth at the expense of the masses. So, they would go to every extent to achieve such objective.

Undeniably, Late President Mills put his trust in Mahama, but if we are to believe Mr. Amidu’s credible account of the corruption saga, we can then deduce that Mahama betrayed the trust late Mills reposed in him. It thus explained why late President Mills set up a committee to investigate him. In fact, there are serious issues here that need to be considered by the voting public. If indeed late President Mills did not trust Mahama prior to his death, why should we go ahead and hand over our sovereignty to supposedly untrustworthy?

It is important to note that President of a nation is a serious job, and therefore it requires a serious person. If corruption cases are hanging on the neck of an individual who is aspiring to become the President of the nation, and has so far unwilling to seriously disprove such allegations, then discerning Ghanaians have to be really careful about who they hand over the national sovereignty!

K. Badu, UK.

Credit: www.martinamidu.com