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Opinions of Wednesday, 12 February 2020

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

NDC have strategized to rubbish the allegedly Mahama-incriminating Airbus brouhaha

If this is how politics is always going to be done in Ghana, then God save us. When a politician embezzles funds and State assets, his political party members rally in support of him, defending him/her to the hilt without looking at the merits of the accusations levelled against them.

A court in the United Kingdom, London to be precise, has ruled that Airbus have employed illegal tactics prohibited by international company laws to win massive sales contracts in some countries among which were six African countries including Ghana, my beloved but sinking country. Subsequently, America, France and the UK courts have fined the Airbus aviation company a sum total of £3 billion of which Airbus have gladly accepted culpability, payment and gleefully thanking their star that the case never went into full trial where they could have ended up paying higher than that or some of the company's leaders ending up in prison.

According to the UK court decision, some Ghanaians were induced to the tune of £5 million to facilitate Airbus winning a hefty sales contract from the government of Ghana to sell military aircraft(s) to Ghana. In plain statement, the company bribed one "elected Ghana government official 1" through one "Ghana intermediary 1" who is very close to that government official 1. This contract took place between years 2011 and 2015.

Reasoning as human beings but not as beasts of the jungle, who could the "elected Ghana government official 1" be? Even in the animal kingdom, the primate apes or a pride of lions will be able to tell you who their number 1 within their kingdom is. Have you ever heard of a male lion or a male chimpanzee marking their territory? If they are not the supreme leaders hence the primus inter pares, how could they aggressively mark their territory and defend it to the hilt with all others succumbing to their authority?

Coming back to Ghana and into human community, is it not the president who is the 1st Gentleman of the State hence the elected government official 1? Please, fellow Ghanaians, don't let us play ignorance to be seen as ignorant fools by our contemporary Whites.

The NDC are vehemently saying that the "elected government official 1" can never be former President John Dramani Mahama. Could it be Rockson Adofo then? They go on to say that even if someone had been bribed £5 million, Ghana as a nation never lost anything and no one is complaining about having lost money.

Sammy Gyamfi, who is said to be a lawyer, either by graduation or profession, I can't tell, makes a big fool of himself by his defence submissions. If his calibre reflects how Ghana lawyers are, then God help Ghana again. Does he not know that the bribe given to whoever the government official 1 is will be reflected in the total cost of the aircraft to Ghana? If the aircraft (plane) was going to sell to Ghana for say £50 million, because bribe has exchanged hands, it will sell for about £60 million. The price being inflated by £10 million out of which £5 million will have been used to bribe that greedy bastard "elected government official 1"

Have Ghana not lost money here? If the illegality committed by Airbus was not grave, a serious crime, would the courts in America, France and the UK find them guilty? Would Airbus be happy to pay a fine of £3 billion in order that the case does not go for full trial?

When I listen to Ghana FM radio stations in the morning, I get very annoyed at the nonsense always being spewed by some NDC phone-in callers or even their lawyers, trying to defend former President Mahama as having done nothing wrong even if he was the one codenamed "elected Ghana government official 1" Some of them even go to the extent to question why President Nana Akufo-Addo should refer the case to Hon Martin Amidu, the Special Prosecutor, to investigate it. They claim His Excellency the President Nana Akufo-Addo knows very well that Hon Martin Amidu does not like former President John Dramani Mahama. Also, Martin Amidu knows exactly who the person being referred to in code is, they assert. If he knows the person, should that render him ineligible to do his job in all honesty? This does not raise the question of conflict of interest, please, Sammy Gyamfi and Co who always exhibit typical Ghanaian-mindedness in their political discourse.

Again, their argument doesn't sound credible to me. What did John Dramani Mahama do to be hated by Martin Amidu? Was the Office of the Special Prosecutor not created to deal with official corruption in case institutional corruption could be curtailed, if not totally gotten rid of from Ghana? Why then should he be obstructed from investigating an official corruption that has dented the image of Ghana internationally? If John Dramani Mahama is not the one alleged in the court ruling, why should NDC be worried to mount such a gargantuan defence wall in favour of him?

They go on to say, Martin Amidu was the Attorney General in 2011, he advised the government to purchase the aircraft from Airbus. Yes, he must have advised and put his signature to some documents saying it was good to purchase the aircraft. However, was he aware that some bribes were exchanging hands and if he did, did he authorise it? If he knew and did authorise it, then he will be ensnared by his own investigations and himself dealt with by the laws of the land. Why then are the NDC afraid that he conducts investigations into the factual findings by the noble UK court?

Let me tell the NDC in particular and Ghanaians in general that in the UK, laws work unlike in Ghana where justice is known to be sold to the highest bidder. A UK judge will never dare take bribe to twist justice as it has been proved to happen in Ghana all of the time. Therefore, their ruling on the Airbus offering bribes and someone in Ghana taking bribes to aid Airbus win lucrative sales contract(s) in Ghana is factual.

NDC, stop defending the indefensible by your disgraceful analyses. You make other intelligent and wise Ghanaians be seen in the eyes of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin etc., as fools and the sons and daughters of shithole countries.

When you talk about the Airbus scandal, they quickly jump for equalisation using the missing excavators. Nonsense, the excavator issue is one thing, criminal of course, and the Airbus scandal is another. Don't use equalizations to indirectly seek the abrogation of investigations into both criminal activities.

The law should take its full course. Martin Amidu should not miss this golden opportunity handed to him on a silver platter. If he does, he will lose my respect for him forever and ever.

Rockson Adofo