Opinions of Monday, 29 March 2021

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

NPP government’s fight against official corruption cannot compare with Tanzania and Rwanda’s

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

To be honest with Ghanaians, His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s NPP government declaration of war on official corruption has failed, if it was not a political gimmick to start with.

It is about time we called a spade a spade but not a big spoon. If you call a spade a big spoon, we shall see if you can eat with it when the time comes.

Unless we acknowledge that the country’s fight against official corruption has failed, we cannot sit back to investigate as to why and how to be able to find workable methods to effectively combat that ugly creature called “official corruption”.

I love the saying, “If you are on the bottom rung of a ladder and you deceive yourself thinking you are on the top rung of the ladder, you have only to climb down as you cannot climb up any further”.

Until we accept that our onslaught on corruption has failed, we cannot fight corruption but to allow it to fester and ramify.

In Ghana, the police officers are seen openly on the nation’s streets and without any fear or shame collecting bribes from motorists. The NPP government and the president cannot tell me this is not happening. The Inspector-General of Police cannot tell me this is not happening. What are they doing about it?

If they cannot do anything about this, what we see with our naked eyes happening in public, how can we sort out the corruption of theft, but not the abuse of power as corruption is so defined, being committed by our notorious politicians and public service heads using their pens and stealthy, but not the best, accounting practices, to steal from the nation and their organizations?

I am asking, could bribery by the police openly or secretly take place under the late President John Pombe Joseph Magufuli of Tanzania who passed away on 17 March 2021? If it did happen and it was reported to him, would he spare his Interior Minister and Inspector General of Police without sacking them for failing to do their jobs creditably to expectation?

Could open police bribery take place in Rwanda under His Excellency Paul Kagame? No and no! No police officer will dare do that without expecting to be sacked or prosecuted if caught.

This is why miracles of developments are said to be taking place in the two mentioned countries under their leaders whose names I have mentioned above.

Why not in Ghana? Please, don’t tell me those two leaders are autocrats. We need corruption to be eradicated. We want to see Ghana develop. Therefore, we need to be pragmatic. If it should take autocracy or dictatorship to make the country work for the best collective interest of Ghanaians, I support it with all my heart, soul and mind as I would love and submit to God, my Creator.

Don’t let us deceive ourselves, for all is not well with our fight against corruption, the bane of the economic emancipation of Ghana.

I support His Excellency Nana Akofo-Addo but I have to be truthful with him to point out some ongoing mistakes in the country. I can’t support him blindly by saying he has so far done everything to satisfaction whereas police officers are on the roads and in the streets openly shamelessly taking bribes from motorists.

It is about time Ghana started sacking such officers if they are caught with evidence provided to prove their guilt.

I will come to our corrupt judges and lawyers who are also directly or indirectly helping to perpetrate and perpetuate corruption in the nation to the detriment of the development and wellbeing of Ghana and Ghanaians.