Akua Bonsu

We’ve all seen it before. The preacher stands in the pulpit every Sunday preaching about how sinful it is to commit adultery. His wife sits at a pivotal spot among the congregation feeling lucky because all the other women have problems; their husbands are cheating on them and there does not appear to be much they can do because they have resigned themselves to the fact that “all men are dogs.” All except the preacher – her husband. The preacher’s wife becomes an object of jealousy. Many of the other women in the congregation have each wondered at one time or another why they could not get a Man of God to marry. But then a scandal breaks. Chatters begin to circulate that the preacher may not be the saint he claims to be.

It begins with that single woman who comes to church and not say a word to anyone. She becomes mysterious to everyone – except the preacher, but no one knows that. Rumors have persisted but without any proof, the preacher has been able to deny all accusations hurling accusations of his own that the “devil among us” is trying to sow seeds of discord. Soon the young woman becomes pregnant, has the baby, and DNA proves that there is a 99.99 percent chance that the preacher is the father. All of a sudden the demeanor of the preacher’s has gone from confidence to nervousness. Each time her husband mentions the word “adultery” she flinches. Before long, the whole community gets to find out the baby belongs to the preacher. And just as everyone though it couldn’t be any worse, another shoe drops. This time it is another man’s wife. Sounds juicy?

Well, welcome to a church called Ghana.

Former president Jerry John Rawlings has made it his singular mission to label everyone in the New Patriotic Party corrupt or a thief. Give him a microphone to talk about the Black Stars qualifying for the second straight World Cup, and Jerry will find a way to steer the conversation to corruption. President Obama has chosen Ghana for his first sub-Saharan African visit. What do you think of that Jerry? Oh NPP’s corrupt practices made that possible. Jerry, given that we are a university no one knows about, we don’t know any better so we will honor you with an award for democracy. What do you have to say? Well, but for NPP’s corrupt ways, I could have received this a long time ago.

And for a long time, the electorate believed it. Meanwhile the members of the NPP who ushered in the longest sustained economic growth, the most dramatic decline in inflation, interest and unemployment rates in Ghana’s history were all tagged with the corruption label because they failed to respond to the lies believing that Ghanaians knew better. No sooner had Ghanaians voted the NPP out of power did they realize what they have in fact done.

No sooner had the NDC ministers settled in their respective offices did they begin to share amongst themselves tractors meant for farmers. NDC minister Mubarak goes on a spending spree with his girlfriend using government’s money. NDC operatives spend $1 million on Chichinga. The NDC loudmouth from Central Region Ama Bayiwa Doe has apparently won a lottery because she is rebuilding her whole house. Their silent operative Tsatsu Tsikata registers a company in the U. S. Virgin Islands with branch offices in Houston and London and positions it as the exclusive lifter of Ghana’s oil. All these major league corruption cases or evidence thereof in less than six months in office unfortunately only amounts to the “pregnancy” because the baby is still yet to be born.

For the baby to be born and a DNA test ran, or the proof to become apparent, it would take Ghana’s Attorney General to actually investigate all the above crime and prosecute the culprits. That is where the problem begins. After all, this is the same Attorney General who would have someone arrested for complaining about NDC’s atrocities. But when a wanted murderer is found under the bed of an NDC minister, no charges are brought to that minister.

Apparently, when they were teaching “Obstruction of Justice” at Law School, she did not attend classes that day. When a deputy minister calls for a ‘Jihad’ on the NPP over an election whose results are a forgone conclusion, and proceeds to deploy state security resources on innocent civilians, no charges are filed against him. When a sitting Member of Parliament shoots and kills a member of the opposing party with all eye witnesses swearing he was unprovoked, no charges are brought to that MP. Thus asking her to investigate corruption in her own party is like asking her to fly without wings – it’s just not going to happen.

Little did Rawlings’ NDC know that the pregnancy occurred 15 years ago when ministers in the preacher’s – I mean Rawlings’ administration were busy collecting bribes from a British company so that they would look the other way when the bridges that were contracted to that company were not even built. A direct accusation was leveled against Rawlings himself for accepting bribes but he claimed he has no money to hire a lawyer to defend himself. For a president who had previously not worked an innocent job in his life, and who had to steal airplane seats to use as chairs at his own home, he send all his children to Ireland for schooling after decimating the Ghana education system.

Mabey and Johnson, the company who were contracted to build bridges between 1994 and 2000, admitted to paying bribes to the following people, and was consequently found guilty beyond any reasonable doubt in a British court of law, or shall we say the DNA results came in positive: • Dr. George Sipah-Yankey (Minister of Health, NDC) £15,000 • Dr. Ato Quarshie (ex-Minister of Roads and Highways, NDC) £55,000 • Kwame Peprah-&nb sp; SSNIT Board Chairman and former Minister of Finance • Saddique Bonniface (ex desk officer ministry of Finance) £10,000 + £13,970 + £2,500 + £500 (school fees) = 26, 970 pound sterling • Amadu Seidu (Minister of State at the Castle, NDC) £10,000 • Edward Lord-Attivor (Chairman inter-city transport) £10,000 • Edward Attipoe - £10,000 • Danny Ofori-Atta also known as Kwame Ofori (EGLE/NDC ) -The 'agent' • Baba Kamara (aka I. B. Ibraimah), (High Commissioner designate to Nigeria and a former deputy National Treasurer of the NDC) – 'Agent' £750,000 dubbed the "Ghana Development Fund" ("GDF"). • Total = 880, 000 pound sterling ( Exchange rate @ 1.50 ) US$ 1.32m • Former President Rawlings has claimed all along that her children’s tuition costs were borne by “friends.” Now we know who those friends are.

This is the same Rawlings who lined up former heads of states and executed them for corruption. Even the very person who bent the rules for Rawlings to pass his Air Force exams after three unsuccessful tries, Air Force Marshall Yaw Boakye was executed for borrowing $1500 (not taking bribes) from the bank.

When this news broke, the first thing that went through my mind was “what would Rawlings say now?” I did not have to wait very long for my answer. He had plenty to say. He had the nerve to accuse President Mills for not investigating those implicated in the bribery case quickly enough. He had the nerve to accuse the NPP for being a corrupt party while campaigning on a platform at Chereponi. Does he have any shame?

Look, I am not ashamed to say that I voted for the NDC in 2004. Like many Ghanaians, I was fooled. The NPP makes it very easy to criticize them because they don’t say anything. What they do know how to do is flaunt their wealth. So for a moment, I felt as though there may be merits to the accusations leveled at them by yours truly. But I have had time to reflect upon many things including the fact that almost every single one of these so called arrogant NPP members lived like that well before they came into government.

So if we Ghanaians are going to vote people out because they are arrogant, but bring in people who will kill you for opposing them, then what kind of people are we? If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that the Ghana of freedom of speech and of expression that president Kufuor left us barely ten months ago has very quickly been replaced with a country where armed robbers seem to attack only those who criticize the government. I don’t know about you but as far as I am concerned, this CANNOT continue.