Corruption fight has been a failure under Akufo-Addo’s first term - Sulemana Braimah

Media rights advocate and anti-graft campaigner, Sulemana Briamah, has scored low marks for the success of the fight against corruption in Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s first term.

Assessing the president-elect’s anti-corruption activities on a current affairs programme on Joy News on Saturday, December 26, 2020, Mr Braimah, singled out the decision by the government to force the Auditor General, Daniel Domelevo, to proceed on leave and events leading to the resignation of Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, as evidence that the fight against corruption has been poor.

The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) explained that in assessing the anti-graft performance of Akufo-Addo’s first term, he focused on the enabling environment that needed to be created for the fight against corruption to be real and successful.

“From all indications, we have not been able to do that [create the enabling environment to fight corruption] and that is why for me the case of Domelevo, Martin Amidu resigning and the fact that for four years of this administration, we have not seen a successful prosecution of any government official or even [officials] of the previous administration,” he said.

He added that although the 2016 manifesto of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised to fight serious corruption under the erstwhile John Mahama administration, that manifesto promise has not been followed-through with real commitment.

“For me, it has been a failure. I have not seen any commitment on the part of the government to dealing with the menace,” he stressed.

He added that what is even more unfortunate is that under the Akufo-Addo-led administration “it was almost becoming a crime… to be seen to fight corruption.”

He was, however, hopeful that, following Akufo-Addo's re-election on December 7, “in the next four years, even though it’s the same leader, things may change.”