“In the end, we shall not remember the torture, maltreatment, evil deeds and the words of our enemies, but the silence of our dear friends,” according to Martin Luther King. Therefore, as a loyal citizen of Ghana, failure to constructively criticize the leaders of the day will amount to the retardation of the development we hope to see. Contrarily, we live in a part of the world where issues concerning religion and politics have become very difficult to say in a blunt way as they are because whenever one sets out to point out religious matters without fear or favour, one is tagged as an atheist or a non-believer. Likewise, those who’re willing to put politicians on their toes by scrutinizing their corrupt deeds are intimidated by the various party faithfuls. These unfortunate circumstances that characterize our conduct as Ghanaians are killing us in terms of development. Therefore, because of the fear of intimidation, good people have been suppressed to remain silent. With this, how do we develop as a country? Nonetheless, because the progress of the nation is a priority to “The Impact Crew”, we choose to go the extreme to reveal the foul in our Ghanaian society.
In reminiscing His Excellency John Dramani Mahama’s four (4) years of unprecedented corruption and scandals, let’s take it back to the year 2013, where Joy FM senior broadcast journalist Manasseh Azure made a very credible investigation to uncover the massive create, loot and share that was happening in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) which came to replace the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP). This initiative in the year 2013 was meant to close the gap of the growing youth unemployment which was on the rise. Manasseh’s attempt to review the regulatory framework and massive corruption led to a policy amendment in the regulatory framework of the agency. In view of that, the then Minister of Youth and Sports set up a Ministerial Impact Assessment Committee to probe the allegations which was uncovered by Manasseh, the committee was to evaluate and investigate the accounting and administrative procedures of the agency among others. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in March 2016, revealed a huge Gh₵429,000,000 corruption in the operations of GYEEDA. To shake off the shame from the crown of parliament as part of its reforms, parliament passed a hasty law to regulate the operations and rebranded it as Youth Employment Agency (YEA). Those who were involved in this corrupt scandal are still walking freely while innocent souls are being imprisoned daily.
In 2014, an attempt to uncover the massive corruption that shook the whole country regarding the National Service Scheme, the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) came out with a finding that a whooping Gh₵7,000,000 was allegedly paid to 22,212 service personnel in more than 100 districts across the length and breadth of the country. What bothers me most with regard to that year is the fact that government workers who were actively working were not even paid their monthly salaries but they only received excuses from government officials and ministers of state. Meanwhile, Teacher trainees in that same year were demonstrating for their cancelled allowance. Sadly, the only response from government to their woes were insults and false stories from the Minister for Education and his educated illiterate deputy minister. In that same year, the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) paid a whooping amount of G₵32,498,000 to ACICL in an attempt to plant 15,000,000 trees in the three Northern Regions. The sad thing about this scandal is that, when the money was asked for, it was nowhere to be found and a single tree couldn’t be traced from those 15 million said trees to have been planted. In addition, the Gh₵15,000,000 allocated to the guinea fowls project also came with a cock and bull stories.
The year 2014 also came another corruption scandal with the Brazil 2014 World Cup involving about $4,000,000. Following the threat by the players to boycott the last game encounter with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, the government agreed to pay the $100,000 appearance fees to the players of the Black Stars and on the matter of urgency sent a sum of $4,000,000 on a chattered flight to Brazil for disbursement to the entire team. The fact that the team’s performance in the competition was not up to expectation wasn’t much of a problem as compared to the bad name the country got from the International Media across the globe. Players of the Black Stars were caught in the room jubilating and kissing the money. As the same Crocodile and Ananse stories were told to Ghanaians, the government set up another “useless” commission to investigate the actions and in-actions of the Black Stars management committee but could not yield any better outcome. The Justice Dzamefe committee findings received support by sports pundits and lawyers for the government to issue a government white paper on the findings of the committee but the story is no different as we speak now.
Moving on the corruption train in President Mahama’s reign, the 2015 political scandal was the most annoying one. The investigation which was made into the rebranding of 116 Metro Mass Transit (MMT) buses which involved a whooping Gh₵36,000,000 revealed that the Ministry of Transport which was responsible for the management of these buses contracted a company by name “Smarttys” owned by a member of the ruling NDC activist Selassie Ibrahim to rebrand 116 buses. It was revealed that the rebranding of the buses cost the government Gh₵36,000,000 which is more than the purchasing money used in purchasing the 116 buses. This shameful act could only happen in Ghana! The company was to overbill the government with an amount of Gh₵1,900,000. The Minister of Transport to escape the shame which can never be erased resigned and what blew me away was her immature tribal comments she made in response to the corrupt scandal.
Lastly, 2016 is witnessed by Mahama’s Ford expedition gift (bribe). In June, 2016, the president of the Republic of Ghana received a Ford expedition vehicle which is estimated around $60,000 from Burkinabe contractor Djibril Kanazoe. This claim was confirmed by Joy FM senior reporter Manasseh Azure. Just some few weeks to the much awaited December 7 elections, Daniel Bugri Naabu, the Northern Regional Chairman of the largest opposition New patriotic Party (NPP) alleged that President Mahama and his junior brother has bribed him with a whooping Gh₵3.3 million, a new V8 Land Cruiser with registration number GS687-16 and a contract. Realistically, every truthful Ghanaian can describe Mahama’s administration as one of the worst form of governance since the nation adopted constitutional rule. His administration had witnessed so many scandals in the form of wrongfully awarding of contracts to the people he’s affiliated to.