The New Patriotic Party (NPP) First Vice Chairman for Atwima Nwabiagya, Hon. John Kwame Duodu, also known as Sir John has explained that electing the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), former President John Dramani, would be detrimental to the country’s development.
The Ashanti Regional TESCON Patron and Deputy National Organizer for Friends of Bawumia, 2008 Foundation (FoB-’08) stated that his assertion for the former president not to be given the mandate again is principally premised on his inability to effectively manage Ghana’s economy which inevitably left Ghana in a worse situation.
“I can confidently tell you that the John Mahama administration would receive an F9 on any academic grading system for his performance as the president of Ghana”, Sir John argued.
According to Hon. Duodu, the gains the nation has achieved under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia administration would be reversed by Mahama in the unlikely event that he is reelected into office. He added that former President John Mahama needed to own up to his mistakes and extend his regrets to the people of Ghana for the mismanagement of the economy during his tenure as president.
Sir John further contends that opportunism and contradictory statements characterize Mahama’s attempt and eagerness for a comeback into Ghana’s politics. One of such statements highlighted by the TESCON Patron is former president Mahama’s statement in 2016, where he asserted that “four years is not enough for any president”. He therefore questioned why Mahama is seeking re-election, given that he has only one four-year term serve.
The NPP Constituency Vice Chairman also opined that former president Mahama’s quest for re-election is driven by ego or personal ambition rather than a genuine desire to serve the nation. He argued that the economic challenges and scandals recorded during Mahama’s administration continue to have dire effect on Ghanaians. Thus, he enumerated a handful of the more significant scandals that occurred while President Mahama was in office.
Some of the scandals he mentioned are listed below.
Sole-sourcing and inflating contracts
There were a number of accusations of corruption under Mahama’s NDC leadership relating to Government contracts awarded to President Mahama’s brother, Ibrahim Mahama as well as over-inflating costs of government contracts. He alleged the duo were connected to the almost $600 million dollars Ameri Power deal.
Two Norwegian investigative journalists alleged a fraudulent deal on 10 power turbines from Ameri Group of Dubai after the NDC Government entered into a Built, Operate and Transfer agreement with Ameri Energy of Dubai for the supply of 10 turbines with 230-250MW capacity of power. There was strong accusations the project was costed at a lot more than it was worth – experts said the turbines should cost $220 million, asking where the extra $360 million was meant to go.
“Overpricing of contracts, through the use of sole sourcing, is a corrupt procurement method of choice very typical of the Mahama-led NDC government”, he stated.
Smartty’s Bus Branding Saga
News headlines in late 2015 were dominated by the Smarttys bus branding scandal, where 116 Metro Mass Transit (MMT) buses were rebranded at a cost of GH¢3.6 million. The cost of rebranding these buses was seen as ludicrous and the Attorney General got involved, demanding refunds be made. The outcry led to the resignation of the Minister of Transport, Ms Dzifa Attivor, in December.
GYEEDA Scandal
Also under the NDC was the 2013 GYEEDA scandal, uncovered by Joy FM’s Manasseh Azure Awuni, whose investigation led to policy changes in the running of the agency. The reporter found millions of cedis were paid illegally to contractors of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA).
SADA Scandal
The same reporter who found mass corruption in GYEEDA also looked into Ghana’s Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) – finding it had misappropriated millions of dollars allocated to it. The investigations showed that SADA paid GH₵32,498,000 to ACICL to plant five million trees in the savannah zone, but could only account for about 700,000 trees. It also found that SADA spent GH¢15 million on guinea fowls, but could only account for a few of the birds.
Ford Saga
President Mahama caused outrage across Ghana when it was revealed he accepted a gift of a Ford vehicle from a construction firm bidding for a lucrative government contract. The contractor in Burkina Faso, who had previously built a wall on Ghanaian Embassy land in Ouagadougou, gifted the Ford in 2012. However, this scandal came out in 2016.
According to the report, the gift was a bribe to get a road-building contract in Ghana’s Volta region that the same contractor later secured.
Judges Scandal
2015 was defined by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ allegations into widespread corruption in the judiciary. His undercover reporting in the film Ghana in the Eyes of God; Epic of Injustice. His findings were global; shaking Ghana’s reputation.
Anas collected evidence of a range of Ghana judges allegedly taking bribes and demanding sexual favours in return for throwing out cases. Some twenty-two lower court judges and twelve High Court judges were also captured on video in a two-year investigative piece Anas, allegedly taking bribes to influence justice.
So far, 20 of the lower court judges and three high court judges have been removed from office.
Alfred Agbesi Woyome
A name dominating the headlines in Ghana the past few years is Alfred Agbesi Woyome, accused of swindling the taxpayers of Ghana of millions of Ghana cedis. As explained by Ghanaian journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, the Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) under President John Evans Atta-Mills, fraudulently paid a financier of the party GHc 51.2 million cedis between 2010 and 2011. A Supreme Court Judge, Justice Jones Dotse said it appeared those who facilitated the payment “entered into an alliance to create, loot and share the resources of this country as if a brigade had been set up for such an enterprise”.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Global Corruption Barometer report on Ghana by Transparency International (TI), 2015 showed that statistics indicate that more than 50% of the respondents perceived that corruption has increased and a significant 35% think it is extreme.
Among the different institutions, respondents perceived the following institutions as extremely corrupt; Police (92%), Judiciary (71%), political parties (76%) and public officials and civil service (59%).
TI also found that 57% of the respondents indicated that they or a member of their household had paid a bribe to one of these public institutions.
On the basis of the foregoing, Sir John urged Ghanaians not to put the future of Ghana at risk by voting for the former president Maham but instead they should vote for Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to become Ghana’s next President in the upcoming December polls.
He then described Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP’s flagbearer, as the best person to continue the good works of the NPP government and to lead Ghana into a prosperous future.
He said that former President John Mahama is deeply rooted in corruption unlike his opponent, the NPP Flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who has had no corruption tag since becoming the NPP running mate in 2008 to date.
According to Sir John, he can confidently say that Dr. Bawumia has never been involved in any corruption activity and therefore threw challenge to anyone who has any evidence of corruption against Dr. Bawumia to come forward with it.
“The NDC cannot throw a similar challenge on President Mahama’s behalf because he has a history of corruption tag, he added.
He said that in the case of President John Mahama, the corruption tag is not a perception but a reality.
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