To drive home the point that in his humble view President Mahama ought
to put morality at the heart of all his administration's actions, for
the sake of Ghana's younger generation (and in order to retain power in
the December polls, naturally), by way of illustration, an old wag I
know made a number of observations about the negative results of some
of the actions of Ghanaian politicians, over the years since we gained
independence from Great Britain, in 1957.
He made the observation that Ghana has some of the worst oil
agreements in the world, simply because the clever politicians who
entered into them on the nation's behalf, struck the best possible deals
they could for themselves as private individuals: in order to increase
their net worth to stratospheric heights through what he described as
special purpose offshore entities nominally owned by their "legal
fronts-men".
Today our nation receives a fraction of what it should, from the exploitation of our oil deposits.
And according to him, the same could also be said of the disposal of
many state-owned assets, over the years since the overthrow of
President Nkrumah in 1966.
The divestiture of state assets law-defying sale of a 70 percent
shareholding in what was cleverly described by those who oversaw it,
as an "enlarged Ghana Telecom" to Vodafone, being a classic example of
the short-changing of our nation in such deals.
That same wag also pointed out the example of the saga of Jake
Obestebi-Lamptey's purchase of the official ministerial residence
allocated to him when he was a cabinet minister in President Kufuor's
New Patriotic Party regime.
He said Mr Obestebi-Lamptey deliberately refused to vacate the said
official ministerial residence, and continued to live in it, despite
resigning to fight an election for the selection of a presidential
candidate for his party. Alas, subsequent events were to prove that he had a wealth-creation agenda all of his own, up his voluminous sleeve.
In the old wag's view, in no other nation in the world, would a
politician who had acted in the self-seeking manner Mr. Jake
Obestebi-Lamptey did, be leading a campaign for his party to return
to power again in any election.
He did not also see how a properly constituted court of law in any
civilised nation in which truth was sacrosanct, and morality important
in public life, could ignore the larger interests of society in
general, and find in favour of a politician taken to court for the
abuse of power by his ruling party's regime, which had enabled him
purchase an official ministerial residence - a property incidentally never advertised to
enable the state get maximum value from its sale and for other Ghanaian
citizens to avail themselves of the opportunity to bid to purchase same
too.
It was disappointing, the old wag said, that despite all the above, the said law court firmly closed its eyes to what was a shabby
tale of unfathomable greed, blatant abuse of office by his party
colleagues - and the manipulation-of-power-for-self at the people's
expense: which his action and those of his colleagues in government actually
represented.
The old wag said he did not for a moment imagine judges in the UK - where morality in public life still counts for something, for example - ignoring the glaring need for those with the power to do so (the
judiciary, that is), failing to act to safeguard and preserve their
nation's stock of official ministerial residences, by not denying
political office holders and leading politicians the opportunity to use
their party's being in power to acquire such government properties
for themselves - using a bad law deliberately passed for selfish
reasons by a powerful and greedy few: as personal-body-armour to
protect themselves from the people's wrath.
In the light of all the above, he was sure that no judge in the UK would
have found in favour of Jake Obestebi-Lamptey in a judgement, under
any circumstances if that matter appeared before any of them.
Not when it was clear to all but the deliberately blind that Mr.
Obestebi-Lamptey obviously decided to seize the opportunity that his
party being in power presented him, to purchase (grab would probably
be the most appropriate word, said the old wag) his official
ministerial residence - going forward - whiles still in office as a
cabinet minister: for which reason he had consequently insisted that the
renovation of that selfsame property, carried out at great expense to
the taxpayer, be redone again to suit his exact and demanding tastes.
And to add insult to injury, said the old wag, had retorted, when
condemned for being amoral and avaricious, for so doing - when his
party had finally been voted out of power and he had gone on to win the
legal case filed against him by two of his political opponents who
subsequently themselves became deputy ministers in the successor-regime
to Mr. Obestebi-Lamptey's defeated ruling party - that morality did
not come into it. Incredible.
(No wonder we are where we are today, dear reader - a nation full of
fence-sitting hypocrites and super-religious moral cowards, afraid to
speak out against society's ills. But I digress.)
Yet, in the old wag's view, morality had everything to do with the
matter, particularly when the only reason that he was able to continue
staying in the said property, after resigning from office as a cabinet
minister - the position which entitled him to stay in the said property -
to campaign to be selected as his party's candidate for the 2008
presidential election, was just because he was so powerful and
influential in the ruling party that empowered him to continue living in
what he once described as a Ghanaian equivalent of a UK
grace-and-favour crown property (homes in the crown's property portfolio
usually given out mostly to retired royal retainers and senior public
servants).
There are those who say that it says a great deal about the ethos of
greed that underpinned most of the actions of the top tier of his
party's leadership, when it was in power from January 2001 to January
2009 , that despite the widespread public disapproval of politicians
selling state properties cheaply to themselves, Jake Obestebi-Lamptey
is still clearly indispensable to his party, and such an important
voice in the scheme of things in its bid to return to power again.
Since all regimes (including the one led by President Mills that came to
power in January 2009) that have ruled our nation since we gained our
independence have included members who were guilty of such abuse of
power for self-enrichment, President Mahama would be wise, in the old
wag's view, to make morality in public life - in as far as it concerns
the protection of the public purse and national assets - the heart of
all his administration's actions.
He can make a fresh start for Ghanaian politics and the good people of
Ghana, by setting a precedent to help establish the convention of
political office holders in Ghana publicly publishing their assets
immediately before and after their tenure, by publicly publishing the
assets of both himself and those of his wife, and asking all those
who wish to continue to serve in his administration (and their spouses),
to do same too.
And if he were to top that by appointing Martin Amidu to the position
of Attorney General again, to deal ruthlessly with those in their regime
whose greed led to the judgment-debt payment order scandals, he would
be putting clear blue water between his party and the party that Jake
Obestebi-Lamptey's undoubted genius might in all probability help bring
back to power again, if he fails to do so. Since time is not on his
side, he must act swiftly.
Above all, he must bring an end to the destructive, divisive and
pervasive influence of the "greedy bastards" (to quote his party's
founder former President Rawlings) who wielded such power when the
terminally ill President Mills was alive - and being held hostage by
those selfsame individuals - in the Osu Castle.
It is true that no mortal being is without blemish. But in a nation in
which poverty is endemic, politicians ought to be as honest as it is
humanly possible to be, in matters to do with the protection of the
public purse and their stewardship of the resources of our nation.
For the sake of Ghana's younger generation, perhaps President Mahama
could set us on a course towards real change, and make a fresh start
for our nation, by putting morality at the heart of his
administration. A word to the wise...
Tel: 027 745 3109.
Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com
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