Ghanaians were still managing these difficult times, as government is trying its best, to bring relief to the people, even as most see, as not good enough. Then news from the Ghanaian Chronicle, hit them hard in their faces on the morning of the penultimate Friday of July, 2023, blowing out their senses.
Then anger set in. For how can a minister of state be said to have million dollars, euros and Ghana cedis stolen from her home? And what was more shocking was that, this minister was not on the list of those tagged to be allegedly corrupt. So, if she had such a booty, stocked up in her room, then how much would those alleged to be corrupt keep in their homes?
In the minds of many Ghanaians, Hon. Cecilia Abena Dapaah hit the news this time for all the wrong reasons. It was not some sanitation deal gone bad or sanitary officers supervising the dumping of rubbish in water bodies.
In view of the furore, I will look at a few statements going round and ask my own questions and give my own opinion. The case is a scandal because it is an event or action that caused shock and disapproval.
Statements posted in social and traditional media include, 1). Why will a knowledgeable minister and agent of government keep such amounts at home? 2). Ex-President John Dramani Mahama, stated that this is an example of bad precedence being set by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and 3). The ‘legendary’ level of greed of the political class is what will finish this country completely (Dr. Randy Abbey).
To the first comment, my question is, is there any law which sets an upper limit of amounts of money that could be kept in a home?
Readers, I am not in any way defending what is wrong, but I think it is very important that Ghanaians do not get carried away by sensationalism and attempt quoting laws that do not exist in our statutes.
To the second, is ex-president John Dramani Mahama truly saying such a situation is the first ever in Ghana? I shall deal with this, later in the write-up.
To the third, I believe Randy Abbey, with all his experience, got carried away with sensationalism and had to speak to please the gallery. Where greed cannot be established, it must not be mentioned.
It is standard practice that politicians keep money at home and offices, because, daily the ordinary Ghanaian will come demanding something small. Under the current circumstance, whether we like it or not, a Ghanaian politician must always be loaded with cash, especially during this campaign season.
It is for people like Randy to start educating the ordinary Ghanaian about the importance of not collecting money from politicians. Moreso, Randy surely knows about this and so what has he done about that?
So long as there is no law in this country stating the upper limit of amounts of money to be kept in places other than the banks and other financial institutions, it is nobody’s business if someone self-inflicts risk of armed-robbery on themselves.
To Cecilia Abena Dapaah, however, I ask, why keep such huge amounts of money in the house? Is she part of a financial war chest, of an aspirant? If the money is even for her husband, which he may have acquired through genuine businesses, are the couples motivated to keep the money in the house to avoid the Ghana Revenue Authority, hence evading tax?
On a more serious note, is Cecilia and her husband involved in some money laundering, which is a crime? This whole issue will need further investigations to clear the good name of Cecilia Abena Dapaah. But all the same, it will be very difficult for people to pardon her. This singular act has, in the public eyes, smeared acts of corruption on all political office holders, whether they are indeed corrupt or not.
Whatever is happening to this NPP government? Why are some appointees making it difficult to make the president have some peace? Not when there is hardship all over and with the managers of our economy trying to stabilise the dollar, we have millions of dollars sitting in people’s homes, instead of shoring up our cedi in the banks.
Knowing this beautiful woman personally, I can only suggest that she was keeping the money for an aspirant. Putting it in the bank, will defeat the purpose, especially when money maybe needed at the time the banks are closed. A seasoned politician made such a statement on this. Continue reading.
I will re-emphasise that unless that money belongs to someone of great importance, I cannot fathom, why it could not be lodged it in the banks or invested it in some legal businesses. For there is absolutely no reason for keeping such amounts at home and even though, it is not illegal, the perception of corruption is high.
Such incidents never happened in the Kufuor administration and for a Kufuor branded minister, re-appointed to serve in this NPP government to have done this, makes one wonder.
The act of keeping huge sums of money at home is not a crime but the reason behind that could be, and this where I join Ghanaians to ask Cecilia, why, why and why?
Still, all I can say is that, Cecilia is not the kind to be involved in any shady deals. She has taken the matter up in court and I know that unlike a certain case in history, this one will take its full course.
It is very interesting to hear the NDC making noise all over the place, as if such a scenario has never happened in Ghana before. And how hypocritical it is for the NDC members to pretend that when talking about scandals in high places, they do not know that they hold the world record.
In December of 1997, news broke out that a leading member of the ruling NDC government and a top politician, Obed Asamoah, had hauled two of his security details to court for stealing ¢100 million from his room.This was during the period of the worse economic hardships ever recorded in Ghana.
It was so bad that workers had to be laid off, the dollar kept appreciating twice a day and prices of essential commodities went up thrice in a day. It was so bad that the nation’s liabilities far exceeded its assets, and we had to go out and borrow to pay interest on existing loans, thereby ever increasing our principal debt.
Conditions that we are facing now are nothing compared to the 90s. And the only reason for that was because of the poor and reckless management of Ghana and our economy by the NDC administration, because no external factor could be blamed.In the end we had no choice but to opt for the HIPC Initiative.
It was in this era, that Obed Asamoah operated another Bank of Ghana and kept billions in his room. An insignificant part of the money was stolen over a period of time which was not easily noticed by the politician.Same happened in the case of Cecilia, so no NDC person should make any noise.
During an interview with the Ghanaian Chronicle, published on Monday, May 3, 2004, Mr Obed Asamoah said he was saddened by the way the issue was being hyped up. To him, all political leaders kept money in their houses because in politics, one cannot function in emergencies on the basis of issuing cheques.This was the NDC’s official position on the matter and I hope Randy Abbey got this. And today, this same NDC is attacking the NPP and Cecilia Dapaah.
In the case of the two policemen who stole Obed Asamoah’s money, one of them bought two brand new cars and converted them into taxis. And he also built a large house in his hometown and was at the roofing level when he was arrested for stealing.
What is quite interesting was that the case was later dropped, so the policemen could not be jailed for stealing and where the money actually came from could not be established in court. The policemen were however expelled from the service. The question is, why was the case dropped? NDC is well noted for dropping cases that will expose the level of corruption in the party. Woyome comes to mind, here.
With Obed Asamoah’s case of stolen millions, I do not think, H.E. John Dramani Mahama is being fair in saying H.E. Nana Addo is setting a bad precedent.
In this case, one may ask, between NPP and NDC, which party while in power, registered the worse scandal? Obed Asamoah claimed that he kept the party’s money on himself in the house, when he was not the NDC’s financial secretary or treasurer. Cecilia Dapaah is yet to tell Ghanaians who that money belonged to.
Obed Asamoah did not see it morally right to resign his post as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, but held on tight, right to the end. Meanwhile, Cecilia Abena Dapaah did the honourable thing and resigned from office. It shows the character of this woman, whose departure will remove some shine in politics.
May I remind Ghanaians that H.E. Jerry Rawlings got so mad at the Ghanaians who were questioning Obed Asamoah that he went ahead to call them dzimakpla.
Dzimakpla means someone who is not brought up but reared. In other words, such a person is uncultured, uncouth, without manners and devoid of all the positive characteristics found in a human being. This derogatory word also extends to the parents who are classified here, as useless and senseless when it comes to child upbringing.
To date, H.E. Nana Addo has not altered a word against the numerous Ghanaians talking against Cecilia Dapaah. This shows the home and the party he comes from and belongs to.
In all this, it is obvious that the NDC is the worse when it comes to such scandals.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
