Last week, I began an exercise to debunk a very dangerous assertion by Sammy Gyamfi, Esquire, Communications Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). The official spokesman of the NDC had called a press conference a day earlier, and lied through his teeth.
The ‘confused confusionist’ told the world of Ghana politics that the party’s flagbearer, Mr. John Dramani Mahama is incorruptible and so, therefore, Ghanaians should entrust him with the public purse.
On the other hand, he swore to the high heavens that Vice-President Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia is susceptible to corruption and should be cast aside when the people at the centre of the earth go to the polls on December 7, this year.
Dear reader, it is my intention by this and subsequent articles to continue the rebuttal exercise I began last week and prove my hypothesis that Mr. John Dramani Mahama is, indeed, corruption on wheels and would be a danger to this society, as its leader,
Let me make myself unambiguously clear. When you read from me or hear me describing a person as ‘’scandal soaked,” I am referring to the former Head of State.
Last week, I dealt with the Embraer Aircraft Scandal from Brazil and narrated how its cost was so inflated that former President John Evans Atta-Mills was said to have decided to open an enquiry into its acquisition. Unfortunately, the sitting Head of State made an impromptu visit to his ancestors.
I also dealt with the issue of the BBC interview in which then President Mahama was completely uncomfortable when asked a simple question on whether the Ghanaian leader had ever taken bribe before.
Roland Agambire
I begin today’s exercise on the infamous ‘one-lap-top per child’ which proved a fiasco. When it was first announced that the NDC administration was going to equip school kids with lap-tops, the exercise was sold to the world, as an innovative means of equipping our kids with computer skills.
A huge capital expenditure of GHC51, 257,500 went into the exercise, but when the lap-tops, contracted to RLg of Roland Agambire, a friend of Mr. John Mahama were delivered, the products were way short on the quantity and the quality required. As you read this article, the supply of the remaining 12,733 pieces or the remittance of their cost remain in a limbo.
The 2012 Auditor’s report indicted Mr. Agambire’s Rlg Communications Limited for failing to supply 12,733 pieces of lap-tops as stipulated in the contract, causing GHc6,366,875 loss to the state.
Later, it was revealed by officials of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation at the sitting of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that the lap-top supplied by Rlg were way short on requirement. Instead of the contracted screen of 15.7 inches, Rlg supplied 10.1 inches.
At the sitting of the Public Account Committee, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the then substantive minister at the time, told members that long before the delivery of what turned out to be shoddy work, the government of former President John Dramani Mahama had paid the
entire contract sum to his friend, Mr. Roland Agambire.
It turned out that the lap-top exercise was commissioned for to soften the grounds for the then sitting President and his NDC.
Dear reader, it was in 2012, at the time, Mr. Mahama was campaigning for votes to be Head of State of the Republic of Ghana.
Mr. Mahama apparently used his friendship with Agambire to scam this nation. Remember the story of Nkonfem (guinea fowls) migrating to Burkina Faso? Mr. Agambere was heavily involved. This one I do not believe Sammy Gyamfi is unaware.
Of late, I have heard a number of lame excuses. Apparently, a number of people who once rocked the boat for Mr. Mahama are now raking their memories to undo the mitigation theory and to soften the grounds for Mr. Mahama.
I am told that the migration story is now being interpreted as a hoax. The new theory is that no guinea fowls took to the sky from Northern Ghana to Burkina Faso without a compass. That is a piece of a rebuttal that has taken more than eight years to construct.
Whether there was a migration or not, what happened to the state money dished out to Rlg to provide Nkomfem meat, especially for those of us in the south, who have come to love that thin and lovely meat?
Those sleep-walking to obliterate the past have a huge task. The image of the man I call ‘scandal-soaked’ ex-President sunk so low long ago, and it will take more than mere belated denials to re-habilitate the soiled image. Come back or not?
Does anybody remember the afforestation magic performed on the grassland in the north? I hope and pray that Mr. Sammy Gyamfi knows about this one. Someone told me the other day that the Communications Director of the NDC is a young man and might be unaware of the colour and volume of water that passed under the bridge in those heady days of the NDC in power.
Once upon a regime, Rlg was commissioned to create a communication hub in Accra. A number of billboards answered the call to brand Accra as communication hub of Africa.
Once it was the Mahama’s regime making the proposal, our friend Roland could not be left out. A huge chunk of state cash, said to be in the region of US$100 million was granted to Mr. Agambire to undertake the project. An official announcement said as part of an exercise to promote the idea of nurturing a millionaire to aid the state in the near future, an interest-free loan has been advanced to Rlg and Mr. Agambire to execute the new mandate.
More that seven years after Mahama left the Flagstaff House, I have not been briefed on the extent of the project executed.
I am told Mr. Roland Agambire now lives in the comfort of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.The last I heard of the man and his Dubai connection was when it emerged that the son of the former president also lives in Dubai. I was also told that a son of the former President married a woman, who hails from Algeria, in Dubai, not too long ago.
I am unable to tell readers whether or not our Roland was on the guests list. I am unable, as I write this piece to determine whether Rlg has paid the money advanced to his company to construct the Accra communication hub.
Whatever it is, I do not think that those indigenous Ghanaian companies selling the image of Ghana abroad, like Kantanka Automobille and many others doing great job in the name of Mother Ghana have benefitted in any way from state loans without interest. I hope Mr. Sammy Gyamfi will take note.
Bus Branding
It is unfortunate but I do not honestly believe that Mr. John Dramani Mahama or any regime he heads could fail the positive test with any lie detector. Does anybody remember Ms. Dzifa Attivor and her bus branding episode in the Mahama regime?
At a time when the economy was nose-diving, Ms. Attivor, as Minister of Transport, approved an expenditure of GHc3.6 million to re-brand 116 state busses. Apparently, another invoice from a different company had quoted the same re-branding exercise to cost a mere GHc30,420
Under Mahama, scandal ruled Government House. Remember Woyome, Isofoton, Waterville and many others? They all tell a simple story. Under Mahama, scandal is not far away.
Airbus Bribery Scandal
Remember the Airbus Bribery Scandal and ‘Government Official One’? In February 2020, Airbus SE, world manufacturers of Aircraft was fined 3 billion pounds sterling at a United Kingdom Crown Court in South London. Airbus SE pleaded guilty to paying bribes to land contracts in 20 countries including Ghana.
Prosecution the case, the Serious Fraud Office in the United Kingdom established that Airbus had paid five million Euros in kick-backs to a brother ofa top Ghanaian official described in court as Government Official One and three of his friends before landing the contract to supply an aircraft to Ghana.
Government Official One
Mr. Martin Amidu, then Special Prosecutor in Ghana, identified Government Official One as then President John Mahama. Since then, Mr. Mahama has not been able to challenge Mr. Amidu on this assertion.
For the attention of Mr. Sammy Gyamfi and those who think like him, thatMr. Mahama cannot be corrupted, this is one example of gargantuan corruption. In any country where corruption is taken seriously, Mr. John Dramani Mahama would not be a candidate for the right to reside at Government House. .
It so happened that Mr. Adam Mahama, a brother of the former President of Ghana, who had re-located to Her Majesty’s Great Britain, arrived in Ghana with three of his friends, including an actor in England to buy an aircraft for Ghana. The news in the exercise is that none of the three knew anything about an aircraft.
They were goaded on to cheat the system because one of them Mr. Samuel Mahama’s brother had become the Vice-President of Ghana. And that it was easier to use the influence of the kinship to wean their way into government and float the idea of acquiring Airbus aircraft for this country.
Their plan worked perfectly, especially when President Mills visited his ancestors and left decision making in the hands of Mr. Mahama, who took over as Head of State. Somewhere along the line, there were allegations of the former President aiding Adam Mahama to acquire a Ghanaian passport under very dubious circumstances.
The Airbus scandal shamed Ghana and badly soiled the hands of Mr. John Dramani Mahama. If you ask my honest opinion on ex-President Mahama as a presidential candidate, I would not hesitate in telling you the truth. ‘Scandal-soaked’ Mahama is a disgrace to this nation.
I shall return!
Ebo Quansah in Accra
