During the thirty years of this Fourth Republic only two political parties have ruled this land. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) took sixteen years, and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a year short of ruling for same number of years.
These two parties have also celebrated more than their fair quota of controversies. This feature is not to justify wrongs that any party had copied from the other, but just to make obvious which party had done worse.
So, let us look at a few of such cases.
Extra Marital Affairs in High Places: In 1994, The Chronicle broke the news that Dr. Kwesi Botchwey of the NDC, who was also Ghana’s Finance Minister, had an extra-marital affair with the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Ms Sandelle Scrimshaw, and impregnated her.
This was during the era of the worst economic crisis in Ghana, and one could only guess how much of our scarce hard currencies was transferred into the private accounts of the Canadian.
Instead of being humble and apologising for the wrong he did and tell Ghanaians how much he doled out to his mistress, Kwesi Botchwey, in 2002, rather dared his critics, demanding to know how many of them had never had extra-marital relationships.
In recent developments, but for the age of Hon Gyekye Quayson, one would have asked whether the reason the NDC is wholly supporting him,was because he could be the son of Botchwey and Ms Scrimshaw.
In all this the NDC feared to ask how much Kwesi Botchwey gave to Ms Scrimshaw, but that was not in the case of our next gentleman.
Dr. Richard Anane was a Minister of Health in the NPP Kufuor administration when news broke that he met an American lady, Alexandra O’Brian, during a conference in the USA and had affair with her. She also got pregnant and bore him a son.
The NDC descended on Richard Anane, as if what he did had never happened in Ghana before. The party spread the news that Richard had transferred US$90,000.00 to Alexandra in a single year, and went probing more into their relationship coming out with things the party was too scared to ask Kwesi Botchwey.
Richard Anane did not use the “whoever had not sin may caste the first stone,” caveat here when he appeared before The Appointments Committee of Parliament in 2005. He was honest to come with what he knew was the truth about the whole affair and even added under oath that his wife was supportive and had taken charge of the caring of the boy child.
Here we have two cases; one was a finance minister who went for a high commissioner of a sovereign country. How much of our money was transferred electronically or physically into her accounts, Ghanaians were never told, because the NDC feared to ask questions.
And seriously, how sure are we that during the moment of ecstasy, Kwesi would not have handed over national confidential matters to this woman. The other was a health minister who met a private American citizen in her country and came out to say that he gave her $10,000.00.
Readers, you are to judge who between the two ministers was most controversial and had cost the country, honour and resources.
Spending on Ladies by People in High Places: Hon Richard Anane features here again. He went to the US in February 2001, and had a local girl who he spent on during his stay.
The NDC descended on Richard and charged him for causing financial loss to state by spending on the accommodation and other needs of the lady. The whole nation was made to understand that adding another guest to your room in a hotel attracts extra charges. This is not exactly true.
During the reign of John Atta Mills, his minister of sports, Muntaka Mubarak, used his influence to acquire visa for his girlfriend, Edith Zunayela. He took her on travels to La Cote d’Ivoire. It was alleged that Edith was a Secretary of Alban Bagbin and Muntaka went to poach her whenever he wanted to travel abroad on official duties.
So, here is a case, of Edith going away for days on unofficial assignments which were all about extending love making across the world and yet got paid her full monthly salary.
Readers in your judgment who caused financial loss to the state? Mind you in the case of Muntaka, in using his influence to acquire visas for the lady, she would have to be addedto the list of the team that was travelling and of course she would be paid an undeserving per diem. And who bears the cost?
In the case of Richard, he met a local girl in the US and they became friends. There was no visa connection and purchasing of air tickets in this matter. Also, the state only paid for Richard’s hotel bills and gave him per diem which did not include any additional person.
As in the case of Kwesi Botchwey, when the NDC either refused to set up a probe into the matter, typical of this party to prevent any opening of can of worms, cases such as Muntaka’s were dropped.
Paid by the State for jobs done: During the Kufuor administration the state contracted a construction company, Waterville, to construct national stadia. This company employed a certain Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome to be its financial engineer. But who is a financial engineer?
A financial engineer (also known as “quantitative analyst” or “quant”) is a practitioner in the financial industry who is responsible for developing, testing, and improving on models, tools, and techniques that are prevalent in quantitative finance. What is the meaning of this?
What is quantitative finance? Quantitative finance is the use of mathematical models and extremely large datasets to analyse financial markets and securities.
Common examples include (1) the pricing of derivative securities such as options, and (2) risk management, especially as it relates to portfolio management applications. Professionals who work in this field are often referred to as “Quants.”
If Waterville is only into construction, then what the hell is a quant doing in its business? To the best of my knowledge, Waterville was not a trader in the money market, so what was Woyome doing there?
Anyway, the contract was terminated because of lack of performance by Waterville and the state paid the company off as per the agreement. And according to Waterville’s lawyer, Woyome was also paid off. Then this quant went to the government to claim money because when Waterville’s contract was terminated, he suffered losses. The then Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani walked him out of his office.
Come NDC government in 2009, Woyome went to claim judgment debt and even though, then President Mills instructed the he should not be paid a dime, the finance minister, Kwabena Duffour, went ahead and paid him GH¢51 million which was $35 million, at that time.
When the whole issue was brought to daylight by Kennedy Agyepong, the NDC was forced to take Woyome to court on criminal charges. Later the NDC changed the charge sheet from criminal to civil, so there was no way Woyome would be jailed if found guilty. And another moment the NDC decided that the state was not interested in the case.
The Attorney General at the time made it look so obvious that the NDC was not prepared to open any can of worms that would affect the reputation of the party. So, two key witnesses, Kwadwo Mpiani and Waterville’s lawyers were not invited to give testimonies in court. And some people are demanding to know where the NDC had money from to put up the best party office in the whole of Africa.
Databank under the current NPP government was said to broker loans for the state. It came out that the bank made GH¢200 million and Ghanaians were asked to rise up because the finance minister owned Databank. The NDC made it clear that this was the worse scandal in Ghana’s history.
Readers, which was these two was the worse controversy? Woyome who did no job for the state, was paid an equivalent of $35 million which is GH¢396 million today and Databank which did a job for the state received only $17.7 million in cedi equivalent of GH¢200 million?
Turning Homes into Banks: In 1997, NDC’s Obed Asamoah who was Attorney General reported that ¢100 million of the money he kept in his room was stolen by two of his security details. When asked where he got that money from, he said it was party money when he was not the financial secretary or treasurer of the NDC.
He later, in 2004, said it was no big deal to have huge amounts of money in his home because politicians must keep monies at home to fund emergency programmes especially on days that the banks were closed. He took the two policemen to court and later dropped the case, or a can of worms would be opened.
In 2022, Cecilia Dapaah, then Sanitation minister, took some domestic staff to court for allegedly stealing $ 1 million, €350,000 and some Ghana cedis from her home.
All hell has broken loose in Ghana, with the NDC leading the attack and claiming that it was criminal to have kept such amounts at home especially during such hard times. What is a crime in keeping huge sums of money at home when there is no law which sets a limit to amounts to be kept at home or in offices?
The NDC is also claiming that during such hard times, why should a single person keep such huge amounts at home which when taking to the banks would appreciate the value of the Ghana cedi against hard currencies.
In 1997, Ghana was at the peak of the worse economic hardship due to mismanagement by the PNDC/NDC governments. Earlier, the government under Rawlings went to the IMF and was asked to make some workers redundant.
In the IMF package was funds to pay the workers off. Rawlings sacked over 300,000 workers and yet refused to fully pay their exit-package resulting in many dying out of frustration, seeing their homes breaking apart.
By1997, Ghana was borrowing to pay interest on loans thereby increasing our debt portfolio. But for Kufuor arriving in 2001, the nation would have been shut down.
Readers in your view, which is most controversial – the case of Obed Asamoah or the case of Cecilia Dapaah?
Hon Daniel Dugan
