The hypocrisy of partisan politics is indeed most interesting. Just a few days ago a senior opposition party official in Ghana held a press conference to condemn a relative of the vice president, who is a businessman, for his company allegedly benefiting from a public contract properly awarded.
A week earlier, it was about a former boyfriend (and “baby father”) of a daughter of the president and a contract for spare parts where no bribery allegation is said to be involved. Today, that same propaganda chief is leading his party triumphantly (with support from the media), hailing his boss, the opposition leader and former president, as being “squeaky clean!” Why? The former president and the NDC presidential candidate for 2024 has been CLEARED of that major bribery charge that had hanged around his neck for 4yrs!
Details are that reputable investigative institutions in UK, US and France have done thorough investigations which all implicated that Ghanaian leader and his brother in an indictment where the bribe giver (Airbus) admitted guilt and paid millions in fines (but not to Ghana).
Airbus admits to paying bribes which allegedly went to Ghanaian Govt officials. Emails and other facts in the public domain point to the unusual involvement of the “Government Official 1” as the main champion of the deal in the entire transaction from the onset (even promising more) and how his brother was later on brought on board as agent for the company that admits to paying bribes. Today, his party and its leadership are understandably mightily relieved and happy because investigators in Ghana say they found no evidence against the leader and his brother the agent.
One can only be happy for them! They now point to how an “innocent” interest in a transaction can be so mischievously misconstrued even by reputable investigators as dodgy.
Thank God for Akufo-Addo’s meticulous OSP. Anaa? And, yet, that same party, the NDC and that same leader, John Mahama, have made allegations of corruption against the current president, his family, friends and appointees their main campaign message; even to the point of using a patently fake document (not reports of reputable investigators) against the current president and his royal family to drive home the point.
But, this is what is interesting though! Let us dare the opposition and their “squeaky clean” leader to name one clear case (not mere allegation) against Akufo-Addo, his family members or appointees that come anywhere remotely close to this Airbus case and its volumes of findings by investigators and admissions of guilt by the bribe giver.
Let them put the Airbus case side by side to any of the charges they continue to lay on NPP’s doorsteps. Yet, so desperate are they that they (led by JM himself) are eager to rely confidently & unashamedly on a book of fiction as their main dossier of evidence & to use same to draw links and conclusions from other instances to show that what Ghanaians are enduring today is worse than what they did see under Mahama’s NDC; never mind the tons of evidence of real developments and spendings that have gone directly into the welfare and wellbeing of families and communities across the country.
As we speak, there is another case in the US involving a senior staff of an international bank who was allegedly compelled to pay bribes in order to secure a take-or-pay power contract for a Turkish company under John Mahama.
Remember the billions of dollars Ghanaian taxpayers have paid for those take-or-pay deals over the last 7 or so years? Ghana is, indeed, an interesting country. But, I am truly happy for John Mahama and his family and his party, it must have been 4yrs of utter agony having such a case of huge international proportions hanging around his neck. It couldn’t have been easy!
Still, Africa shall continue to rise and rise we shall! Let the torch of transparency and the scrutiny of civil society & the media continue to shine on us all for the Africa we want and deserve!
By Gabby Otchere-Darko
Credit: Gabby Otchere-Darko/X.com
Editor’s note: Views expressed in this article do not represent that of The Chronicle
