Johnson Asiedu Nketia
The opposition
National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expectedly responded abrasively to
President Akufo-Addo’s anti-corruption speech during the Ghana Bar Association’s
(GBA) annual conference on Monday in Takoradi.
The opposition
party flatly denied the President credit for his achievements so far regarding
the reported instances of corruption against some appointees his swift
responses in referring the issues to the appropriate agencies and even
relieving the suspects of their appointments notwithstanding.
The party’s
General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia, while delivering his party’s response,
claimed that the President has lowered the standards of the fight against
corruption by the speech he delivered.
It was a response
which failed to tackle directly some of the issues raised by the President
regarding how issues of reported instances of corruption are handled by
specialised agencies of state.
For Asiedu-Nketia
speaking for the NDC, the President has “lowered the bar for the fight against
corruption at the Bar conference.”
The President’s
stance that the corruption scandals ascribed to the ruling party are
attributable to the opposition appeared to have hit the NDC hard as contained
in his response.
The recent actions
taken against persons who were reported to have engaged in corruption by the
President did not find space in the NDC’s response the way it should.
The NDC position
that the President is refusing to admit the existence of corruption in his
government appears to have ignored entirely the recent action taken against some
top appointees.
“His (President
Akufo-Addo’s) failure to admit the existence of corruption in his government is
a very clear indication that he does not even recognize the problem and cannot
be counted upon to address it. Because if you don’t know the problem, how can
you solve it?”Asiedu-Nketia quizzed.
Describing President Akufo-Addo as the most corrupt head
of state when empirical evidence rather point to a former President from their
own camp reduced the NDC’s scribe to the usual campaign trail ranting, full of
words short in substance.
Contrary to
criticisms that the President has become a “clearing agent” exonerating his
appointees accused of corruption, Nana Akufo-Addo argued otherwise.
President
Akufo-Addo’s belief in the rule of law is evident in the manner he handles
issues of corruption and governance in general. Such developments are quickly
referred to the appropriate agencies to deal as the suspects at the centre of
the storms are suspended without delay.
Such officials
are deemed exonerated only when the appropriate agencies clear the suspects
evidence have showed so far. President Akufo-Addo’s appointment of Martin Amidu
as the Special Prosecutor, a man associated rather with the opposition NDC,
earned him accolades and presented him as a President intent on fighting
corruption.
According to the
NDC, President Akufo-Addo used only “flowery speeches and empty rhetoric,
delivered in an acquired accent.”
That the
President’s diction or even accent is the subject of Asiedu Nketia’s delivery
has robbed his reaction of the seriousness it deserves.
It is the
President’s manner of speaking which Asiedu Nketia said, “Convinces people that
corruption is being fought.”
Turning to the
government claims of saving some GH¢2.75 billion through the review of
sole-sources procurement contracts, the NDC scribe challenged the President“to
publish the full list of such projects.”
He taunted the
President with the former PPA CEO about whose corruption allegation the
President has acted already and earning accolades when he said, “didn’t he know
that the PPA boss was actually the source of the sole-sourced contracts? We
wish to submit this that this claim is false and challenge the president to publish
the full list of all the specific cases of saving.”
