Akufo-Addo not convincing in corruption fight – Rev. Fayose

The General Secretary of the Christian Council, Rev. Dr. Cyril Fayose believes the Akufo-Addo-led government has been a failure in the fight against corruption.

He is particularly not enthused about government’s inability to largely punish people involved in corrupt activities.

“We must punish people for wrongdoing,” Rev. Dr. Fayose told Winston Amoah on TV3’s news analysis programme, The Key Points, on Saturday.

He laid the whole blame on the doorstep of the president because “the buck stops with him”, and charged President Akufo-Addo to rein in his appointees to do the right thing by adopting the ‘carrot and stick’ policy.

“Generally I will say yes,” he said when asked if government has disappointed Ghanaians in dealing with corruption, intimating, “almost everyone is being cleared”.

Though he conceded there are isolated cases in which the President has appeared to be cracking the whip on his appointees, the man of God asserted, “I’m not too convinced; something is not right”.

He further stressed, “We are not able to bring our own to face the law or the consequences of their actions”.

Rev. Dr. Fayose was equally not happy with the work of the Special Prosecutor so far.

Window Dressing

The Office of the Special Prosecutor was established as an independent body to prosecute mainly corruption related cases.

“When the Office of the Special Prosecutor was set up, some of us said hallelujah…but now it is looking like a window dressing…has the Office of the Special Prosecutor prosecuted someone successfully as at this time? Some of us are impatient, we are looking for something to happen quickly.”

“My point is that give the Special Prosecutor the teeth to bite,” he said, and when told by the host that the special prosecutor has it, Dr. Fayose reiterated, “I don’t think so”.

Failure of religion

The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana also denied vehemently the assertion that religion has failed the nation in the fight against corruption.

According to him, religion is doing its part by teaching people the right from the wrong but said it is up to state institutions to punish persons who choose to do the wrong thing to deter others.

“What is happening is that we are not punishing people for wrongdoing. The Church teaches good behaviour or basic value,” he said, asserting strongly that there would be “chaos” in Ghana if we are to “think of a society without religion – so religion has not failed”.