Bagbin admits 'Revo' failed

The Minority Leader in Parliament and a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Hon. Alban Bagbin, has admitted that the former government did not do enough to combat corruption and ensure transparency, The Ghanaian Chronicle writes.

He said that apart form the draconian measures adopted to deal with specific instances of corruption, the previous government did not devise any systematic mechanisms for dealing with the scourge of corruption.

Referring to the revolutionary days, he said: "Those days the recommended measures were the use of decrees and draconian measures. There were no systematic ways of dealing with the scourge. The actions were basically erratic."

Hon. Bagbin made his frank observations in an interview with the paper last Friday on his way back from a global conference on "Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity," organized and hosted by The Netherlands Government in The Hague.

The Minority Leader observed that the summary executions and arrests of people were not the right formulae for combating corruption, adding that, "if you start executing and arresting people who have engaged in corruption, the rest will run away only to come when you are no more President." Hon Bagbin noted that ex-President Rawlings' coup was embraced by some sections of the society because of the solemn promise to combat corruption and ensure transparency in government. "JJ was an answer to societal call and that is why he was called Junior Jesus," he added.

Commenting on the excesses during the revolution, Hon Bagbin said that there was pressure on Rawlings from the press and the society, adding that some people in the current government contributed to the excesses.

"During the days of the revolution when Elizabeth Ohene was the editor of the Daily Graphic she used to run banner headline stories saying 'Let the blood flow, Gen. Hamidu was the then Liaison Officer for AFRC, Captain Fordjour was the liaison officer for students and lecturers in the universities and they insisted that more people should be killed. All these people contributed to the excesses", he said.

Continuing, Hon Bagbin recounted that at some point when Rawlings resisted the mass killings, the other ranks wanted to execute him because they said he was a stumbling block on their way.