From Zero Tolerance To He Who Is Without Sin…

When the Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Mr. Kwodwo Mpiani, stood before Parliament while the President’s nominees were being vetted and made reference to an incident recorded in the Bible and, using that incident as a basis, moved on to dare the members of the appointment committee that “he who is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone”, little did he know that he was actually revealing the mindset of the government in relation to fighting corruption.

The fight against corruption was one of the major issues upon which the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) obtained the mandate of the people of Ghana in 2000. Such was the NPP’s claim to abhorrence of corruption that Mr. Kufuor actually promised the people of Ghana that he would run an administration that would have “zero tolerance for corruption”.

That was in the year 2000 and the early parts of 2001.

Today, in the year of our Lord 2007, Mr. Kufuor and the NPP have long ceased talking about “zero tolerance for corruption”, and the stark reality that confronts the people of Ghana on a daily basis is the corruption, nepotism, and the naked looting of the nation’s coffers by officials and appointees of the Kufuor regime.

Many a Ghanaian has wondered at the Kufuor administration’s inexplicable about-face on matters relating to fighting corruption; many have wondered why Mr. Kufuor, a lawyer, would ask the people of Ghana to provide evidence of corruption before his administration would institute investigations into allegations of corruption.

Thanks to President Kufuor’s Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Mr. Kwodwo Mpiani, the people of Ghana can now understand why Mr. Kufuor and his people have turned their backs on the fight against corruption. It is therefore obvious that the longer the NPP stay in power the more corruption, be it of morals or otherwise, would dominate in this country because the very people who have to fight the canker know that they are not without the sin of corruption.

Obviously, there is only one thing for it; we must elect a President whose record is unassailable as far as corruption goes, and there can be no other person than Professor John Evans Atta Mills.

We believe that the people of Ghana are taking note of these developments and would make their feelings known come December 2008.