The desire to acquire shelter, a roof over the head, is a natural thing for every man and woman.
And so we should not make any noise if Ministers of State, public servants and politicians too wish in their life times to build houses.
But such acquisition when it is done should not prove Proudhou's statement many years ago that PROPERTY IS THEFT.
There are many hard-working Ghanaians who are building mansions by the dint of hard work and from our history, we know of many cases of public servants and politicians who have acquired properties legally here defined to mean that they did so with their own income.
And s let Ministers of the Rawlings regime acquire property if they can live up to Rawlings' own medicine of probity and accountability.
Rawlings was not the first to talk about probity and accountability in our history. Kwame Nkrumah's famous 1961 Dawn Broadcast was a clear message that Nkrumah too was concerned about probity and accountability.
Probes that were set up after military interventions in 1966 and 1972 all pointed to a natural desire by Ghanaians to ensure that their elected officials respected morality in the acquisition of property.
What Rawlings did in 1979 and 1981 with his "revolutions" was to hit home in amore dramatic manner the need for public morality.
And so he shot Heads of State and Ministers of State on the grounds that they had abused their public office. In the case of Col. Felli and Rear Admiral Amedume, one of their crimes was that they took bank loans (about fifty thousand cedis) to build houses.
To the Rawlings revolution, those public officers like Colonel Felli and Rear Admiral Amedume abused their office and deserved to be shot.
President Rawlings would still like to be remembered as the leader who launched a holy war against corruption and so he seizes every chance he gets to attack the record of other regimes, particularly the two civilian or traditions with popular support - the Nkrumaists and the Busia-Danquaists.
Nkurmah's regime was corrupt, while the Busia regime showed two evil faces - corruption and arrogance, so says Rawlings.
History will have the final verdict on this view and so we should let the matter rest there with Rawlings' majestic verdict, but we can't and should not, because history may well judge this regime as the most corrupt.
We have enough reasons and evidence to believe the same corruption he claims provoked him to intervene in our history militarily on two occasions exists today under his very nose and eyes.
Last week we published a report with pictures of a cottage, a housing complex that his Minister of Interior, Col. Osei- Wusu has built a North Legon.
In yet another display of power, he has caused the road leading to his house to be tarred, although, there are other houses in the neighbourhood which deserve to enjoy the same amenity.
Today we have revealed he has a twin swimming pool in the complex. Incidentally, this is not the only property Colonel Osei-Wusu owns.
The Minister owns properties in his village Pepease. At least we have shown that the housing complex of the Minister of Interior was acquired in very recent times. We think the President should set up a probe to look into how the Minister of Interior could build this beautiful mansion on his salary.
The Honourable Minister can clear his good name if he built it from some big win in the lotto system.
This edition of THE INDEPENDENT also has the story of an emerging mansion at Kwabenya, which our scouts say belongs to the Regional Minister for Accra - the Honourable Mike Gizo.
He and other ministers, PNDC functionaries like Adjei-Marfo who have acquired properties in the last few months or years can do well to clear their good names by telling the nation how they could build their mansions on their salaries.
It is not for nothing that the laws of the land require ministers of state to declare their assets. What we are learning with these revelations is that it is not enough to
let public servants declare their assets. There must be a constant monitoring of new acquisitions and what The Independent is doing is to help the Rawlings regime to go down in history as an incorruptible government if it one at all.
We pause for an answer and an action on this very important matter.
The desire to acquire shelter, a roof over the head, is a natural thing for every man and woman.
And so we should not make any noise if Ministers of State, public servants and politicians too wish in their life times to build houses.
But such acquisition when it is done should not prove Proudhou's statement many years ago that PROPERTY IS THEFT.
There are many hard-working Ghanaians who are building mansions by the dint of hard work and from our history, we know of many cases of public servants and politicians who have acquired properties legally here defined to mean that they did so with their own income.
And s let Ministers of the Rawlings regime acquire property if they can live up to Rawlings' own medicine of probity and accountability.
Rawlings was not the first to talk about probity and accountability in our history. Kwame Nkrumah's famous 1961 Dawn Broadcast was a clear message that Nkrumah too was concerned about probity and accountability.
Probes that were set up after military interventions in 1966 and 1972 all pointed to a natural desire by Ghanaians to ensure that their elected officials respected morality in the acquisition of property.
What Rawlings did in 1979 and 1981 with his "revolutions" was to hit home in amore dramatic manner the need for public morality.
And so he shot Heads of State and Ministers of State on the grounds that they had abused their public office. In the case of Col. Felli and Rear Admiral Amedume, one of their crimes was that they took bank loans (about fifty thousand cedis) to build houses.
To the Rawlings revolution, those public officers like Colonel Felli and Rear Admiral Amedume abused their office and deserved to be shot.
President Rawlings would still like to be remembered as the leader who launched a holy war against corruption and so he seizes every chance he gets to attack the record of other regimes, particularly the two civilian or traditions with popular support - the Nkrumaists and the Busia-Danquaists.
Nkurmah's regime was corrupt, while the Busia regime showed two evil faces - corruption and arrogance, so says Rawlings.
History will have the final verdict on this view and so we should let the matter rest there with Rawlings' majestic verdict, but we can't and should not, because history may well judge this regime as the most corrupt.
We have enough reasons and evidence to believe the same corruption he claims provoked him to intervene in our history militarily on two occasions exists today under his very nose and eyes.
Last week we published a report with pictures of a cottage, a housing complex that his Minister of Interior, Col. Osei- Wusu has built a North Legon.
In yet another display of power, he has caused the road leading to his house to be tarred, although, there are other houses in the neighbourhood which deserve to enjoy the same amenity.
Today we have revealed he has a twin swimming pool in the complex. Incidentally, this is not the only property Colonel Osei-Wusu owns.
The Minister owns properties in his village Pepease. At least we have shown that the housing complex of the Minister of Interior was acquired in very recent times. We think the President should set up a probe to look into how the Minister of Interior could build this beautiful mansion on his salary.
The Honourable Minister can clear his good name if he built it from some big win in the lotto system.
This edition of THE INDEPENDENT also has the story of an emerging mansion at Kwabenya, which our scouts say belongs to the Regional Minister for Accra - the Honourable Mike Gizo.
He and other ministers, PNDC functionaries like Adjei-Marfo who have acquired properties in the last few months or years can do well to clear their good names by telling the nation how they could build their mansions on their salaries.
It is not for nothing that the laws of the land require ministers of state to declare their assets. What we are learning with these revelations is that it is not enough to
let public servants declare their assets. There must be a constant monitoring of new acquisitions and what The Independent is doing is to help the Rawlings regime to go down in history as an incorruptible government if it one at all.
We pause for an answer and an action on this very important matter.
