On Tuesday, The Ghanaian Lens reported on an aspect of the speech delivered by President Kufuor at the NPP Delegates Conference last Saturday, which we found very disturbing because the import of that aspect of the President’s speech portends grave consequences for the fight against corruption.
Mr. Kufuor, apparently seeking to assuage the grumblings of operatives of his ruling party to the effect that they (party operatives) are not being taken care of, stated that, “the entire membership of government at both central and local levels have been instructed to work with the principle of loving your neighbour as yourself, not more than yourself, meaning even as we serve our nation, as fairly as is humanly possible, we must never forget where our bread is buttered. I believe a word to the wise is enough.
Here, let me assure you that whatever actions this government has taken have been done with the best interest of the Party in mind. There is too much history of sacrifice, perseverance, commitment and toil within our tradition over the past five decades for this government to forget. So, the last thing all genuine Party members want to do is to let self-doubt take control of us” (emphasis ours).
Now, when the President of the Republic tells supporters of his party that officials at all levels of government have been issued with instruction that they “must never forget where our bread is buttered”, and he ends that statement with another very pregnant statement that “I believe a word to the wise is enough”, there can be no doubt whatsoever about the message that the President was sending to both his appointees and supporters of his party. The clear message to the appointees is that, they should give an outward appearance of being fair while all along favouring members and sympathisers of the ruling party to the exclusion of other Ghanaians. On the other hand, the message to members of his party is that they should expect to be favoured over other non-NPP Ghanaians by government officials at all levels.
Significantly, this open admission by the President that he has instructed his appointees and apparatchiks to favour NPP persons to the exclusion of all other non-NPP Ghanaians is being treated as if there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
We dare say that had this statement been made by former President Rawlings, or by Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills, this whole country would have been up in arms by this time.
We would have been hearing from the nation’s moralists, governance experts, and anti-corruption agencies by now, not only in condemnation of the statement, but also pointing out how it can destroy the moral fibre of our dear nation.
Alas, the statement was not made by a Jerry Rawlings or an Atta-Mills; it was made by John Agyekum Kufuor, the one person that most of these moralists, governance experts, and anti-corruption campaigners have held out to the people of this country as the very personification of good governance and epitome of morality.
Having thus propped the man up, these persons and institutions must now recline in embarrassed silence upon, as it were, discovering that their supposed ‘golden boy’ actually has clay feet.
Unfortunately, their embarrassment-induced silence is only making matters worse. As it is becoming increasingly clearer and clearer that Mr. Kufuor and his appointees have convinced themselves that they can do just about anything they wish and get away with it.
Otherwise, how else could the President have had the temerity to make that kind of statement on a public platform as he did last Saturday?
It is bad enough that the president could even conceive the idea to instruct his appointees at all levels of government to favour persons belonging to his ruling party over other Ghanaians, it is worse when the President actually goes ahead to issue such an instruction to his appointees. But it is definitely an abomination for the President to mount a public platform to gleefully boast about it. This can be nothing but a clear evidence of the culture of impunity that is currently existing in this country, and the earlier our civil society groups rise up against this the better it would be for all of us.
The Ghanaian Lens is therefore urging the nation’s moralists, governance experts, and anti-corruption campaigners to shake away their embarrassment-induced nsilence and confront this canker now. The time to act is now, and we must act decisively and openly. If we fail to do so, we must as well throw moral values to the dogs as we enter the electioneering period preceding the 2008 elections.
To quote the President, “a word to the wise….”
