Andy Appiah-Kubi and the rich visitor in parliament

In a move that has since entered the history books, some 80 Parliamentarians of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP) led by Andy Appiah Kubi (Asante Akim North), called a presser on Tuesday, October 25, 2023, to demand that the President sack the Finance Minister.

A few days later, Andy Appiah-Kubi exposed an attempt by a wealthy Ghanaian businessman who visited the Parliament House and requested a meeting with the rebel group.

At this meeting, he offered them “huge sums of money in envelopes” with the intention of influencing them to rescind their demand for the resignation or removal of Ofori-Atta.

Andy became an instant hero. Ghanaians, fed up with dishonest leadership, hailed him as the next cleanest and boldest Member of Parliament (MP) after P.C. Appiah-Ofori.

Today, face-to-face with investigators from the Office of the Special Prosecutor(OSP), Appiah-Kubi not only refuses to name the businessman but decides to teach Ghanaians the definition of bribery.

Bribe, he says “is when you have taken something to do the things that you will otherwise not do.

But he (the wealthy businessman) has no personal interest in the matter so why will he pay a bribe?

Maybe he was trying to offer something by way of his association with us, so I won’t call it a bribe”.

Confronted with his own words and sensing danger, the MP now says about the wealthy businessman: “I saw him as a statesman and somebody who has business interest in Ghana, who is interested in the tranquillity that existed within the leadership of the country”.

The question is, at what point did he see the man as “a statesman”?

If he was so convinced in the man’s statesmanship at the first meeting, why did he call the press to announce the bribery attempt?

If the honour of this MP hangs on his words, why is he now rationalising that “maybe he was trying to offer something by way of his association with us, so I won’t call it a bribe.”

More shocking

Even more shocking is the reported hostility by Appiah-Kubi towards officers of the OSP and his flat-out refusal to cooperate with the investigation.

Why was he so antagonistic?

Because he was sure this matter would go up in smoke, like all scandals before his time.

So as predicted, another scandal of monumental proportions promised to end nowhere.

It hurts the conscience of Ghana that Andy Appiah Kubi, even while loudly trumpeting the bribery allegation, had already (in his own words) assured the businessman that his name would never be disclosed.

I have a problem: if he so assured the businessman of anonymity, why did he hurry to the media with the allegation, in the first place?

Sadly, it has worked perfectly for all concerned.

The case is all but dead, a useless case, as useless as the 2017 bribery allegations by Mahama Ayariga-led minority MPs.

Are we surprised that the whole of Ghana is turning into a society of dishonest persons?

The only worry is that they don’t even attempt to come in masks.

Do the likes of Andy Appiah Kubi have children?

Don’t they ever dread the spectre of their children getting infected with the virus which their actions are producing on society?

Thank God for the likes of Occupy Ghana.

They say they know that “the corruption fungus abhors and cannot stand sunlight”.

Because of this fact, they have sworn to “do all in our civil power to direct the power of light unto this matter” in the hope that “it just might produce the further evidence that the OSP requires to revive the dead.”

Now to our beloved President Akufo-Addo.

I plead with him to, at least, confide in Ghanaians his difficulty in making good his promise to the rebel NPP MPs.

He did promise to fire Ofori-Atta after concluding “the ongoing IMF negotiations” and presenting the 2023 Budget statement to Parliament.

As President, Ghanaian children and youth are counting on him to teach them the meaning of integrity.

In a paper delivered at the Thanksgiving Service held at the International Conference Centre on December 19, 2010, for the discovery of oil in Ghana, Pastor Mensa Anamua Otabil of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) warned that “Any society that does not have a principled reference for the ethical and moral conduct of its citizens, succumbs to the base desires of its people.

“It is our lack of adherence to clear moral imperatives that have led to the increasing promiscuity, viciousness, crime, unemployment, social insecurity, hardship and family breakup around us today.”

On that same platform, the ICGC Pastor told Ghanaians: “The key to our development does not lie at the bottom of the ocean; it lies in the centre of our heads.

The key to Ghana’s development is not black gold…

Our greatness lies in the wisdom we can harness as a people to turn this tiny oil resource into a huge industrial boom for our nation”.

The writer is Executive Director, Centre for Communication and Culture