Are Ghanaians ready to hand over the national purse to an alleged fourth richest with an estimated net worth of $900M?

We would like to invoke our instinct for tact and give His Excellency John Dramani Mahama a hand for working so hard and achieving so much for himself over the years. More grease to your elbow, Your Excellency.

That being said, the chilling report by several online portals sometime last year which cited His Excellency former President John Dramani Mahama as the fourth richest Ghanaian with a net worth of $900M(GH14.4 billion) sent shock waves across the length and breadth of the country.

My dear reader, I thought I was dreaming upon perusing through the list of the so-called ten richest Ghanaians in 2022, in which former President Mahama was alleged to be the fourth richest with an estimated net worth of $900M (GH14.4 billion).

But I was not dreaming. Indeed, several websites cited His Excellency John Dramani Mahama as the fourth richest Ghanaian in 2022.

In my humble opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong for an extremely rich person to aspire to lead the nation.

It is also a step in the right direction if concerned individuals call for the investigation into the sources of the said aspiring presidential candidate’s wealth.

Make no mistake, my dear reader, politicians are bona fide descendants of Biblical Adam, patently, imperfect human beings, and therefore susceptible to human foibles like everyone else.

Undoubtedly, the former president boasts of extensive work history and has done well for himself over the years, so why so many alleged bribery and corruption scandals hanging around his neck?

Somehow, some observers are of the opinion that former President Mahama has more alleged bribery and corruption scandals hanging around his neck than any other president in the history of Ghanaian politics.

The critics would argue that the former president has serious questions to answer over the puzzling corruption scandals such as the Airbus, SADA, GYEEDA, SUBA, NCA, SSNIT, the infamous Bus Branding, the Brazil World Cup, the STX housing deal, the Brazilian aircrafts, the Ford Expedition Vehicle, the Armajaro saga, among others.

The sceptics have been wondering how and why the extremely rich former president can secretly accept a gift of brand new Ford Expedition vehicle worth over $100,000 from a Burkinabe Contractor called Djibril Kanazoe.

As if that was not enough, the Attorney-General under Mills/Mahama administration, Martin Amidu, audaciously came out and told Ghanaians that the late President Mills set up a committee to investigate a suspicious Brazilian Aircrafts deal negotiated by the then Vice President Mahama.

If you would also recall, following the embarrassing Airbus bribery and corruption scandal between 2009 and 2015, President Akufo-Addo tasked the then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu to establish the identity of the said Government Official One who allegedly took bribe in the international thematic report.

The Special Prosecutor sadly concluded in 2020 that the said Government Official 1 in the Airbus bribery scandal was the former president and the 2020 flagbearer of NDC, John Dramani Mahama.

The report however stressed that since we were in the election period and the said protagonist was a presidential candidate, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was not in a position to take any immediate action.

Interestingly, the current Special Prosecutor also probed into the alleged involvement of former President Mahama in the Airbus bribery and corruption scandal between 2009 and 2015 and concluded recently that the Government Official One mentioned in the international thematic bribery report was former President Mahama.

If we take a stroll down memory lane, sometime in October 2010, the British media brought up a chilling report about how the then Vice President John

Dramani Mahama was allegedly lobbied by a British Cabinet Minister to get a reprieve for the ban imposed on Armajaro Holdings, one of the cocoa buying companies who were found guilty for smuggling the commodity out of Ghana.

Armajaro Company was banned together with a few other companies, when the award winning investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw

Anas exposed the smuggling of bags of cocoa into neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire.

Shockingly, however, the British media reported that subsequent to the meeting between the then Vice President John Dramani Mahama and the British Cabinet

Minister, Armajaro Company was given a needless reprieve and then started its operations.

Let’s face it, the president of a nation is a serious position and as such it requires someone with an impeccable integrity and unmatched commitment, therefore, it is quite worrying if serious bribery and corruption allegations are hanging on the neck of an individual who is seeking to return to the presidency and unwilling to disprove such allegations.