A Ghanaian Chronicle article reproduced in Ghanaweb of Friday, August 24, 2007 under the caption, “NPP Man Turns on Own Government” purported that Professor George Ayittey has called on the NPP government to prosecute Mr. P.V. Obeng. According to Professor Ayittey, “If the administration is committed and is to succeed in its avowed fight against corruption … there is need to arrest and prosecute people like Mr. Paul Victor Obeng, former Special Advisor to ex-President Rawlings for his alleged multiple complicity in the SCANCEM scandal.”
The only reason given by the professor to instigate the arrest of P.V. Obeng is that “his name has been mentioned as being one of the recipients of the US$4 million bribe from SCANCEM, mother of the Norwegian company Ghacem.”
It seems the professor is living in the past when a person could be arrested just because an individual feels it should be so. And should a person be arrested just because his/her name was mentioned in a scandal? Think about how many Ghanaians, including the president, who would be arrested! Either Professor Ayittey does not know the trend of the SCANCEM case or he just does not get it. Yes, P.V. Obeng’s name was mentioned in the bribery case but virtually the case was thrown out of the Norwegian court for lack of evidence. If a Norwegian court with first hand information could not find any evidence that some bribery money was paid, I doubt whether any Ghanaian court would be able to do so. More importantly, it was established that P.V. Obeng was paid for consultancy work he did for GHACEM after he left political office, not while he was in office. In fact, as of the time of writing this piece, P.V. Obeng was still a consultant for GHACEM. Is it an offence to receive payments for consultancy services? Or is there any law in Ghana that prohibits past political leaders from establishing consultancy firms? Anybody who has ever lived in the West, say the U.S. and Canada, knows that after leaving office most officials (political and otherwise) form their own firms or join some corporations as directors, consultants, etc. For example, if you have ever been ticketed by the police in Canada for speeding you are most likely to be represented by an ex-cop to fight the ticket. Mark it on the wall, Karl Rove who just resigned as Chief Advisor to President Bush would soon be working as a consultant in a private setup. Savvy people utilize the experience they garner along the way to their advantage, and that is exactly what P.V. Obeng did. If most of our politicians were like him, the incidence of corruption will diminish. Thus, acquire political position, gather experience, get out of politics and use your experience to make money. This is far better than stealing money whilst in political position. The latter is what Victor Selormey did – he stole state funds when in office. It is therefore bizarre for Professor Ayittey to compare P.V. Obeng with Selormey.
According to Professor Ayittey, people are “beginning to wonder whether it's because of his [P.V. Obeng] tribe, the school he attended or the church he attends” that is protecting him from prosecution. Which people is Professor Ayittey referring to? Who did he ask and got that response? Pure speculation, I guess.
Another person who got it all wrong as far as the GHACEM corruption issue is concerned is Professor Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe. In his artcle, “Not So Fast, P.V.,” that appeared in Ghanaweb of August 11, 2007 he pronounced P. V. Obeng guilty because, among other unsubstantiated accusations, “when he [P.V. Obeng] claims to have set up his anonymous “consortium” (whatever that means), the P/NDC was still very much in firm control of Ghanaian politics; and so it would be unpardonably preposterous for anyone to assume that his mere parting of the ways, as it were, with the Rawlings government – for whatever reasons and on whatever terms – left Mr. Obeng absolutely bereft of any political connections or influence with/on the aforementioned government”. This is the first time I’m reading that it is a crime to have political connections or influence on a government! Professor Okoampa-Ahoofe went on that “For all that anyone cares about, Mr. Obeng may well have left the P/NDC precisely to set up the mechanism that facilitated the alleged payola that SCANCEM court documents detail about the heavy involvement of Messrs. Obeng and Rawlings, as well as the latter’s wife.” We all know that that’s a lie because SCANCEM court documents never detailed any heavy involvement of Mr. P.V. Obeng and the Rawlingses. And what is criminal about leaving a government to engage in private business?
The most bizarre assertion came when Professor Okoampa-Ahoofe noted that, “It should also be of keen interest to the Government, the fact that SCANCEM appears to have exclusively engaged the consultancy services of Mr. Obeng, a major “former player” in the Rawlings government rather than another wholly private Ghanaian business consultant.” I ask, what right has Professor Okoampa-Ahoofe to decide for SCANCEM who to engage as its consultants? And on what basis does Professor Okoampa-Ahoofe determine who a “wholly private Ghanaian business consultant” is? In another article in the Ghanaweb of August 03, 2007 Professor Okoampa-Ahoofe wrote that, “the Kufuor Government ought to ….. demand that payolas deposited into the coded bank accounts of the Rawlingses and Mr. Obeng be returned to the Ghana Government Treasury, with interest and penalties.” I ask, if the bank accounts are coded, and nobody can substantiate their existence then how can the government demand that monies in it should be returned to the Ghana Government Treasury?
In democratic societies, people are thrown into jail when there are evidences against them, when they are found guilty. Thus, no one is thrown into jail because he/she is guilty; again, people are thrown into jail when there are evidences against them. For example, you may be 100% sure that I stole your money, but if you don’t have any evidence that I stole it then forget about it because I’ll never be convicted. Hence, Professor Ayittey’s charge that the NPP government is practicing selective justice by not prosecuting P.V. Obeng is uncalled for.
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