Is Ghana Worth Dying For?

THE CASE OF DR. KWAME AMOAKO TUFFUOR.

Many enterprising young men like me, who have always been filled and fired up with the zeal to serve our beloved country Ghana whole heartedly, are at certain time caught up in the web of limbo with our minds boggling on the big question-Is Ghana worth dying for?

The reality of this question is exemplified in the very sad and awful manner in which some people who in the quest to serving mother Ghana are wrongful penalized, cooked up and framed up in some unsaintly matrix of factual inaccuracies, innuendos, and blatant fabrications just to mar their hard won reputation and integrity and possibly as punishment for no crime committed.

On of such key cases is the special case of Dr. Kwame Amoako Tuffuor-Former Executive Chairman, Ghana School Feeding Program. Dr Amoako Tuffuor’s case in my own consented and objective view epitomizes the gravity of the politics of envy, jealousy and hatred that characterized the past NPP administration and is inherent in our Ghanaian body politic in general.

If history and my memory serves me right, The Ghana School feeding program was the sole and exclusive brain child of Dr. Kwame Amoako Tuffuor. He struggled very hard to bring the program to Ghana to help reduce the high incidence of poverty and hunger that have bedeviled the ordinary Ghanaian especially the rural poor and vulnerable. This program is widely accepted by all group of people as a very brilliant and excellent initiative and if well implemented would help Ghana progress towards meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme hunger and poverty. The program in Ghana under the chairmanship of Dr. Amoako Tuffuor was adjudged the best in the whole of Africa in the year 2008.

However, just after two years of its implementation the usual pull Him down (PHD) syndrome crept in. Some key top government functionaries became jealous of the success of Dr. Amoako Tuffour’s program and started moving from heaven and earth to frustrate the whole scheme. Unfortunately through a hired agent-CJA these shameless personalities accused and leveled a litany of false and fabricated allegations of financial impropriety against Dr. Amoako Tuffour as a result of which He was forced to exit as Executive Chairman, after all that He had done to ensure that the program was on track.

The big fear here is that if people like Dr. Amoako Tuffuor, through whose immense contribution and effort the NPP came into power in 2001, could be treated in such an inhumane manner by his own party whiles in government, then what would happen to those of us whose entire lineage have never contributed to enthroning a political party in government? The fear is real!! Is Ghana worth dying for?

Let me also state emphatically here that, in April 2008 when Dr. Amoako Tuffuor was wrongly asked to leave office, those of us who knew him very well or had heard and read about him in connection to his immense support and contributions towards the struggle to enshrine constitutionalism and the rule of law in Ghana (popular Amoako Tuffour Vrs Attorney General) could smell foul play from the Presidency especially with regards to the quick and uncompromising manner in which it was done. Subsequently we could envisage Dr. Amoako Tuffuor’s innocence in the whole issue and can only be thankful to the Almighty God for letting the cat (truth) out of the bag now.

As explicated in the intercepted April 2009 Auditor-Generals report on The Ghana School Feeding Program published by the Chronicle newspaper on Thursday 30th April,2009, all the allegations of financial misappropriations that were leveled against Dr. Amoako Tuffuor have been proven false and futile as no adverse finding have been made against him. The big and bigger thieves have now been exposed. The Director of Finance (Mr. Kwame Nuako) and the senior Accountant (Mr. Ebenezer Kwesi Donkor) at The Ghana School Feeding Program together with their allies at the Castle and the Ministry of Local Government have been uncovered. Now we know exactly those caused the mess, How it was caused and why it was caused. With all sincerity, I personally believe that the hands of some other top former government officials is tied into this issue since the biggest of all the malfeasances involving a hopping sum of 1.83 billion old Ghana could not have been done by these ordinary persons alone. This amount which was supposed to transferred as feeding grants to beneficiary schools by the Ministry of Local Government, Controller and Accountant Generals department, Bank of Ghana, The Director of Finance and Senior Accountant at The Ghana school feeding program got locked up some where and only God knows where that is.

Through out the said report the names of Mr. Kwame Nuako and Ebenezer Kwesi Donkor both officials of The Ghana School feeding program kept on recurring as persons having been found culpable of Financial misappropriations. In all these matters Dr. Amoako Tuffour’s hands remained clean as his name has not been mentioned by the Auditor-General in any of these dealings.

However, in view of the above one can not still imagine why Dr. Amoako Tuffour was allowed to go through such turbulent times when it was clear that He had no hand in any financial malfeasance. The thought of this alone leaves me with only two options. Could it have been his successful implementation of the program or it was his non alignment to some NPP presidential aspirant-I mean the Castle darling boy who eventually lost the presidential primaries and would anytime soon lose massively again if he dares rear his head up to contest Nana Akuffo Addo for the presidential slot.

Surely, Dr. Amoako Tuffour deserves an unqualified apology from all Ghanaians particularly former President Kuffour and his government, the hired action troopers- CJA, and all those who were involve in causing damage to his person and integrity and the bane that was extended to his family as a result of his wrongful dismissal.

All those who wanted Dr. Amoako Tuffuor down must be ashamed of themselves now. The CJA and their NPP compatriots must bow down their heads in abject shame for their wrongful incarceration of innocent Dr. Amoako Tuffuor has been exposed. The Auditor General has said it all. Amoako Tuffuor has never stolen any government money. His hands are clean. We know the bigger thieves and their bosses and they must stand assured that the Professor Mills and NDC government would never let them go scot-free. Their time would come!!!!!!

In closing a chapter to this article I personally feel that Dr. Amoako Tuffuor deserves to be commended by all Ghanaians for the calm and gentle manner in which he handled his case. He was quiet and left everything into God’s hands to handle and truly the truth is now out. He is exonerated.

My advice to the thousands of Ghanaian youth out there like me is tha,t despite the fact that we still have some personalities who would not want to see the success of others and would do every thing possible to get them down, we should not shift focus of wanting to serve mother Ghana. We must be inspired and motivated by persons like Dr. Kwame Amoako Tuffuor to pick up the mantle of serving our country with all our hearts, might and strength. We must however do our very best in exposing any of such persons whose earthly motivation is to throw dirt at successful people. Truth they say for ever stands!!!! Shame to all those evil doers and detractors. Dr. Kwame Amoako Tuffuor’s hands are clean!!!!!!!

Michael Agbevo Graduate Student University of Cape Coast Miiki1990@yahoo.com