Scandals: How our silence emboldened President Akufo-Addo

When President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahmudu Bawumia were sworn into office in January 2017, many Ghanaians had the conviction that the sunshine of hope, wealth, and prosperity was going to break through the clouds of hopelessness, poverty, hunger and destituteness; however, they flattered to deceive unimaginably with scandals upon scandals.

In this part, two scandals are revisited. In part one, I revisited two scandals that were deliberately crafted by the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia-led administrations, namely, BOST Contaminated fuel and the PDS scandals.

In this part, I seek to revisit two other scandals that shook the nation under this regime and how we have been timid and passive as citizens.

The Cash for seat Scandal

There was also the cash-for-seat scandal, where monies were extorted from expatriate businesses by the Trade and Industry Ministry at an awards night. It was alleged that expatriate businesses were charged $100,000 to allow them to sit close to President Nana Akufo-Addo during the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards held in the country.

After a shambolic investigation, the Flagstaff House issued a statement saying officials at the Trade Ministry did no wrong in commercializing the Presidential Table at the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA). In a nutshell, the president haven realized how meek and timid Ghanaians are and simply told us to shut up while clearing anyone involved in this disgraceful criminal conduct. No one was held responsible for this because Ghanaians are not angry enough.

The National Cathedral Scandal

In another most incomprehensive move, on the authority of President Akufo-Addo, Government properties housed on 14 acres of prime lands in Accra were pulled down to make way for the construction of a national cathedral.

The buildings included residential accommodation for Court of Appeal justices. Consequently, about 700 meters (765 yards) from Ghana’s Parliament sits one of the world’s most controversial craters, a hole surrounded by weeds into which $58m has already been sunk for the building of an interdenominational national cathedral.

All these were borne out of the president’s insatiable desire to satisfy his actualization after he pledged to God to build a cathedral if he ascended to the highest office of the land. “The NPP and I have achieved victory in the 2016 elections after two unsuccessful attempts, so I will help build a cathedral to his glory and honor,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said at the sod-cutting ceremony in 2020.

In 2022, President Akufo-Addo said. “I have two more years that, whatever the case, the national cathedral will be at a very advanced stage before I leave office. I think it is important that we do it”. The president called the bluff of all Ghanaians, in his insatiable desire to fulfill his ambition to the detriment of the suffering masses.

With barely ten months to the end of this regime, the national cathedral remains an abandoned project despite the injection of millions of dollars, even in the face of the current economic meltdown. Yet we are still not bold enough to speak truth to power.

Sadly, as Ghanaians, we have sat aloof, unconcerned, and unperturbed while these acts of political atrocities and terrorism are unleashed on us by the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia-led administrations. Some civil service organizations briefly expressed their disgust and displeasure, without consistency and perseverance. The silence of the clergy and other stakeholders was deafening.

As a country, our silence, timidity, and reticence in the face of these scandals will not be forgiven by future generations, whose future is being toiled with insensitively by the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia-led governments. The reaction of the citizenry has been so passive that it exposes our cowardly nature that emboldens the current regime to have its way of perpetrating these crimes against the very people they are expected to serve.

As a people, we have not exhibited enough repulse, anger, and disdain to the current administration. We need to resist the attempt by the current establishment to impose Dr. Mahmudu Bawumia on us to continue milking the state.