John Dramani Mahama
It is quite interesting to listen to the NDC loyalists pontificating somewhat fecklessly about how ex-president Mahama will investigate and prosecute bribery and corruption suspects in the unlikely event of returning to the Jubilee House in 2024.
Let’s be honest if Mahama indeed has the will and commitment to fight the menace of bribery and corruption, why did he fail to investigate and prosecute the alleged offenders in the bribery and corruption scandals in the infamous Bus Branding, the Brazilian aircraft, the Brazil World Cup, the GH12 million import tax evasion by the sibling of former President Mahama, Ibrahim Mahama, SADA, SUBA, GYEEDA, SSNIT, NCA, MASLOC, the furtive Ford Expedition Vehicle, the Woyome’s 51.2 million dubious judgment debt, Waterville’s $30 million wrongful payment, the Isofoton’s dubious payment of $325,000, among others?
I have always held a firm and unadulterated conviction that the numerous corruption allegations largely led to NDC’s 2016 humiliating election defeat. If you would recall, dearest reader, following the NDC’s 2016 humiliating election defeat, the party leadership set up a 13-member committee, presided by former Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Professor Kwesi Botchwey with the sole mandate of traveling to the length and breadth of the country to interact with the grassroots supporters and investigate the causes of the historic defeat and put forward recommendations.
The credible sources, however, had it that the Botchwey Committee’s report indicated that Mahama, the NDC’s 2016 flagbearer, was the main cause of the NDC’s humiliating defeat. On the issue of corruption, the Botchwey Committee’s report is quoted to have stressed that Mahama was perceived to have endorsed corruption in his government.
The concerned Ghanaians have been wondering how and why the former president can secretly accept a gift of a brand-new Ford Expedition vehicle worth over $100,000 from a Burkinabe Contractor called Djibril Kanazoe.
A few years ago, 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 aircraft 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 a 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 nonetheless stressed that since we were in the election period and the said the protagonist was a presidential candidate, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was not in a position to take any immediate action.
Thankfully, the current Special Prosecutor is dutifully probing into the alleged involvement of former President Mahama in the Airbus bribery and corruption scandal between 2009 and 2015.
Some of us, as a matter of principle, do not for a minute, envy any member of the opposition NDC communication team given the seemingly insurmountable task ahead of them. You may believe it or not, more bribery and corruption scandals are hanging on the neck of Ex-President Mahama than any other president in the history of Ghanaian politics.
So, if I were an opposition NDC communicator, I would rather spend a chunk of my time trying to obliterate the descriptive corruption tag off NDC’s 2024 flagbearer. Who says that if I were an NDC communicator I would go to sleep over the investigative work carried out by the former Joy FM’s investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure, which exposed former President Mahama’s furtive gift of a brand-new Ford Expedition vehicle worth over $100,000 from the Burkinabe Contractor, Djibril Kanazoe?
If you may remember, Manasseh reported that the Burkinabe Contractor Kanazoe undertook several contracts that were secured through sole-sourcing and handpicking, amid allegations of former president Mahama’s influence. Manasseh indicated that Djibril Kanazoe over the years took part in the bidding process for contracts in the country. However, he was not successful until a middleman led him to meet the then vice president, Mahama.
Following his meeting with the then Vice President Mahama, Kanazoe was handpicked to build the $650,000 Ghana Embassy fence wall in Burkina Faso.
To be quite honest, if I were an NDC communicator, I would be extremely disturbed when in September 2014, the officials of the Bank of Ghana met the Public Accounts Committee of Ghana Parliament (PAC) and it came to light that an amount of $656, 246.48 had been spent on the construction of a fence wall over a parcel of land belonging to the Ghana Embassy in Burkina Faso.
PAC requested the Bank of Ghana to look into what it referred to as: “the outrageous” cost of the project. It came to light that the procurement process was violated to the advantage of Mahama’s Burkinabe friend.
Astonishingly, however, during an interview with Manasseh, Djibril Kanazoe admitted that he did not put in a bid for the contract, but it was rather the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou that wrote to his company to request price quotations for the project. And, he subsequently forwarded the necessary quotes and was selected.
“Subsequently, the Burkinabe contractor delivered to Mahama, the ‘gift’ of a brand new Ford Expedition vehicle in 2012, the same year his company was selected, again through sole-sourcing, to execute more projects” (See: ‘Burkinabe Contractor offers controversial gift to President Mahama’, myjoyonline.com, 15/06/2015).
I bet it would only take an argumentative geezer to contend that some Ghanaians did not vote against Mahama in 2016 largely due to the preceding bribery and corruption scandals.
