NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama
While it is true that the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, returned to the presidency after being investigated, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to nine years and six months in prison on corruption and money-laundering charges, it is wrong for the brassbound party loyalists to pontificate somewhat impetuously that Mahama is going to emulate the Brazilian leader in 2024.
It is, however, worth noting that, unlike Ghana where the incumbent and former presidents are ridiculously insulated by the irrational and somewhat dowdy indemnity clauses, the Brazilian constitution is not a respecter of persons. The past and incumbent heads of state may face the full rigour of the law without any recourse to their status.
Suffice it to stress that in Ghana, the traditional exemption of heads of state from prosecution despite the evidence of a case to answer is wrong, so to speak. For if the bribery and corruption, dubious judgment debt payments, stashing of national funds by some greedy opportunists misappropriation of resources and crude embezzlement by some politicians do not warrant criminal charges, then where are we heading as a nation?
To me, it is about time we expunged and tossed the ludicrous indemnity clauses from the Constitution into the bin to pave the way for the prosecution of the suspected incumbent and former presidents.
Some of us are extremely baffled over the needless protestations by the brassbound party loyalists on the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s somewhat conscious and prudent decision to resume the investigation of former President Mahama’s alleged involvement in the embarrassing Airbus bribery and corruption scandal.
If indeed there are bribery and corruption scandals hanging on the neck of a former president who has the opportunity to return to the presidency, why can’t he be investigated?
More so, the preposterous and somewhat tentative argument by the teeming supporters that after all Akufo-Addo is allegedly much more corrupt than Mahama and therefore must be left alone is neither here nor there.
For argument's sake, if Ghana’s constitution allows Akufo-Addo to return to the presidency at some point, who says that it won’t be fair and proper for him to be investigated over any alleged bribery and corruption scandal hanging around his neck?
Likewise, if Mahama wants to return to the presidency, it is incumbent on him to clear the doubts in the minds of Ghanaians over the alleged bribery and corruption scandals hanging around his neck.
Let us be honest, the president of a nation is a serious job and as such it requires a serious and committed person, Therefore, if corruption cases are hanging on the neck of an individual who is going to look after the national coffers and has so far unwilling to seriously disprove such allegations, then Ghanaians have to be careful about handing him another term in office.
Some of us were expecting Mahama to lock horns with the Attorney-General under the Mills/Mahama administration, Martin Amidu when he unhesitatingly told Ghanaians a few years ago that the late President Mills set up a committee to investigate a suspicious Brazilian Aircrafts deal negotiated by the then Vice President Mahama, but he has since refused to square up with Amidu.
More so, sometime in 2020, following on from the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office’s Airbus probe, President Akufo-Addo instructed the then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu to investigate the identity of the said Government Official One implicated in the Airbus shameful bribery and corruption scandal.
Following an investigation into the apparent damning scandal, the Office of the Special Prosecutor finally concluded 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, concluded 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.
Unsurprisingly, 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.
We would, therefore, like to plead with the party loyalists to cease the witch-hunting rendition and allow the Special Prosecutor a space to operate.
So do the teeming supporters want to tell us that Government Official 1 has no question to answer in Europe’s aerospace multinational Airbus bribes to officials of Ghana during the Mills/Mahama administration between 2009 and 2015?
It was, however, quite ironic when Ex-President John Dramani Mahama dared President Akufo-Addo to arrest, investigate and prosecute him or any member of his administration if there is incontrovertible evidence to suggest that they amassed wealth illegally during their time in office (See: Catch the ‘supposed’ thieves to prove your charges – Mahama dares Akufo-Addo; ghanaweb.com, 30/04/2018).
But contrary to former President Mahama’s endless denials of rampant corruption in his administration, a competent court of jurisdiction has since convicted four of the numerous corruption suspects in the erstwhile NDC administration and sentenced them to prison.
Even though corruption is a serious economic, social, political and moral impediment to the nation building, our corrupt officials are bent on siphoning our scarce resources to the detriment of the poor and disadvantaged Ghanaians.
"When public money is stolen for private gain, it means fewer resources to build schools, hospitals, roads and water treatment facilities. When foreign aid is diverted into private bank accounts, major infrastructure projects come to a halt.
“Corruption enables fake or substandard medicines to be dumped on the market, and hazardous waste to be dumped in landfill sites and oceans. The vulnerable suffer first and worst (Ban Ki-moon, 2009)."
It is true that the former president and the NDC’s 2024 flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, holds an unmatched record of being the first incumbent president of Ghana to be voted out of power in his first term in office.
It is also right to mention that former President John Dramani Mahama has held a panorama of important positions in Ghanaian politics.
The former president began his political career first as an assemblyman, then as a parliamentarian, a deputy minister, a substantive minister, a vice president, as an acted president, as an elected president of Ghana, and the 2016 and 2020 flagbearer of NDC.
Interestingly, however, on 7th December 2016, about 55.6% of the electorates expressed their disappointment in his performance as the first gentleman of the land by showing him the exit. He lost by a huge margin of over one million votes. Indeed, it was the first in the history of Ghanaian politics.
The reflective observers thus found it extremely bizarre when the former president decided to wrestle powering 2020.
Besides, observers contend that former President Mahama had had enough opportunity to show discerning Ghanaians his ability to steer Ghana in the right direction, but wilfully failed to do so and was rightly rejected by over one million electorates.
The sceptics would thus quiz in amazement: ‘What can Mahama do differently at the presidency next time around’?
Despite the unpardonable mismanagement which brought about his heavy defeat in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, the former president holds a faint hope that he will bounce back and recapture power in 2024.
The critics nonetheless insist that it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for NDC to return to power anytime soon with former President Mahama, judging from the unprecedented economic mess he left behind.
Given the circumstances back then, we can confidently conclude that 55.6% and 51.2% of electorates were not happy with former President Mahama, hence showing him the exit in the 2016 and 2020 general elections respectively.
The overarching question then is: What will make the unhappy 55.6% and 51.2% of electorates change their mind and repose their absolute trust in Mahama in 2024, given the economic mess during his time in office?
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