When Akufo-Addo plays Kufuor

He says that he is committed to protecting the “state’s kitty,” and so anybody who makes any corruption allegation against any of his appointees had better be prepared to forensically sustainably substantiate the same (See “Support Corruption Allegations with Facts – Akufo-Addo Tells Critics” MyNewsGh.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/26/17).

So far, two well-known associates of President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo, namely, Rev. Isaac Owusu-Bempah and Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, have publicly alleged that at least two operatives inside the Flagstaff House have been diverting government contracts to their cronies and making illegal and humongous profits out of the same.

Rev. Owusu-Bempah, who is widely believed to be a Spiritual Adviser to the President, has publicly alleged in the media that Mr. Gabriel AsareOtchere-Darko, a first-cousin of Nana Akufo-Addo, and another relative by the name of Mr. Duke Ofori-Atta, are engaged in wanton acts of corruption at the Flagstaff House. Well, what the President is saying here pretty much recalls a similar remark made by then-President John Agyekum-Kufuor, when some of his appointees were alleged to be engaged in corrupt shenanigans at the Osu-Castle. Mr. Kufuor would go even the proverbial extra-mile to suspend then-party National Chairman, Mr. HarounaEsseku, who had publicly alleged that an unsavory culture of kickbacks had been established in the Castle’s office of President Kufuor.

Anyway, as of this writing, Mr. Agyapong, the loud-talking New Patriotic Party’s Member of Parliament for Assin-Central, had publicly alleged that a Flagstaff House insider had been either espied or legally snagged in the act of extorting a bribe of $ 20,000 in exchange for providing an unnamed prospective investor an audience with Nana Akufo-Addo (See “Presidential Staffer Caught in $ 20,000 Bribery Scandal – Kennedy Agyepong[sic] Alleges” MyNewsGh.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/26/17).

Now, this is a very serious allegation that cannot and must not be facilely reduced to a call on the alleger or accuser to substantiate with facts and figures or hard evidence. The President has an obligation to launch a full-scale and immediate investigation into the matter with the direct assistance of those making such allegation, of course. This is too serious an allegation to wax blasé or nonchalant about.

In the case of former President Kufuor, matters were not helped the least bit when the President cynically retorted to a BBC reporter that “Corruption is as old as Adam and Eve,” We must also quickly note that none of the charges brought in court against the former Kufuor appointees were ever substantiated.

We hope that Nana Akufo-Addo is not hell-bent on the primrose path of political self-ruination. There may be real bad apples surrounding him at the Flagstaff House. I have personally identified one who vehemently, albeit falsely, insists that he is not employed nor has he the luxury of “hanging around” his avuncular cousin at the Flagstaff House.

Needless to say, that aforesaid individual was a staunch ally of Dr. Arthur Kobina Kennedy, when some of us were breaking sweat and having sleepless nights and hell-bent on making sure that then-Candidate Akufo-Addo would realize his dream of making Ghana wholesome and comfortably livable again.