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Opinions of Monday, 3 March 2008

Columnist: Agyepong, Benjamin Opoku

100% Preference for corruption -The new slogan

It is ironic that the president who rose to power with the slogan of zero tolerance for corruption has made a 360o degrees turn in favor of open corruption. It is said that birds of the same feathers flock together and the honorable president of Ghana is a living proof of this old adage. The president has not only danced to the music played by his darling boy Anane, but has also supped with him. What in the world would Mr. Kuffour make it his priority to re-appoint such a corrupt person like Richard Anane into a ministerial position after serious findings of corruption and sexual impropriety were duly established against him by CHRAJ only to be thrown overboard on technical grounds by the rubber stamp supreme court.

Make no mistake about this, the case was duly established, and it is very clear to all open minded Ghanaians who care about the nations prosperity and the direction it is going that, Anane contributed to the collapse of the erstwhile Ghana Airways because it became abundantly clear that he authorized a onetime $10,000.00 of Ghana Airways money to be transferred to his sweetheart Alexander O’Brian for his out of wedlock son’s upkeep. Whether he paid it back or not, the fact remains that the outflow of the money was documented but no corresponding inflow was recorded implying that the money was not paid back. Only in Ghana would a health minister who attended AIDS conference and slept with a woman without condom and got a baby out of his stupid behavior would be rewarded with a re-appointment to a ministerial post.

Maybe Anane is the only least corrupt guy within the NPP hierarchy such that, besides him, the party can not find anyone to do that job, or could it be that the president himself may have some secret dealings with Anane such that, if he does not give him back his job, He would blow the cover off to expose him? I can not simply understand JAK’s behavior in this whole saga. In the first place, the president made sure that no substantive minister was posted to fill the transport ministry permanently, not because he could not find one, but because he was buying time for Anane’s return(After all, our party has the men and I can attest to that).

I am saddened by this travesty of justice and very convinced within my heart that JAK has by this action dealt a permanent blow to CHRAJ. It would, therefore, be in the interest of the nation and tax payers to close that commission because it can no longer function effectively. CHRAJ has been betrayed by the president who gave it the mandate to function.

When we put everything that happened in perspective, we can conclude that, CHRAJ did a fine investigative job for the country by establishing the facts of the case against Anane. The Supreme Court butchered the case by throwing it out on a flimsy excuse that there was no direct complainant to CHRAJ, but failed to touch on the substance of the case. JAK has belittled himself by playing into Anane’s hand for anointing him to steal more to take care of his U.S born son. Ghana is the ultimate looser in all this and the tax payers will pick the tab.

The end of zero tolerance for corruption and the beginning of 100% preference for corruption. The parliamentary vetting committee can do the nation a good service by rejecting this re-appointment, but I doubt whether they have the guts to do that. After all, they also took car loans of $20,000 which none of them has paid back even though they are about to end this republic and will definitely get another car loan come next republic.

So who will rescue mother Ghana from this ineptitude? Only God knows Very sad indeed



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