Opinions of Saturday, 18 June 2016
Columnist: Dabbousi, Fadi
President John Dramani Mahama, before I begin with my deliberations on the reasons why you must be impeached, let me take this opportunity to commiserate with you on the loss of your mother; the first mother of the land. May her soul find solace in ALLAH's mercy.
Fellow Ghanaians, President Mahama must be impeached to save the nation unwarranted embarrassment on all fronts, locally and internationally. Quite a fantastic case of corruption was unravelled by Joy fm's Manasseh Azure. It seemed to suggest that John Mahama told a blatant lie during the interview by the Nigerian-born BBC journalist at the recent anti-corruption summit in London.
This exposé almost vindicates the effusions of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who said that Nigeria and Afghanistan were fantastically corrupt, except that he should have added Ghana. Or was it a slip of mind?
As if by some sort of divine ingenuity, a call that I made some three years ago has suddenly found resonance amongst the masses since this unsurprising revelation. I almost saw it coming. It was damning, and downright shamming!
This is not the first case of sole sourcing done by President John Mahama.
Unfortunately, it appears that it has happened numerous times.
If the President could take a Ford Expedition from a Burkinabe contractor for a small contract such as erecting a perimeter wall around the Embassy of Ghana in Burkina Faso, then by what percentage was the contract inflated? The contract for the job was valued at $650,000 (six hundred and fifty thousand US Dollars).
For that much money, it was possible to build an ultra-modern Embassy, with fence wall and state of the art security system, a clear indication that the price was over bloated, as is normal with all the NDC government's contracts. This revelation has premised the mockery that is ongoing in Burkina Faso against Ghanaians. Kwame Nkrumah circle Interchange is no exception; The Kasoa interchange wears the same cap; The Ridge hospital extension and renovation was kwashiorkorly inflated.
Kwashiorkorly is my signature adjective to describe the absurd corruption of over-priced projects.
John Mahama neither knew the Burkinabe contractor nor had any relationship with him. Djibril Kenazoe had lost his bid to get the project. However, after a few manipulations, he landed it and as a result, sent A Ford Expedition as a gift of bribery to President Mahama.
Initially, at the time that the story broke, there was a lot of denial, but when the laissez-Passer for the vehicle was adduced, a different angle was adopted in defense of this red-handed act of corruption. Lo and behold another indictment on President Mahama was unveiled. he had personally called Djibril Kenazoe to thank him for the $100,000 USD Ford expedition gift.
How about Amandi that has over three billion US Dollars in contracts? And the Brazilian construction company that is doing an abysmal job? How much was given to John Mahama and his cronies?
By the way, the circle interchange is sinking. The Brazilian company is hurrying to reinforce the pillars with concrete to stop the sinking, but that is futile because no matter how much the columns are reinforced, the problem of soft ground remains, and the sinking will continue.
At this stage, the Burkinabe contractor must be arrested on charges of collusion to cause financial loss to the State. The Minister of roads and highways at the time, Mr Inusah Fusseini, must be sacked and investigated for justifying the direct appointment of the Burkinabe contractor to surface the Hamile road.
He is on record having said that the contractor, being in Burkina Faso, was in close proximity to Hamile, and that made it convenient for the execution of the job because if the crew needed extra equipment, same could be fetched easily without delay. What a farce! Is he saying that construction companies in Ghana are not well equipped to do the job?
I call on parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against President John Mahama to act as a deterrent to future Presidents, and to strengthen our democracy. Ghanaians must wake up from their slumber and act to prevent such blatant aggression on the reputation of our Motherland. Impeachment is the only recourse to resolving this mess. Our President seems to be very corrupt based on the revelations thus far exposed.
The Presidential Advisor, Mr Batidam, stated in no uncertain terms that receiving a gift is tantamount to bribery and it is a breach of the codes of conduct of office holders. That is IMPEACHABLE!
He also said that under no circumstances must a President take a gift that might serve to influence him in any way in favour of the briber. That confirms that John Mahama must be impeached. The propagandists, Okudzeto Ablakwa and other nauseating characters, are equating the President's act of corruption to Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor's acceptance of a Mercedes Benz from the late Mu'ammar Gaddafi in 2002.
Unfortunately for them, their futile attempt flies right back in their face because President Kufuor took it and ordered that the vehicle be added to the Castle fleet in the full glare of the media. So what is the beef of the NDC mongers of corruption?
#ImpeachJohnMahamaNow #ImpeachJohnMahamaNow #ImpeachJohnMahamaNow