Nunoo-Mensah Must Be Held Accountable

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

You know, I was also thinking about the same thing when Brig.-Gen. Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (rtd.) haughtily came out swinging at striking Ghanaian workers, and bragging about his yeomanly contribution to the development of the country's education by building a nine-classroom block for the students, teachers and administrators of the O'Reilly Senior High School in Accra.

My own maternal "kid" uncle attended O'Reilly sometime in the 1960s. And like Gen. Nunoo-Mensah, my uncle Leslie George (don't ask me how he came by his European name) is a retired officer of the Ghana Armed Forces. But unlike the old Brigade-General, my uncle retired at the rank of Lt.-Col.

Of course, what I am alluding to here, is the call by Mr. Frank Agyekum, the spokesman for former President John Agyekum-Kufuor, for Gen. Nunoo-Mensah to publicly account for the source, or sources, of funding that enabled him to build the nine-classroom block for the O'Reilly Senior High School that he has been so defeaningly bragging about (See "Kufuor's Office: Nunoo-Mensah Must Account for O'Reilly Charity" Radioxyzonline.com/Ghanaweb.com 10/27/13).

I staunchly back such call because Gen. Nunoo-Mensah belongs to the so-called party of probity, transparency and accountability. And in all likelihood, not too long ago, the founding patriarch of the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC), and prior to the latter, the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), would have vehemently demanded accountability from the O'Reilly Senior High School benefactor. We have also learned that Gen. Nunoo-Mensah solicited funding in the form of charitable contributions to enable him to successfully execute his otherwise noble project.

The preceding notwithstanding, there are still a few legally significant questions that need answering. The first of these questions regards the fact of whether the former Ghana Armed Forces' chief-of-staff properly registered his capital solicitation via the establishment of a charitable - or non-profit - organization. If he did not then, needless to say, the Mahama security capo may be in gross violation of the law. Then also, did the former member of the executive committee of the PNDC hire at least one chartered/certified accountant to keep systematic record of funds solicited? And if so, did he also hire at least one external auditor to examine the fact of whether monies - or capital resources - so collected exclusively went into the project so earmarked?

Also, how much funding capital resource was unused or has yet to be expended, and for what purposes? We make these observations and queries without any prejudice to the political or ideological orientation of Gen. Nunoo-Mensah, and his stance towards legitimately striking Ghanaian workers and civil servants. The man claims to be both a responsible citizen and a patriot unreservedly committed to the progress and socioeconomic, cultural and technological advancement of the country. And accountability is indispensable and integral to our national development.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Oct. 28, 2013
E-mail: [email protected]

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