Corruption fight under Akufo-Addo is like a watermelon - Asiedu Nketia

The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia has likened corruption fight in the country under the Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to an edible fruit watermelon made up of 92% water and about 6% of sugar.

“It is like a watermelon. The outer layer is green but the inside is red and that is what corruption under President Akufo-Addo looks like”, he spoke on Kumasi-based Abusua FM in an interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com.

According to Mr Asiedu Nketiah said while corroborating a recent afrobarometer study that shows more than half of Ghanaians admitting the level of corruption in the country has increased and the government is doing a poor job in fighting it did not mince words to attack the President.

“When appointees are being investigated for alleged corruption cases, the Akufo-Addo will quickly come and clear them and that shows the government is not interested in the corruption fight. I am not saying it. It is the people who have seen and they don’t want to believe the government in this corruption fight”, Mr Asiedu Nketiah stated.

Even though the government has always insisted on leading a successful fight against corruption in public life, more than half of respondents believe that the level of corruption in the country has increased according to the latest Afrobarometer report released by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD).

It shows that among key public officials in Ghana, the police, judges and magistrates, Members of Parliament, civil servants, and tax officials were most widely perceived as corrupt.

The report also indicated that the government is rather performing poorly to fight the canker.

In the same report, it revealed that the government’s anti-corruption efforts have declined sharply since 2017 after more than doubling three years ago.

Also, Ghana ranked 78th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2018.

“More than half (53%) of Ghanaians say corruption in the country has worsened “somewhat” or “a lot” during the year preceding the survey, a 17-percentage-point increase compared to 2017. This follows a huge (47-percentage-point) improvement between 2014 and 2017”, the report noted.

The survey showed that the Army, religious leaders, and the presidency were seen as the most trusted public institutions while opposition political parties, local government officials and tax officials are least trusted.