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Our political landscape is lumbered with so many hypocritical pious elements whose utterances more than verge on the preposterous whenever they speak on matters of national importance. These people’s submissions on such matters always run counter to the facts as they pertain to the realities on the ground.

Joyce Bawah Mogtari, the aide to former President John Dramani Mahama, appears to have rolled out a deliberate crusade to taint the stainless personality of President Akufo-Addo. She has once again exhibited a high level of insincerity with her take on the Anas’ yet-to-be-telecasted video which captures top guns in the football fraternity in deals deemed to be corrupt.

According to the aide to the former president, President Akufo-Addo is shielding corrupt appointees in his administration from being probed, and she links this statement to some names mentioned in the video Ghanaians are to watch on June 6, 2018, at the International Conference Centre in Accra. She had this to say on her Facebook timeline;

“President Mahama as already stated and circulated widely has no way of stifling Anas or stopping him from airing the outcomes of his investigations….Unlike His Excellency Akufo-Addo, President Mahama visibly fought corruption and did not shield his appointees from the arm of the investigative agencies. Today, President Akufo-Addo’s name has popped up together with his close confidantes in the Anas video. Let’s see what he will do this time,”

The above statement from Joyce Mogtari is in sharp conflict with the facts of the case. President Akufo-Addo has not taken any action that tends to give credence to the spurious assertion Joyce Bawah Mogtari made. She would have done herself and readers a great world of good if she provides meaty evidence to substantiate her claim.

President Akufo-Addo has rather sought to encourage Anas and for that matter, his partners not to relent in unmasking corrupt elements within or outside his administration. His swift invitation to the Police C.I.D to launch investigations into the claim alleged to have been made by Kwesi Nyantakyi tacitly confirms that he is no customer to acts of corruption and that he would not allow the phenomenon to subdue the country.

It is also instructive to state that even the mere mention of the Deputy Minister for Roads, Anthony Karbo, has attracted an invitation from the police to help in getting to the bottom of the matter, and this doesn’t, in any way, amount to a deliberate ploy by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to stem investigations into the issues involving an appointee under his administration.

It is luridly dumbfounding the assertion that former President Mahama aptly dealt with cases of corruption involving his appointees, and that no attempts were made to stifle investigations to be conducted into such reported cases of corruption under his regime. With the benefit of hindsight, Mahama would have killed the premiering of this video of Anas if it had been made under his tenure of office.

President Akufo-Addo’s antipathy towards corruption is a known fact. He is the only Ghanaian leader in recent history to have asked for his own appointees to be investigated over reported cases of alleged corruption. He has suspended his own appointees who have been alleged to have misconducted themselves and has asked for investigations to be conducted into those alleged acts of improprieties.

It is an incontrovertible fact that corruption was patented under the Mahama regime. The cancerous tumour of corruption romped ahead more quickly than the speed of light, and none of those cases was given prominence in terms of investigations and possible prosecutions.

Corruption was violently visited on Ghanaians under the Mahama administration than any other period before it, so one gets palpitations when such unmelodious hymns are being chorused by people who should know better.

The Mahama administration was unequalled in corruption. Apart from this irrefutable truth, reported incidents of corruption were not given rapt attention and those that received a modicum of attention culminated in the culprits walking scot free and sometimes being rewarded with juicy positions, much to the chagrin of the majority of Ghanaians.

The scandalous Ford Expedition debacle which formed the enzyme that oiled a very spicy road construction contract to be gifted to Djibril Kanazoe of Burkina Faso was left unattended to, and this makes nonsense of the claim Joyce Bawah Mogtari is making.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil led to Ghana becoming a laughing stock as a result of how monies were handled and stolen. The Djamefeh Commission, upon calls to have an inquest into what went on during the competition, established that Elvis-Afriyie-Ankrah and Kojo Adu-Asare, and other functionaries of the then government stole monies which belonged to the taxpayers. These people were indicted in the report but for some strange reasons, when the white paper from President Mahama came, these kingpins had been exonerated. They were shockingly elevated with luscious appointments at the Presidency.

As monotonous as it may sound, the corrupt deals involving Woyome, SUBAH, SADA, GYEEDA, Isofoton, Bus Branding, and inflated costs of various projects became enemies to the Mahama administration as little or no effort was made to deal with those cases. The list of corrupt activities under Mahama is endless, but the bottom line is that the then government appeared reluctant to deal with them.

With such a record, how could anyone assume, even momentarily, that former President John Mahama arduously waged a war against corruption as Joyce Bawah Mogtari seems to be portraying?

The National Democratic Congress has been scrambling and groping to fetch mud to throw at President Akufo-Addo. They are going to abnormal lengths to stain the man Akufo-Addo with corruption. For Mahama to have a partner in crime in terms of corruption, these people have deemed it necessary to rope President Akufo-Addo into this baseless allegation made in the Anas’ tape as being as corrupt as Mahama. The truth is, former President John Mahama holds first class in the field of corruption, and this great feat cannot be beaten by Akufo-Addo or any member of the current administration.

P.K.Sarpong, whispers from the corridors of the THINKING PLACE.