Highly respected member of the clergy, Professor Emmanuel Martey, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, was recently in the news to have said that some officials of the 10-month old New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, led by Nana Akufo-Addo are already showing signs of corruption.
The report was alarming but knowing the caliber of person the allegation came from, and his high reputation, THE PUBLISHER was enthused that at least, a senior member of the clergy was acting as a ‘citizen and not a spectator’.
We cocked our ears in wait of further details from the revered Professor that would lead to the naming, shaming and possible prosecution of the exact government officials already showing signs of corruption in the 10-month old government.
We waited for some specifics that could spark some proper investigation that would expose the bad nuts making the whole soup taste bad.
But that was it. That was all. Professor Emmanuel Martey only make a passing comment backed by no evidence or specific instance.
As to how such unsubstantiated statements from a leading member of the clergy can help fight corruption, we are no sure.
If Professor Emmanuel Martey’s aim was not to name, shame and prosecute, then we wonder why he chose such an important function as a Public Lecture on the Corruption menace in Ghana, organized by the Christian Service University College(CSUC) in Kumasi to make such a serious statement that had such a huge media mileage.
The only achievement of that statement has been to increase the perception of corruption without necessarily fighting the alleged corruption itself.
Increasing perceptions of corruption without providing evidence to fight it is of absolutely no use to our anti-corruption campaign.
However, we believe Professor Emmanuel Martey is a man of integrity and does not talk about things he does not know of. We have known him as a very principled person who walks the talk.
It is for this reason that we plead with him to be the bold man we have known him to be and give specifics to back his allegation.
Indeed, government has taken what Professor Emmanuel Martey with some seriousness.
Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, who happens to be the official Spokesperson for President Akufo-Addo, has expressed interest in the allegation and hinted that some specifics would be needed before government can work on it.
“As a senior citizen of our country, we want to urge him to go beyond talking generalities to giving us concrete examples that we can put our hands on and make an example for people to be deterred. But if senior citizens should begin talking like that, that in our view is quite nebulous and feeds into the perception…We welcome such comments, they are not comments that we want to attack or rebut, but we want to encourage senior citizens like that to speak up, but to speak more on specifics rather than generalities,” Mustapha Hamid has responded.
Yet, the good old Professor is silent. We are all still waiting for our dear Professor Emmanuel Martey
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