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Is Government Official one a ghost?
This is an election year and so the usual fear of chaos arising out of the aftermath of the elections has engaged the attention of stakeholders.
We hear of appeals for peace to prevail before, during and after the elections. Elections are held to elect leaders to steer the affairs of governance in the country to improve the welfare of the masses.
If this is the objective and leaders understand this, then those competing for leadership roles as well as the electorate should conduct themselves in a manner that should be peaceful.
It should never be chaotic since it is a competition of ideas and therefore the superior ideas and message should hold sway. However, if the objective is different from what elections is all about, but a certain selfish agenda, then it becomes “I must win at all cost” issue which then has the potential of creating chaos.
There is a popular saying that politics is a dirty business but I disagree. It is only when the players involved throw the ethics of the profession to dogs, then it becomes dirty.
This brings to mind the players of the current contest for the election of the President of Ghana in the 2024 presidential elections scheduled for December. We have the former President John Dramani Mahama as the flagbearer of the main opposition party, the NDC.
We also have the current Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia leading the government in power, the NPP as their flagbearer, there is Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyeremateng of the Movement for Change, Nana Kwame Bediako, an independent Candidate, Percival Kofi Akoaloo, of the Liberal Party of Ghana, Hassan Ayariga of the Action People’s Congress among others.
All these people are campaigning with the promise that they have what it takes to transform the fortunes of the country and better the destinies of the people in the country.
Underlying all the promises of these individuals is the question of their integrity. It is therefore imperative to settle the debate once and for all as to the identity of Government Official one.
The need to know who is referred to as Government Official one in the Airbus Scandal is of paramount importance because the person identified only as Government Official one, has been described by a court of competent jurisdiction as a bribe taker and therefore a corrupt person.
He was further described by the facts made available in court as an elected official and that he deliberately orchestrated a plan to defraud Ghana.
It was speculated that given the facts of the case which involved a certain Samuel Adams Mahama and this same name appeared in a book titled ‘My First Coup D’état’, written by the former President, John Dramani Mahama, then the former President is the person being referred to as Government Official one.
If that is the case, then given the requirement of integrity as part of the criteria for qualification as a presidential candidate, then the former President must be disqualified as a presidential candidate.
Our country has suffered from bad leadership which has enabled corruption to thrive to the detriment of national development and it must come to an end. The former Special Prosecutor (SP), Mr Martin Amidu, published a report in which he declared that, Government Official one is no other person than former President John Dramani Mahama.
The former President has not sued him for defamation, which to the average rational person, lends credence to the claims of the former SP. The current SP has also hinted that he will make known his findings on the identity of Government Official one and so we urge him to do it quickly to prevent the possibility of electing a fraudster and therefore a thief as President.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
