Fess Up, Kanazoe Dramani!

The caption of the news article is “Airbus Saga: I Took No Bribe – Mahama Breaks Silence” (Ghanaweb.com 6/20/20). To cut through the chaff of the trademark mendacity of Mr. John Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s Vice-President at the time that the bribery scam occurred – Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills, late, was Ghana’s substantive President – the reader has to start reading the afore-referenced news story from the bottom. You see, it has always been expected that a megalomaniacal and politically desperate Candidate Mahama would resort to what all the leading National Democratic Congress’ scam-artists do best – lie through their teeth with a talcum-powdered face. Even if we decide to take him at his word, the fact still remains that the European Airbus SE, the largest airplane manufacturer in Europe, paid the humongous bribery liability sum of $ 4 Billion (USD) which, we are told, is the largest payola racket settlement in global history, involving the governments of some dozen countries.

And one of those dozen countries, we are reliably informed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), involved Ghanaian government officials and, even more significantly, the Number Two Member of the extant ruling government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Which, of course, will make then-Vice-President John Dramani Mahama a prime candidate or the unmistakable prime suspect. Then also, it is equally significant to point out the fact the Mr. Mahama has himself, in breaking his silence on this most scandalous matter, now tells us that, indeed, he was the prime negotiator for the purchase of some two military aircraft from the European Airbus SE at the cost of some $ 48 Million (USD). As usual, Little Dramani quaintly prefers to wax self-infatuatedly eloquent about everything else, except to boldly and frankly answer the real story and/or question surrounding how the deal was cut. If I were Little Dramani – God forbid! – I would also love bragging about being for the best interest of the upgrade of how soldiering was done by the men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces, especially if at the end of the day, such love or patriotism came with a $ 5 Million (USD) check written all over it.

In the same story, however, readers are informed that, in fact, the Government of Ghana during the period in question, which is between 2009 and 2011, or thereabouts, had actually placed and followed through with a purchasing order for some three aircraft, and not two aircraft, as presently claimed by Candidate Mahama. Of course, it is crystal clear that both disparate accounts cannot not be accurate. only one of these two narratives can be true and/or accurate. Somebody is not levelling up with both the Ghanaian citizenry and the Ghanaian electorate here. Given the choice, I can bet my bottom-dollar that the three-country European and American Serious Fraud Office that investigated this payola scam over the course of some four long years, is far and away more credible than the man who once solicited a Ford Expedition Payola Gift from the Burkinabe contractor by the name of Monsieur Jibril Kanazoe.

We must also quickly point out that it was right about this time that news of the infamous Woyome Mega-Heist, staunchly supported and vehemently vouched for by then-President John Evans Atta-Mills, broke into the media mainstream. So, you see, Dear Reader, the entire scheme must have been a thoroughgoing corporate political scam undertaken the full-panoply leadership of the National Democratic Congress. In America, we often say that there is a clear-cut or established pattern here. Indeed, even as the renowned Ghanaian investigative journalist who personally exposed the Mahama-Kanazoe Scam, Mr. Manasseh Azure Awuni, noted in an article not very long ago, virtually every adult-Ghanaian citizen is well aware of the fact that being grossly politically incompetent and thoroughgoing corrupt is the trademark of the former President of the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana.

For a higher level of qualitative leadership devoid of rank and abject corruption, one has to look up to President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the man who, according to Mr. Awuni, has turned out to be such a great disappointment that the former Senior Correspondent of the Multimedia stables, as it were, has recently decided to hitch his wagon to the hopelessly incurable Payola-Guzzling Space Shuttle of the Bole-Bamboi, Savannah Region, native. You see, what Little Dramani clearly means when he says that he has not taken any bribe is that when the entire apparatus or network of the racket is traced or tracked down in linkage between Airbus SE’s France-based Payola-Scam Engineers, it is more likely for the fingerprints of his brother Adam Mahama to pop up the DNA screen than those of John Dramani Mahama.

Then, of course, the logical question here becomes: How did Adam Mahama’s fingers come to be stuck in the Ghanaian taxpayer’s cookie jar? Little Dramani also does not need to tell us about his “singular motivation” for facilitating the purchase of the military aircraft. We can easily figure that one out by using the Kanazoe shakedown as a model template. I also find it to be insufferably insulting for Little Dramani to claim that as both Vice-President and substantive President of Ghana, he did more to outfit/equip our national security forces than at anytime in our country’s history. I expect the leadership of the ruling New Patriotic Party to forcefully respond to such gaping mendacity in the coming days and weeks.

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

June 20, 2020

E-mail: [email protected]