Is Martin Amidu the Only Wiseman in Ghana?

Grandstanding over the fact of whether there were any Asantes, Ewes or “Ntafos” – he prefers to call the latter group “Dombos” – on the Board of Directors of the Agyapa Mineral Royalties Investment Deal, is equally tantamount to asking how many Southern-Descended Ghanaians sat on the Board of Directors of the John Dramani Mahama-constituted Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) which, like the Agyapa Deal, if memory serves yours truly accurately, was approved by a Seated Full-House of Ghana’s National Assembly or Parliament (See “There’s No Voltarian [Voltaian, as in Ghanaian?], Ashanti, ‘Dombo’ or ‘Busia’ Person on Agyapa Royalties Board – Amidu” Ghanaweb.com 11/28/20). Doggedly pursuing double standards on the question of which ethnic groups either dominate or constitute the overwhelming majority of a national development board, instead of critically assessing the merits of the project-oriented agenda of such boards does not get one very far.

At any rate, in both preceding instances, it was the collective patrimony of Ghanaian citizens that was at stake; in the case of SADA, the Ghanaian taxpayers’ money, the bulk of which was generated from mineral and landed and forestry resources, to speak much less about highly trained human resources, disproportionately tapped from the Southern-Half of the country, as once poignantly, albeit invidiously, but truthfully and objectively observed by Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the former Sports and Finance Minister and presently Senior State Minister in the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), went to thievishly line the pockets of the Agambires, the Mahamas and their RLG corporate cohorts, all at the expense of the economically deprived ordinary northern-descended citizens whose quality-of-life improvement SADA’s capital resources were supposed to have positively and significantly impacted. We are here, of course, talking about the infamous “Flying Guinea Fowl Project.”

At any rate, unlike SADA in which National Democratic Congress’ Parliamentarians and the members of the Mahama Presidency shamelessly colluded to criminally rip off Ghanaian taxpayers to the tune of Billions of Cedis, Woyome fashion, in the dubious name of an Affirmative Action-type of catchup development program entitlement, the Agyapa Deal was red-flagged by some of the same National Democratic Congress’ Corporate Thieves and Scam-Artists who also criminally and/or cronyistically extorted the $ 72 Million (USD) of the life and retirement savings of Ghanaian civil and public servants. In the end, not much was lost in the opportunely aborted process of implementing the Agyapa Deal, whereas Ghanaian taxpayers are still waiting, nearly 10 years later, to be reimbursed, with interest, for the $ 5 Million Payola Heist singularly engineered by “Government Official Number One” who, by the way, Mr. Martin ABK Amidu, the recently resigned Independent Special Prosecutor, tells the global Ghanaian and the international community, goes by the officially recognized name of former President John Dramani Mahama in documents that Mr. Amidu personally flew to London, UK, to collect from the Serious Fraud Division of the Crown Court.

We must quickly point out here that the Serious Fraud Court’s documents are forensically corroborated by the Fraud Investigation Divisions of both the United States and France. In other words, it could not get more judicially and forensically accurate than this. But, somehow, this criminal open-and-shut case of Mega-Theft was too complicated for Mr. Amidu to prosecute because, as the recently resigned Independent Special Prosecutor curiously claimed, Candidate John Dramani Mahama, the self-proclaimed “North Star,” was too busy frenetically campaigning to be returned to Jubilee House or the Presidency so that Little Dramani could “Correct my past mistakes” of his scandal-wracked previous regime. Is this curious and thoroughgoing protection of unarguably the most corrupt postcolonial Ghanaian leader also part of the “Ntafo Alliance” that Candidate Mahama recently had occasion to publicly rebuke and call Mr. Amidu “Stupid!” for slightly attempting to breach?

We also need to recall the fact that Mr. Martin ABK Amidu was part of the self-righteous team of Rawlings Associates, including the recently disaffected Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, the muck-raking author of “Working with Rawlings,” when Chairman Rawlings brazenly and unconscionably extorted $ 5 Million (USD) of the Nigerian taxpayer’s money from the late General Sani Abacha. We must ask the self-proclaimed “Citizen Vigilante” why he had not taken his moral and legal crusade to the Arusha, Tanzania-based African Court of Human Rights, in much the same way that he did vis-à-vis the Woyome Mega-Heist, to have Chairman Rawlings promptly return his loot. Very likely, our Citizen Vigilante had not gone after his political mentor and prime benefactor because Mr. Rawlings may very well have parceled out a handsome wad of some of the Abacha Loot to his most servile and obedient lackey or minion. Now, let’s talk about President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and prosecutorial poodles!

In short, it is well beyond any shadow or iota of doubt that, if, indeed, President Akufo-Addo is “The Mother-Serpent of Corruption in Postcolonial Ghana,” Mr. Martin ABK Amidu is at the very least “The Father/Pope of Perfect-Corruption Protection” in Fourth-Republican Ghana. If like his twin “Otani” brother, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, Abongo-Frafra Amidu wants to play hardball with the “Akyem Mafiosi,” he must rest assured that we know how to play even much harder than the former Rawlings’ Poodle could fathom. A word to the wise. Who did I hear say “It is in the North”? Mahama Ayariga or Isaac Abongo-Frafra Adongo?

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

November 29, 2020

E-mail: [email protected]