Deal with the Merits of the Ato Forson Case and Stop Blowing Hot Air

Characteristically, the General-Secretary of Ghana’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, has decided to launch a red-herring campaign about the E-Levy impasse, when what the former Member of Parliament and Deputy Defense Minister in the government of the late President Jeremiah “Jerry” John Rawlings ought to be boldly, calmly and rationally addressing the fact of whether, indeed, Mr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the former John Dramani Mahama-appointed Deputy Finance Minister, one of two Deputy Finance Ministers, as I vividly recall, stands guilty of causing financial loss to the Ghanaian taxpayer and, in effect, the State (See “ ‘We Are Not Afraid of You’ – Asiedu-Nketia ‘Barks’ at Government Over Ato Forson Suit” Ghanaweb.com 12/26/21).

Instead, Mr. Asiedu-Nketia, popularly known as “General Mosquito,” has decided to throw dust into the eyes of party supporters and sympathizers by pretending as if the criminal wastefulness charges brought against Mr. Forson by Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah-Dame is a deviously calculated attempt to “white-mail” the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam NDC-MP, who, like each and every one of the 137 NDC Parliamentary Minority, is dead set against the Electronic Commercial Transaction Levy that has been proposed by the Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as part of the 2022 Budgetary Statement Package. The fact of the matter is that in 2014, under the reckless and taxpayer-insensitive government of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress, some 200 motor vehicles were imported into the country on the pretext of rejuvenating the National Ambulance Service (NAS). It would shortly be discovered or come to light that most of these motor vehicles, which had been imported from Germany, were not the least bit suitable for the publicly announced purpose for which they had been imported.

Now, a fiscally responsible Mr. Asiedu-Nketia would rather be telling Ghanaians the fact of whether the aforesaid lemons, deceptively paraded as a national healthcare development incentive, were worth the price tag that came along with the same. This is where the New Patriotic Party’s Communications Team ought to be hard at work explaining the minute details of this taxpayer-scamming racket to Ghanaian taxpayers and the citizenry at large. Messrs. Eugene Arhin and Yaw Buaben Asamoa ought not to have this most significant matter unexplained comprehensively to the people. If they do, the NDC propagandists would have another field day mendaciously sanitizing this act of heinous criminality which, if studiously prosecuted, should find quite a remarkable number of the key operatives of the country’s main opposition party condignly behind bars.

Beyond this desirable outcome lies the impugnation of the entire national development agenda of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress. In other words, this case goes well beyond being able to successfully prosecute Messrs. Ato Forson, Sylvester Anemana who, we are reliably informed, is a former Chief Director of the Ministry of Health; and Mr. Richard Jakpa, a businessman who, it turns out, might not have been engaged in the conduct of any legitimate business at all, but criminally and collusively conspiring with some key operatives of the Mahama government to thoroughly and wantonly fleece Ghanaian taxpayers, as it were. In short, the cynical and megalomaniacal likes of Mr. Asiedu-Nketia would be far better off explaining the fact of whether, indeed, as Attorney-General Yeboah-Dame claims, in the purchase of the 200 vehicles, earmarked for the restocking of an effectively collapsed and bankrupted National Ambulance Service, the aforesaid € 2.37 Million was wasted or not.

In short, what General Mosquito clearly appears to be saying and/or implying is that were Mr. Ato Forson to promptly make an overnight turnaround or about turn on his vehement protestation of or against the controversial E-Levy tax proposal, the Attorney-General would be apt to pretend that he has made a great mistake by bringing up the loss of € 2.37 Million case of wasteful spending of taxpayer money against the former Deputy Finance Minister. Such dodge is obviously farcical and one that seeks to rather facilely and mischievously call the commonsense and the professional integrity of Attorney-General Yeboah-Dame into question. This is one of the dirty tricks that are often used by the operatives of the National Democratic Congress to make it seem as if any frank and bold attempt to hold these thievish political scumbags to account is invariably laced with vendetta.

Maybe somebody needs to tell this autocratic NDC Kingmaker that, by and large, Ghanaians are far more intelligent and politically more sophisticated and astute than the cynical likes of Kwame Gonja, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Felix Ofosu-Kwakye and, yes, The Mosquito, are willing to cede them credit for.

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

December 27, 2021

E-mail: [email protected]