Impeach President Kufuor – Victor Smith

The Special Assistant to former President Jerry John Rawlings, Victor Smith, on Thursday accused President John Agyekum Kufuor of what he described as "his continuous lies".

Not only did he attack President Kufuor but also pounced on members of Parliament, accusing both his own National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party members of' Parliament of failing to take the "opportunity" to impeach President Kufuor.

For him, President Kufuor had persistently told lies with reckless abandon to the extent that the country could not wait till next year when he is expected to retire from political office.

Speaking on an Accra-based radio station, Mr. Smith recounted that, during President Kufuor's recent State of the Nation's address, he told Parliament that in two weeks the energy crisis engulfing the country would be over. He observed however that the presidential promise turned out to be a hoax. This, he said, was serious enough to attract impeachment, since it brought the high office of the Presidency into disrepute.

Victor Smith claimed that the MPs are leading luxurious lives and because of that, they find it unnecessary to challenge the Presi¬dent.

"Because they don't pay taxes on their cars, the country's predicament is not their concern ... in fact, Parliament has not done enough for this country and that the President must be questioned in Parliament for telling lies to the people of Ghana."

He said Parliament has failed the people of Ghana and, therefore, "we must rise to hold our leaders to task", stressing that the present parliamentarians have not represented their constituents well enough.

Aside the alleged failed promise on the power solution, the President told yet another blatant liar, according to Smith, and that relates to Ghana's external remittances. He accused the President of having claimed that they stood at over $8 billion, a claim he contended was totally false, and 'corrected' that the $8 billion figure represented the total remittances for the whole of Africa.

According to Mr. Smith, after President Kufuor had made that statement, he personally called at the offices of the Bank of Ghana to find out its veracity. But, try as he did, he was not given the correct figure. That notwithstanding, he said "personal checks" later indicated that the figure the President gave was wrong.

He explained further that, not that he hated President Kufuor, but he was of the strongest belief that "things must be put into the right perspective."

Continuing, he said, in a last year by-election rally at Offinso South, President Kufuor made some entirely false allegations against ex-President Rawlings, which was glossed over by the docile and domesticated Parliament.

The Editor-in-Chief of The Crusading Guide, Kwaku Baako Jnr., who surprisingly called into the programme, described the allegations by Victor Smith as mischievous. He said: rather ex-President Rawlings, who beat up his Vice President, the late Kow Nkensen Arkaah, during a Cabinet meeting, should have been impeached.

But, Victor Smith rebuffed it, saying that the fact that the then Parliament did not find it necessary to impeach ex-President Rawlings did not mean the current Parliament cannot do it now.

Kweku Baako then replied that in principle, Victor Smith was right but cautioned that it was not everything that was impeachable. He said what Rawlings did to the late Vice President Arkaah could be considered an impeachable offence and not what President Kufuor said in his State of the Nation's address.

Credit: The Heritage