Experienced but Deaf-and-Dumb ORAL Team

The great NDC in their Resetting Ghana Manifesto, 2024 promised Ghanaians to “launch “Operation-Recover-All-Loot” to investigate, prosecute, and recover proceeds of corruption.” back to the state coffers. Operation-Recover-All-Loot (ORAL) has been largely accepted with a 1.67 million votes gap in favour of the proponent, John Dramani Mahama.

To prove his commitment to ensuring that ORAL succeeds, President-Elect, John Dramani Mahama ahead of his swearing-in formed an experienced team of imminent Ghanaians to sniffer for information on corruption and corruption related activities. The team of five (5) comprises; Member of Parliament of Nanton, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa as Chairman, Mr. Daniel Domelevo, Former Auditor-General, COP (Rtd.) Nathaniel Kofi Boakye, Retired Police Commissioner Mr. Martin Kpebu, Private Legal Practitioner and Mr. Raymond Archer, Investigative Journalist.

The experience of members of this team is not in doubt as they have proven competence, objectivity, integrity, brevity among others in their professional carreers. Despite been experienced, we expect the team to be ‘deaf-and-dumb.’ Silent and night visits must be rejected in no uncertain terms. They must not be seen to be listening to pleads from influential people on behalf of themselves or others. They should not be afraid to crucify even their spouses or immediate family members if they are found to have entered the wrong house. Even President Mahama does not want himself to be spared if he is culpable. Deaf-and-dumb is what we expect!

The team seems to be determined to honour this expectation. After its first meeting, members decided that they will do this work for Ghana at no cost. In a social media post, Chairman of the committee wrote; “The ORAL Team held its first meeting at 2pm today and has resolved to work gratis. We shall not be receiving salaries, allowances, per-diems or fuel coupons. None of our activities will come at a cost to the taxpayer. We continue to count on your support, let’s do this for God and Country. Ghana First.” This is a promising start.

To prove their commitment to do a diligent work for free, they proceeded to provide channels for Ghanaians to share confidential information on graft and corruption. Ghanaians were encouraged to submit reports through a toll-free number (0800 900 111), an official website (www.oralgh.org), or via email ([email protected]). The team further assured that these platforms will prioritize security and confidentiality to protect informants from any risks of reprisal.

The team has so far lived up to expectation and all we need to do as citizens and informants is to give information. The outgoing administration has been nothing but very corrupt. If we conceal information, the team will amount to nothing and our efforts at ensuring a corrupt free society will not come true. The numerous rots under this administration including the Agyapa Royalties, Covid-19 spendings, the unconsciounable amounts wasted at collapsing banks and all the state capture ‘harams’ must be investigated and we all need to help in volunteering information.

Ghana’s ranking on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has been nothing to write home about. Mahama’s worse score of 43 percent has been this government’s best score over its entire reign. In fact, Ghana’s highest score of 48 percent was achieved under President Mahama in 2014. The NPP at the time never took this lightly claiming they would do better.

The latest Afrobarometer report presented by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) has revealed a historic decline in public trust in Ghanaian institutions. CDD’s Director of Research, Dr. Edem Selormey reveals; “Three-fourths (74%) of Ghanaians say corruption levels increased ‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot’ over the past year.” This must be a great concern and we must help President Mahama get rid of corruption in this great country of ours.

A new dawn is here. Here to chase corruption deep into the bush and all we need to do is to volunteer information while encouraging the ORAL Team to be deaf-and-dumb.