Mahama’s Distribution Of Outboard Motors Is A Criminal Offence

To show the dear reader how deviously some Ghanaian media establishments have been shamelessly collaborating with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaian voters in the lead-up to the December 7 general election, a news article the bulk of whose contents were about President John Dramani Mahama’s flagrant act of bribery and corruption was mischievously captioned “GII Accuses Bawumia of Vote Buying” (Citifmonline.com 10/15/16).

Actually, the main thrust of the afore-referenced article was about the fact that President Mahama, during a recent electioneering campaign tour of the Western Region, had used taxpayer funds to purchase an unspecified number of outboard motors which the leader of the ruling National Democratic Congress distributed, free-of-charge, to some fishermen in the twin-cities of Sekondi-Takoradi.

This is an indisputably criminal offence for which the President ought to be promptly summoned by Parliament to explain. But, of course, knowing Ghana’s Parliament to be the toothless bull-dog it veritably is, I am not holding my breath. Then also, knowing what we know about the scandalous sweet-heart dealings between the Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress’ government, it is absolutely pointless to call upon the patently lame-brained operatives of this supposedly good-governance watchdog to look into the matter and possibly have Mr. Mahama promptly return his stolen taxpayer money where it belongs. It is also quite interesting to observe here that the local chapter of Amnesty International (AI), the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), mildly described President Mahama’s crystal-clear act of grand larceny as “an abuse of incumbency.”

Predictably, even such mild characterization of the President’s Class-One Felony was roundly rejected by Mr. Daniel Batidam, the presidential adviser on corruption. Instead, we curiously have the leadership of the Ghana Integrity Initiative virulently accusing Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the three-time Vice-Presidential Candidate of the country’s main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), of deviously attempting to buy his way and, one logically presumes, that of Nana Akufo-Addo, the 2016 Presidential Candidate of the NPP, by having boreholes constructed for the students and faculty of the Amedzofe College of Education (AMECO), in the Volta Region, who have been perennially saddled with acute water shortages! Now, one would have thought that a foresighted and competent leader, as he claims to be, that President Mahama would rather have used the taxpayer’s money to solve the water problems of this venerable state-owned institution.

Using the people’s money to play Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, to the fishermen of the Sekondi-Takoradi vicinity is eminently depraved, to say the least, unless unbeknown to the rest of us Ghanaian citizens and the electorate, Mr. Mahama also happens to have acquired a share in every load of fish hauled in by these Sekondi-Takoradi fishermen, to whom the President was also reported to have distributed head pans for carrying their catch. Very likely, these commercial head pans were meant for the wives and concubines of these fishermen. Needless to say, the preceding looks more like a gross misplacement of priorities than sheer administrative incompetence. But, of course, as it is to be expected, a deft combination of these two egregious leadership foibles well appears to be in play here.

Which is why it goes without saying that all progressive and levelheaded Ghanaian voters have a bounden obligation to ensure that President Mahama and his NDC Abongo boys and girls are promptly sent packing hurriedly out of the Jubilee-Flagstaff House come December 7.

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Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
October 15, 2016
E-mail: [email protected]