The recent revelations by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia with regards to the cost involved in the construction of the official residence for the country’s vice president and subsequent confirmation by engineering firm AESL show how the previous National Democratic Congress government lavishly spent the taxpayers’ money.
But, this certainly does not come as any surprise to many Ghanaians who had critically followed development in the county under the administration of the immediate past Mahama-led NDC government.
As we had always been pointing out, former President John Dramani Mahama and his functionaries only understood governance as the best means of creating opportunities for family and friends to amass wealth at the expense of the very people who voted them into office to protect their interest.
That was the reason why they could take a decision to commit the nation to the financial obligation of nearly $14 million in exchange for just the residence of the country’s vice president, at a time the nation was faced with a lot of pressing needs.
And the fact that the contract for the construction of the residence was sole-sourced means those behind the project knew what was at stake for them from day one: an opportunity to plunder the nation for their personal financial gains.
What made the whole thing unusually pathetic was that even though the people of Ghana had elected a president to protect their resources and ensure their prudent utilization for their collective good, he saw no need to do that.
Rather, he allowed his character to enhance the ‘create, loot and share’ enterprise for his alleged personal benefit, without taking a moment to think about the ramifications of this unpatriotic attitude on the general good of the country.
It was this unbridled desire to amass wealth that saw public officers like Stephen Opuni, the sacked Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocobod, handling the affairs of that strategic state institution as it there was not tomorrow.
It was very difficult to understand what could motivate Dr Opuni to sign contracts worth over $512 million without going through any competitive bidding, and during the period a new party had been elected and was in the process of taking over the administration of the country. The only motivation was unbridled greed for money and nothing more, nothing less.
This was the state of affairs in the country, as far as the handling of the nation’s finances were concerned under the watch of former President Mahama.
Even though the NDC came into the political scene as avid preachers of integrity, probity and accountability, the party in government under former President Mahama convinced everybody beyond all reasonable doubt that they only came into office to loot the nation.
Having succeeded in the unpatriotic and evil agenda of looting the nation, what the good people of Ghana now expect from the Nana Akufo-Addo government is to ensure that their actions are tested against the laws of the country and those whose conducts fall short of the laws punished accordingly.
Source: The New Statesman
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