Some NPP activists say my comments on the Akufo-Addo government are baseless. They are not! In November 2016, I wrote an article in which I said any idiot could use our money to build infrastructure and boast about that.
I did not see what Mahama had done as exceptional. In the same way, any idiot can use our money to pay school fees for SHS students. One does not need to be a genius to do that. The opportunity cost of John Mahama's infrastructure could have been the payment of fees.
It's just a matter of priority. My argument was, and still is, that there's more to leadership than using the tax payer's money to do things and boast.
The main problem with our country and continent is wastage resulting from greed and corruption. And that's why I was hopeful that an "incorruptible" and "no-nonsense" Akufo-Addo was the Messiah Ghanaians needed in the post-Mahama era to restore hope and decency into our national life.
That's why after two and a half years into Akufo-Addo's presidency, I hold the view that we bought nicely packaged key soap at Circle, thinking it was a smartphone.
There's a lot to say, but let me give you just one simple example, which I think after reading, you will be left with no doubt that even Nana Akufo-Addo's wife would choose Mr. John Mahama over her husband in how the two have dealt with the same scandal.
In 2013 I investigated the GYEEDA Corruption Scandal. The government and the private sector were stealing our money through fraudulent contracts. For four years, the NPP used my GYEEDA investigation as a basis to call John Mahama corrupt. John Mahama took some actions, but they were not enough. In March 2016, when Nana Akufo-Addo presented his version of the state of the nation address, this was what he said of Mahama's action on GYEEDA and other scandals: “It is clear from the actions taken on cases like judgement debts, the World Cup saga, GYEEDA, SADA, the DVLA saga, the Metro Mass branding, etc. that the fight against corruption is a sham. I say again, the so-called fight against corruption is a sham.”
Here is what John Mahama did on the GYEEDA Scandal
1. He caused a committee to be set up to probe further.
2. John Mahama cancelled all the GYEEDA contracts, except the Zoomlion Contract. The contracts were fraudulent in nature, and the Zoomlion contract was the worst.
3. Mahama drafted a bill and passed the Youth Employment Agency Act.
4. Mahama retrieved over GHc60 million from Roland Agambire's companies.
5. Mahama prosecuted and jailed two people, one being the NDC's Abuga Pele, former NDC MP.
6. Roland Agambire's rLG and other companies collapsed because of the actions taken by John Mahama's government.
7. GYEEDA saw some reforms after the passage of the GYEEDA Bill into law.
8. Mahama did not award any of the companies a contract in GYEEDA.
Did I agree with Akufo-Addo that Mahama's handling of GYEEDA was a sham? Yes. The big culprits were left off the hook. Abuga Pele and Philip Assibit were scapegoats, the fingerlings in the scandal. There were hundreds of millions of cedis that were not retrieved from Zoomlion, Better Ghana, and rLG. Mahama still kept the Zoomlion contract. This contract allowed the government to pay 500 cedis to Zoomlion per sweeper a month, but Zoomlion paid the sweepers 100 cedis and kept the rest as management fees. Zoomlion claimed there were 45,000 sweepers so every month, Zoomlion was paid 18 million cedis as management fees. This contract expired in February 2013, and between 2013 and 2019, there is no written agreement between Zoomlion and the government but we pay 270 million cedis to Zoomlion a year.
On November 16, 2016, three weeks to the 2016 election, the NPP held a press conference and accused John Mahama and Zoomlion of perpetuating fraud against the people of Ghana based on this GYEEDA contract to Zoomlion, which Mahama did not cancel. The NPP said John Mahama could not cancel the Zoomlion contract and other such fraudulent contracts because he (John Mahama) was benefitting directly from the theft.
Three weeks after that press conference Ghanaians voted massively for Nana Akufo-Addo. What did Akufo-Addo do about the "fraudulent GYEEDA" contract to Zoomlion?
Nana Akufo-Addo paid a visit to the man whom he and his opposition NPP had accused of defrauding Ghanaians. He encouraged Joseph Siaw Agyepong of Zoomlion to keep up with his good works. “When you are at the forefront of doing things like you are, you will be the subject of controversy. It goes with the territory. I know you a little bit, and I know you are capable of handling it. Stay focused,” President Akufo-Addo told the Zoomlion CEO.
Akufo-Addo has extended that contract twice. The assemblies have been screaming to the central government to allow them to supervise the sweepers. This would optimise the service provided by the sweepers of the YEA and save the government management fees paid to contractors. But the incorruptible Akufo-Addo and the protector of our purse won't hear any of that.
But what has changed? Why would a businessman be fraudulent when you are in opposition, but when you're in government, he is a hard-working entrepreneur who needs encouragement? Why would an act of corruption under Mahama become mere "controversy" which comes with being at the forefront of doing things? So if Mahama could not cancel the Zoomlion contract because he was benefitting directly from the theft, why did Nana Akufo-Addo not cancel it when he took over from Mahama? Is he benefiting directly from the theft?
If you look at the actions of Mahama and the Nana Akufo-Addo on the GYEEDA scandal so far, which of these two presidents do you think Akufo-Addo's wife would choose as having acted better in the interest of Ghana?
Source: Manasseh Azure Awuni/facebook
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Manasseh pls if you think you have a good issue which i also think so on the surface of what you have stated. Pls do all of us a favour by sending a request for investigation to EOCO.
Good Menasseh. Let continue to do the good work to protect all ghanaians. I like your attitude of nothing following any party so you can judge them equally.
what is this guy waiting for before he sends a petition to eoco, chrag, or the special prosecutor, to investigate juspon group if he has any evidence to show. does he want the president to do that. I don't sometimes no what exactly this guy want from the president since he has all the evidence.
Thanks Mr. Azure for your courage. God is with you. We all know most politicians are greedy and not for the interest of the citizenry. We are knowing them one by one. It baffles me why Nana Addo will not cancel a contract we is drying the nation's coffers and support it. I vote for NPP but suport for corruption is no no no No!
MR. AZURE, THE INTELLECTUALS ARE QUIET BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND YOUR MESSAGE. BOOT LICKERS ARE MISSING OUT WITH YOUR LEVEL OF THINKING AND WOULD CONTINUE TO BURY YOU IN INSULTS. I AM VERY GLAD YOU CONTINUE TO EXPOSE THE ILLS IN OUR SOCIETY IRRESPECTIVE OF WHO IS IN POWER. DON'T BE DETERRED BY THE NUMEROUS INSULTS BECAUSE EMPTY BARRELS THEY SAY MAKE THE MOST NOISE
For your information, world bank provided the most part of the money to build those school buildings. Mahama was and still incompetent!!!
When people like you live in Ghana, how can we see progress as a nation. Just look at your level of thinking. Mahama's infrastructure does not benefit any poor child then I guess the free SHS is being attended by these poor kids in your bedroom. It's just appalling the level of reason of some individuals like this guy.
Azure frafra, thanks for Free education, you can now get a good job with a media station and have the knowledge to spew garbage for all to read. We thank Nana and his NPP government for giving the same privileges to poor children of Ghana to enjoy the same. What infrastructure did Mahama did that did benefited a poor child growing up in the countryside, will the circle Dubai pay for a school fees of a child in my village, please. Your kinsman Mahama is a ***barred word*** and he is not coming back to destroy Ghana again.
Manasseh Azuri can contest election 2020 and bring his version of leadership to change ghana and stop making noise every day for attention
Like you said in intro... Any ***barred word*** can write any article. You don't need to be a genius. Governance is about choices...with the future in perspective... You just want attention.