The purpose of this article is to express my profound disappointment in the first term of our President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo as far as the fight against corruption is concerned. Prior to your swearing in on 7th January 2017, many Ghanaians and myself were with high hopes and expectations that we would see the back of corruption in Ghana for good. When the media started complaining about lack of action in the corruption fight in Ghana immediately after you assumed office, I became angry that they would not allow you to settle down before they started the corruption fight and eradication agitation, but as the days rolled into weeks and into months and into years and to be precise FOUR years later, Ghana remained as is it was before your assumption of office, because we did not have anything to show to significantly assure us that our only HOPE, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo had won the CORRUPTION battle for Ghana and for that matter, Ghanaians. What a lost Goodwill!

Mr President, kindly permit me to ask this question: Does it become very difficult to take the bold and fearless decicions you took as the Attorney General in the President Kufuor’s administartion than now that you were the President? What changed from the Akufo Addo we have all known and admired as anti corruption crusader? How could you all of a sudden become soft on the fight against corruption? I am intrigued and how I wish my President would be candid to address me on the reasons why all of a sudden, we hardly hear you speak to the fight against corruption in Ghana.

Mr President, I am not a card carrying member of the NPP but I am a stock of the NPP from the Progress Party era until all the proscriptions of the Popular Front Party and now the New Patriotic Party and it would interest you to know that I started all the processes of the formation of the NPP in the Republic of Ireland. All the ground work of laising with the UK Branch and various communications with the then Chairman Mr Hayford Atta Krufi and the then Secretary, Mr Cheremeh and it would eventually lead to the formation of the Party in the Republic of Ireland of which, Mrs Ursula Owusu Ekuful was our Guest Speaker. It means I am a die hard supporter but immediately after formation, I decided to stay outsdide since my logical goal was getting the Party formed in the Republic of Ireland.

I have harboured the desire to write this letter since your first term but at the sametime, I did not want the opposition parties to sieze on it and campaign against your second term but now that the elections are over and you have soundly been elected into second term, I think it is necessary for me to seek answers to the reasons why you have not shown any determination to address the fight against corruption in Ghana.

Immediately after assumption of office you promised to make sure Galamsey was a thing of the past. I remember you say “You would stake your second term fortunes on it, and if you lost for fighting elimination of galamsey in Ghana, so be it”. What happened Mr President? Galamsey cuts across all the regions of Ghana so my first shock and diasppointment was when you formed “Operation Vanguard” with only 400 men and women. There and then I realized there was no way galamsey could be stopped with 400 men and women and including our corrupt riddled Policemen and Women. As if that was not enough, these 400 men and women were never changed or reshuffled throughout your four year tenure to have brought in new ideals but you stuck with them despite the numerous complaints of their duplicity and sabotage. How on earth would a BIG nation like Ghana expect 400 men and women to stop Galamsey in Ghana?

Within a short space of time that they set about their work, we saw some little progress, some of our rivers were showing signs of flowing unpolluted and I for one was very glad but little did I know that they were for the cameras only but not the real occurence on the ground. I lived most of my life at Kade so I know River Birim very well so when I was in Ghana in 2019 and saw the degradation of River Birim, Mr President I wept. We used to go and swim under the bridge, Kade/Adankrono bridge that nobody could cross from Kade to Adankrono without using the Bridge, but today, even a child can walk through, from one side to the other.

Why would I blame you? No, not at all because you did not start the lack of action against Galamsey. We have had the NDC governments since 1981 and if they liked they could have done something about it. I know President Kufuor too from the NPP family could have done his bit but they are not Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo so it is easier to forgive them but Nana “Wo anaa”. May be this is the first time you are hearing how Ghanaians believed that you alone could have fought corruption for us. My wife is a staunch NDC member and at a stage was the Secretary for their Party in Ireland, working under the then Chairman Mr Percival Kofi Akpaloo and she said and I quote. ” Though I hate the NPP, I am glad that Nana Addo has come to power, he alone can fight corruption in Ghana”. Nana, that was when you won in 2016. Mr President, there was overwhelming belief and support for you to win that war but it fizzled or faded out just like that.

Mr President, though I know we always hear these words. Bring the evidence then we would use it to fight corruption in Ghana. In the developed world they depend on whistleblowers,gossips,phone calls and informants to get to the bottom of corruption. I remember that the then AdomFM Presenter, Mr Captain Smart, had done a lot of interviews on his FAB3WOSO and had volumes and volumes of information about former government functionaries,DCE and Municipal Executives as well as MPs and even those in our parliament but up till today, our Attorney General Department never acted on them. There is proving allegations of some MPs under the former President taking double salaries and as I am speaking, most of them are going to take their END OF SERVICE emoluments and just go unscathed.

I know you had good intentions in the appointment of Mr Martin Amidu as the Public Prosecutor, during all those days he failed to perform, you never said anything, though as a lawyer and the lover of the rule of law, keeping quite was the norm but when it became clear that it would impact negatively on your reputation and the then impending elections, something should have been done earlier.

Mr President. I have so much confidence in you. To me you are our last hope in the fight against corruption in Ghana. I can stand on the same side as my wife on this so please, let us see the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo we have known from the late 70s as the number one CORRUPTION crusader and do something about corruption. You are an Executive President, you have a lot of powers to even form an elite Police corps outside our instutionalised corrupt police service to help you win two wars for Ghana.

War number One: GALAMSEY where FOREIGNERS who have no stake in the fight for our independence and our demacated space as a SOVEREIGN unitary independent state of Ghana would be allowed to enter our Reserves and lands. Our independence is not dependent upon the loans and aids we get from such foreign interested groups for them to destroy our land.

War number two,Our Gold Deposits should be the exclusive preserve of we Ghanaians so that if any FOREIGNER or Foreign nation ,organisation or instution would like to mine Gold in Ghana, they must do the right thing and apply legitimately through due processes. We cannot allow nations like China, India,Nigeria,Pakistan…… and all those entering are forest ZONES to destroy our land. I wonder if we have signed a LEGITIMATE contracts with nationals of these nations to enter our forest and destroy them.

Mr President, this is my humble contribution towards building a Ghana we shall all be proud of. And remembering those who died in our struggle for independence did so thinking our land would be held intact,unpolluted and not-destroyed by economic mercenaries who have never sought our well being but our devastation and destruction. Kindly do something we know you are capable and world acclaimed for, the INCORRUPTIBLE man of principle.