Nana Akufo-Addo
President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has promised he would not let Ghanaians down in the fight against corruption, stressing that he will lead by example.
He made it clear that the fight against the canker would be done in a professional manner so that nobody would claim they are being with-hunted.
Nana Akufo-Addo reiterated the pledge when he granted an interview to BBC’s Akwasi Sarpong yesterday.
He said as part of New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s commitment to the fight against corruption, it would ensure the establishment of the Office of a Special Prosecutor as promised during the electioneering campaign.
According to Nana Addo, the yet-to-be-established body would be independent of the government so that it would have unfettered powers to deal with corruption-related issues dispassionately.
He said the Special Prosecutor would be somebody who is respected across the political spectrum adding, “Hopefully, that person is going to be somebody who commands respect of the society and at the same time has an independent mind to make decisions.”
The president-elect underscored, “We want to separate politics from criminal investigations. We have decided that as much as possible we want to take the politics out of it.
“What we have to be careful of in our situation is, one, to witch-hunt, but at the same time, we ought not to give the impression that those of us in political life somewhat have some sort of immunity from investigation merely because we are politicians. I don’t think that will be right. We are citizens of Ghana first and foremost.”
Nana Akufo-Addo said the NPP’s manifesto has elaborate plans for the development of the country insisting, “I’m speaking about institutional reforms, personal examples that myself and leaders of our party and government have to give. It’s a mix of ideas that we believe will go a long way to reducing the incidents of corruption in our national life.”
He commended Ghanaians highly for reposing trust in him and giving him the chance to lead; and promised to help reverse the dwindling fortunes of the country.
“First of all, I am grateful to Ghanaians for giving me the opportunity and also for the fact that the issues that I thought were the issues facing our people have been endorsed by them; that I was right in my analysis of where we are and what we needed to do and what the problems were,” he articulated.
On his priorities, Nana Akufo-Addo said, “It has to be to get our economy moving again. The Ghanaian economy has been in a nose-dive for the last five years – low growth, widespread unemployment, huge debts. That’s the reality of our situation in Ghana, and especially the unemployment among the youth has reached alarming proportions and if we don’t find a method of dealing with it, our country will … be running towards all kinds of problems along the line.”
He also said “the commitment to the Ghana Project, the loyalty to Ghana, you are coming to work for the people of Ghana and not for yourself,” would feature prominently in his government.
By William Yaw Owusu