Martin Amidu
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Martin A.B.K. Amidu, has observed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will succeed if he pursues his anti-corruption agenda without fear or favour.
“Many Ghanaians, like me, are not followers of your political party but I dare say that as long as you continue occupying that high moral ground and fight corruption in deeds you will succeed and your first four-year tenure will usher in the golden age of Ghana again,” he underscored.
In a news release yesterday, the anti-corruption crusader (who is fondly called Citizen Vigilante) said President Akufo-Addo should never follow the example of former President John Mahama whom he accused of supervising the looting of the treasury with impunity.
“All that these ordinary and committed citizens care about is that you never repeat the mistakes of your immediate predecessor’s government which simply took Ghanaians for granted as undiscerning and looted them to pulp,” Citizen Vigilante charged.
Mr. Amidu said the controversial bungalow request by ex-President Mahama, who is appearing to be his (Amidu’s) bitterest rival despite being in the same political party, had blighted the transition process, but said it was premeditated.
He said the only shortcoming of President Akufo-Addo so far is the handling of the Mahama request to keep his official residence located at the No. 3 Prestige Link, Cantonments, Accra, a request which he said the new administration should not have countenanced in the first place.
“The John Mahama retirement residence and office saga nearly cost you well-meaning supporters both in your political party and amongst ordinary citizens of good will,” he told President Akufo-Addo.
He said that in spite of the former president’s schemes, “The ordinary Ghanaian was quick to see that Mahama had with preconceived malice planned for years to take the Vice President’s residence for himself as his life-long retirement home right after Professor Mills’ demise,” adding “Even the ordinary Ghanaian sitting in the Madina tro tro bus realized that Mahama’s scheme of remaining in the Vice President’s official residence instead of moving to the presidential residence at the Flagg Staff House was part of his pre-meditated and internalized looting behaviour of state assets.”
Mr Martin Amidu admonished, “Mr. President, you have been in office for a week already and in the process of forming your Government. Ghanaians exhibit a great deal of goodwill for you to succeed as president. But make haste slowly and be fairly sure of each step you take.”
He said that President Akufo-Addo’s anti-corruption promise and agenda won him the election and that Ghanaians are expecting the president to fulfill that promise, saying, “Mr. President there is no gain saying that the experiences of the majority of Ghanaians in the immediate past few years have generated tremendous support and enthusiasm for your professed cause of action to save our dear country within the next four years.
“Remember always that governance as a human enterprise is susceptible to unforeseen natural contingencies that affect every human endeavour, whatever one’s good intentions and wishes. It works like applying quantum mechanics theory in social and political interactions.
“In these coming four years, your fate for the success or failure of the management of the enterprise called Corporate Ghana, is solely in your own and exclusive hands.
“In whatever you do for the next four years, remember that unlike your predecessor whose mandate was based on a casting vote of the Supreme Court, you received the overwhelming vote of the entire nation, in spite of deliberate attempts by the incumbent to rig the elections.”
By William Yaw Owusu