Former President John Mahama
As far as a public statement or reaction from former President John Mahama about the Ghana chapter of the Airbus scandal is concerned, it appears we will live with the enigma of an inexplicable silence for a long time.
He has so far tackled everything about the country but that subject, and that is rich.
Not that we know who Government Official One is, that telling reference in the story of the scandal, not at all. What we do know, however, is that this reference fits the First Gentleman of the country under the circumstances. More so, given the quantum of the transaction, it is beyond any government official to undertake a deal or for that matter receive the bribe safe the Commander-in-Chief of the Republic.
Sufficient documentations have emerged from germane bodies in Britain and the US which doubtlessly point at financial impropriety on the part of former top government officials, one of them holding the topmost position in the country. This and the palpable silence on the part of the former President make him the probable person being referred to, a probability which underscores the need for him to talk.
That is not the only subject he has avoided in his political conversations on social media.
He has been consistent with his avoidance of the public theory about the death of his predecessor, the late President John Atta Mills. Not even the countless insinuations about his alleged knowledge of what expedited the death could force him out of his cocoon until recently when he touched on the subject albeit superficially.
As for the Airbus scandal, we are light years from knowing what the former President did or otherwise.
The mention of an aircraft, let alone a jet or even an aircraft manufacturing company, should send jitters down the spine of the former President, a sore he would rather his opponents avoid because of the excruciating pain.
With the subject popping up occasionally and loudly so in other parts of the world where the corruption largesse was spread, the Ghana version cannot remain under the carpet indefinitely.
Last week, the Indonesian authorities had one of the beneficiaries of the ‘dirty money’ move to jail where he would be for eight years.
An Accra-based radio station carried the story with undeniable gusto reminding Ghanaians that the subject would haunt the former President for a long time to come.
We salute the news judgement of the radio station: every development about the Airbus bribery scandal no matter where it takes place has a certain repercussion on the local version.
The subject is festooned around our necks even as our principal prosecutor has it booked on his to-do-list. We shall return.