You may believe it or not, the Airbus bribery scandal involving some government officials in a few countries, including Ghanaian officials, remains the most single shameful and disgusting scandal of international proportion in the history of Ghanaian politics.
As a matter of fact, in any equitable jurisdiction, the suspects of the revoltingly ugly Airbus bribery scandal would have faced the full force of the law without fear or favour.
It is, therefore, quite ironic that while the erudite English law luminaries are saying that the Airbus deliberately paid bribes to some selected countries, including Ghana, with the view to obtaining contracts, the Ghanaian counterparts, many of whom are the indigenes of Akan, Ewe, Dagomba, Dagarti, Frafra, Kusase, Gonja, Mamprusi, Sisala, Mossi, etc, are vehemently contending that the said payment should rather be called commission and not bribe. How strange?
Another area of interest, however, is the seeming baseless debate surrounding the identity of the elected government official one, who has been cited in the report.
Whilst the critics are arguing somewhat vigorously that the said official is a prominent member of the opposition NDC, the die-hard supporters of the main suspect are incredibly denying such allegation.
Interestingly though, the governance experts maintain that only three people can possibly fit into the description of the said government official one, who has been mentioned in the Airbus bribery scandal.
According to the experts, the first suspect should be the first gentleman of the land.
So, based on the expert’s apt description, the first gentleman during the period 2009 to 2012 should have been the late President Mills.
However, according to the report, the said elected government official one was still in power in 2015, while President Mills had sadly departed from the earth.
So, the late Mills could not have been the government official one, as a matter of fact.
The next possible suspect, according to the experts, is the vice-president of the land. Apparently, the former president and the 2020 NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, fits that description.
The governance experts stress further that the other person who could fit into the description of the government official one, mentioned in the Airbus corruption scandal, is the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).
Suffice it to stress that according to the experts, the CDS between 2009 and 2015 was not an elected government official. So he could not have been the said government official one cited in the Airbus corruption scandal.
In synopsising, therefore, it should not take superior powers of the mind or a professorial in rocket science to arrive at the identity of the said government official one mentioned in the Airbus corruption scandal.
What appears much more bizarre, though, is that the offending organisation, the Airbus, has somehow admitted under oath paying huge bribes to the representatives of the countries involved, and has consequently been fined a humungous penalty in excess of £3 billion.
Interestingly, however, the main culprit who also happens to be the top government official one, cited in the report, is a prominent member of the opposition NDC. So, the political gimmicks and the seeming denials by the vociferous NDC faithful is nothing out of the ordinary, so to speak.
In fact, the NDC loyalists’ argument that the Airbus payment was a commission and not bribe is out of order, so to speak.
If, indeed, the payment to the Ghanaian representatives was a mere commission, how then would the Airbus agree to pay a staggering penalty in excess of £3 billion?
The opposition NDC vociferous communicators should stop throwing dust into our eyes: the Airbus indeed paid massive bribes to the selected countries, including Ghana, in order to gain a trading advantage over its competitors.
As it stands, the top government official one has an opportunity to answer the bribery and corruption charges being levelled against him/her by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office.
Regrettably, it would appear that in Ghana, the justice system more often than not descends heavily on the goat, cassava and plantain thieves, and let go the remorseless criminals who hide behind the narrow political colorations.
k.badu2011@gmail.com
By K. Badu, UK.