Alfred Agbesi Woyome
“A leader should always be open to criticism, not silencing dissent. Any leader who does not tolerate criticism from the public is afraid of their dirty hands to be revealed under heavy light. And such a leader is dangerous, because they only feel secure in the darkness.”
Suzy Kassem: “Rise Up and Salute the Sun”
WAS IT WOYOME SPEAKING? Did we see and hear him right, or like Adriana in Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors’: “I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me?” Did our eyes and ears deceive us?
The Supreme Court last week, Wednesday, gave a ruling granting the Number One Citizen Vigilante, Martin Amidu, the opportunity to cross – examine Alfred Agbesi Woyome, touted as NDC financier and philanthropist.
The Attorney General’s office had filed a notice suspending its efforts to retrieve Woyome’s cash. Mr Amidu had not taken the issue lightly, for, after all, it was his singular effort that had exposed the wrongful payment of the judgment debt to Mr Woyome. At the Supreme Court, Amidu (as Plaintiff) had sued the Attorney General (as 1st Defendant /Respondent); Waterville Holdings Limited (as 2nd Defendant/ Respondent); and Alfred Agbesi Woyome (as 3rd Defendant/ Respondent). Mr Woyome who had been ordered to refund over fifty one million Ghana cedis (GH¢ 51m) two years ago, had not paid anything more than four million Ghana cedis (GH¢ 4m) to EOCO. He had “…made the cheque without writing who it is meant for because I was confused as to who should be the recipient.” His bank accounts were empty, showing that he was penniless! Why should government fight anyone who is assisting it to retrieve the money?
Mr Woyome who spoke in an angry but defiant mood, discounted courtesy, decency and respect for discerning Ghanaians and charged that the Supreme Court was persecuting him. Ha – ba, (apology to I.K.Gyasi). He was musing like King Lear: “Tremble thou wretch that hast within these undivulged crimes, Unwhipt of justice… I AM A MAN MORE SINNED AGAINST THAN SINNING”. The irony: Woyome is a victim!
Woyome felt some people were “…using Martin against himself. So, why should you use such a weapon to fight in a political season?” He suspected that Martin was embittered for not being selected by former President, John Evans Atta Mills as his vice. And so what?
An English proverb says: “Speech is silvern, silence is golden” and Plato postulated so many years ago: “Wise men speak because they have something to say: fools because they have to say something.” Did Woyome forget that he was communicating with Ghanaians and that his tone, his inflections, the pitch, and the key emphasis gave signals about his emotional state? Of course, it was Epictetus who remarked: “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak”.
And Rawlings, the owner of the NDC, was befuddled. He had earlier (March 2015) noted:” The extent of corruption I have been talking about. I just read that the thief called Woyome had been freed. Why? Because his accomplices (Betty Mould and one other person) were not produced in court for vital evidence to incriminate him”. Justice Ajet –Nassam had ruled that the state had done a poor job for failing to produce key witnesses: Betty Mould – Iddrisu and Ebo Barton Oduro, the Attorney General and her deputy at the time of paying Woyome the undeserved cash. That was the criminal aspect of Woyome’s transgressions.
Why shouldn’t Rawlings fume? The NDC is his handmaid. He formed the PNDC when he was only 33 years and thought that he would remain that lanky hungry – looking young man – just as Caesar said of Cassius: “… Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; he thinks too much; such men are dangerous”. Around him were men and women about his age, garrulously screaming: “We no go sit down make them cheat we every day”. Rawlings’s regime had added ‘accountability’ to Ghana’s motto: ‘Freedom and Justice’. The regime had ‘sprayed like mosquitoes’ General Kutu Acheampong, General Akuffo, General Roger Felli, Air Vice- Marshall Yaw Boakye, General Utuka, General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa, and Rear Admiral Joy Amedume. Joy Amedume had been accused of having used his position to take a bank loan to build a house, and for that he was shot. Let us pray for the souls of these men, and for those they left behind.
The party belonging to the Apostle of probity and accountability, Jerry John Rawlings, has over the years demonstrated greed and avarice. There is hardly a project which is not tainted with corruption. Rawlings deserves our pity—what does his conscience tell him? Where are his probity and accountability? Where are all his platitudes—the moral high ground? How long has PNDC/NDC ruled Ghana—1981 to 2000; 2008 to 2016? If there is anything ‘unprecedented’ in, or about, this government, it is not about schools, hospitals, roads—(an exercise in mediocrity), every government does these—it is the magnitude of corruption. And you say “Dubai has come to Ghana”? Tweaa. Sorry for quoting the Tweaa DCE, without acknowledging him. How much money went into that particular project? We do not expect anyone to shed crocodile tears when they are called to account for their stewardship.
Woyome had called on well – meaning Ghanaians to stand against the Supreme Court ruling, which was not against him personally, but binding on all, including the pitiable ‘kayayei’? The closest intimation that he would be forced to name names was when he said a good number of Ghanaians had benefited from his benevolence “including some of you journalists here”.
To ‘prosecute’ means to carry out a legal claim against someone. The word originated from Latin ‘prosecutus’. It entered into English around 1425 and the root simply means ‘pursue’. But by 1579, ‘prosecute’ had taken on the sense of ‘pursuing’ legal action before a court. It featured in Higdon’s ‘Polychronican’. To ‘persecute’ means to harass, or pursue in order to injure or afflict. By 1450, the word whose origin was French ‘persecuter’ implied to pursue or torment or begin legal action. Now, to ‘persecute’ has the negative meaning of harming, harassing or tormenting. If Woyome had confused the two words, he should neither be prosecuted nor persecuted in the court of public opinion for fighting “to the last drop of my blood”. What a tussle it will be between the ‘gargantuan’ Brobdingnian, humongous, leviathan, stupendous Amidu and dwarfish, Lilliputian, diminutive, teensy Woyome! Without fear of being cited for acting ‘sub—judice’ we expect to hear: Q Were you paid GH¢ 54m? A: Yes Q Did you give some of the money to government officials? A: I don’t remember except you (Martin Amidu) Q: Did you give some of the money to members of the opposition? A: Yes, O.B. Amoah Q: Why? A: As payment for services rendered and for a balance in the equation should I be called to account for the money. Q How did you use the money you received? A: I didn’t use it to purchase chinchinga, but rather to build dams in the Northern Region and brick and tile factories in the Volta Region, a la Nana Addo. Q You are not being truthful to the court. A: You rather are not being truthful; go ‘way you. Do you know me? Court: O-R-D-E-R!
Some people think Woyome has just demonstrated the narcissism in him, considered Ghanaians incapable of using their cerebrum (brain) and dealt a deadly blow to the NDC as a party. Just as Diana remained a rose to the British public, Martin Amidu remains a hero to the Ghanaian public—perhaps except for those who had tasted of his benevolence and beneficence.
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Africanus Owusu-Ansah