Scandals: How our silence emboldened President Akufo-Addo - Part One

Every government is susceptible to scandals, therefore when a scandal hits a particular government it is unsurprising, because scandals are inevitable and inescapable. However, the reactions of the citizenry to scandals are extremely important in informing the government’s response. The level of anger, anguish and disdain outpoured by the society sends a strong signal to the political elite as to how outraged they are or otherwise. I intend to revisit some of the most disgraceful scandals that have hit this country under the current Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia led administration and how Ghanaians have sat aloof for these scandals to be normalised in the past seven years.

In the words of Rene Girard, “When scandals proliferate, human beings become so obsessed with their rivals that they lose sight of the objects for which they compete and begin to focus angrily on one another”. In the past seven years, under the presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo, Ghanaians have been bedevilled with unimaginable series of scandals that goes a long way to suggest that, the current administration does not learn anything from history, or it suffices to conclude that, they have no respect for the ordinary Ghanaian. As a result of our passiveness, the current administration has been emboldened to continuously churn out scandals for their benefits whiles calling the bluff of Ghanaians.

When President Akufo-Addo and Dr, Mahamudu Bawumia were sworn into office, many believed that, the sunshine of hope, wealth and prosperity were going to break through the clouds of hopelessness, poverty, hunger and destituteness, however, they flattered to deceive in an unimaginable manner with scandals upon scandals. In this part one, two scandals are revisited.

BOST Contaminated fuel scandal
One of the shocking orchestrated scandals executed with a sole objective of enriching the appointees of the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia led administration is the Bulk Oil Storage (BOST) limited scandal. In 2017, (BOST) Limited, sold five million litres of contaminated fuel to Movenpina. Astonishingly, Movenpina was incorporated barely a month after it negotiated the deal with BOST and without National Petroleum Authority (NPA) license. There was a brief public uproar, which led to setting up of a nine-member committee. However, nothing substantial emerged from the committee. No one was prosecuted for this well strategized and superbly implemented stealing scheme. This is irrespective of the findings of the committee. Some of the findings were that, thousands of litres in the tank locked by the NPA could not be accounted for, a total of 862,875lts of the 5million litres of contaminated fuel could not be unaccounted for. The Committee admits that there must have been some evaporation but finds the volume loss of about 17.16% unusual.

Revealingly, the Committee found this very irregular and disturbing, and concluded that, clean products may have been deliberately downgraded and sold as slop or off-spec. The committee writes: “This we believe borders on criminality and may have wilfully led to a major loss to BOST and to the state in the form of petroleum taxes forgone”. It beggars belief that, no one was made to answer for this outrageous theft. In today’s Ghana under president Akufo-Addo, there are no consequences for wrong doings, SIMPLICITAS.

The PDS Scandal
When president Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) assumed authority of the state in January 2017, Ghanaians were filled with hope and believe that a political Messiah had arrived. The new government immediately re-negotiated the Power Compact signed by president John Mahama and changed the shareholding structure to 51% Ghanaian and 49% foreign. Ghanaians were convinced that it was a good idea to have indigenes take majority shares of the consortium and that the government would spread the ownership of the shares to all Ghanaians through a private subscription on the Ghana Stock Exchange, but in the end people were shocked to see that it was all part of a grand scheme for certain members of the president’s family and their cronies to take over the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) in a blatant attempt to capture state resources.

Ghanaians sat aloof, unconcerned and unperturbed whiles these acts of political atrocities and terrorisms were unleashed on us by the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia led administration. Some civil service organisations briefly expressed their disgust and displeasure, without consistency and perseverance. The silence of the clergy and other stakeholders were deafening. As a country, our silence, timidity and reticence in the face of these scandals will not be forgiven by future generations, whose future is being toiled with insensitively by the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia led government. The reaction of the citizenry has been so passive while it exposes our cowardice nature that emboldens the current regime to have its way in perpetrating these crimes against the very pupil they are expected to serve.