Know the Elected Government Official 1 (One) in the Airbus Saga

Fellow Ghanaians, this write-up is a follow up on my recent article querying who could possibly be an "elected government official 1" in a nation. It has turned out to be nobody other than the president, the prime minister or the leader of any given nation, following that country's system of government or constitution. It could neither be you nor me if we are not the president, prime minister or the leader of the nation.

Subsequently, without gainsaying, the "elected government official 1 in Ghana" during the years of 2013 to 2015 could be nobody other than then-President John Dramani Mahama. This is an indisputable fact that only a person deliberately acting foolish or collusively, will come up with a different answer in attempts to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians.

Having cleverly by common sense established the identity of who could possibly be the "elected government official 1 in Ghana" who had had his long dirty hand meddled in the Airbus bribery scandal, let me go on to explain how he has tarnished the reputation of Ghana in the international circle as well as causing a financial loss to the state.

Before then, was he not the same person who was once interviewed by a foreign White journalist when he travelled abroad, about whether or not he is corrupt or had ever been corrupt? When he was fumbling for words to answer the question, the journalist asked if he had ever taken bribe in his life or since he became the president of Ghana. Still, he could not give a clear-cut answer but was fidgeting. By his body language, hesitations, stammering and difficulty to come up with a yes or no credible answer, I invite you to be a judge on whether or not he had never accepted any bribe in his life or as a president of Ghana.

How has he tarnished the image of Ghana if indeed he had accepted bribe from the Airbus company via a supposedly "intermediary no. 5" who has connections with the supposedly "elected government official 1 in Ghana?" For a president to accept a bribe from a foreign company or government to pave the way for such foreigner to easily access certain facilities or be awarded contracts in the nation without going through the properly laid down procedures or checks is in itself a major disgrace to himself and the nation he/she leads. Will that foreigner or nation ever respect the country and the nation that the corrupt leader leads? No!!

It is no wonder that some French medical scientists are proposing that the clinical trials of vaccines for the ongoing lethal novel coronavirus (Covid-19) must first be taken to continental Africa to be tested on Africans and when proven successful, be used for the whites or commercialised. Why would they suggest this and why had they tested Africans with vaccines for HIV/AIDS and EBOLA while the vaccines were in clinical trial stages without disclosing it to us but said they had found effective vaccines to combat the diseases and were helping us with free vaccinations? Africans without any second thought just jumped for the vaccines because we see ourselves as poor so expect everything to come to us free of charge?

If our leaders had always been responsible and behaved as rational human beings, they would not embezzle state funds to render the continental African countries so poor as to always expect free things of any sort from outside the continent hence exposing their citizens to be used as guinea pigs and be denigrated all of the time.

How has former President John Dramani Mahama caused financial loss to the state if he had indeed accepted bribe from Airbus to sell military aircrafts to Ghana? Some NDC loudmouth but unfortunately hollow-minded communicators continually keep saying that even if he had taken any bribe as alleged, he has caused no financial loss to the state. I wonder if such people are knowledgeable or possess an iota of wisdom at all.

Let me school them on how the president had caused financial loss to the state if he had taken the alleged bribe. In the olden days when bursars of Secondary Schools were allowed to purchase everything from food stuff to books and stationery for their schools, how did most of them become rich overnight and had to run away from the country when Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings staged his Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) coup d'états in June 1979 and December 1982 respectively?

School bursars were known to arrange with vendors to increase or double the prices of the items they purchased on the receipts issued for the purchases. If they bought say fifty bags of 25kg per bag of rice of which the total cost is 1,000 Cedis in those days, they could ask the vendor to prepare them a receipt of a total cost of 1,500 Cedis. The bursar would then give the vendor 1,200 Cedis of which 1,000 Cedis is the actual cost with 200 Cedis as a bribe for the vendor agreeing to the deal while the bursar himself kept 300 Cedis for himself. In effect, the bursar has duped his school of 500 Cedis, thus, caused a financial loss of 500 Cedis to his school.

Therefore, the price of the aircrafts would be inflated to enable the Airbus company bribe the president of the 5 million Euros as discovered at the investigations into the malpractices by the company. The company would add more than the amount given out for bribe as indicated, to the total cost price. If the aircrafts were to sell at a total cost of 100 million Euros, they would sell it to us for 110 million Euros, give 5 million Euros out for bribe and keep 5 million to themselves on top of the actual cost of the 100 million Euros.

Additionally, because bribe was offered, the president would not bother going through a proper tendering process to get a value for money deal where the same quality aircrafts could have been purchased at a much lower cost from another company. He would be more interested in what he would get as a person than the quality of the aircrafts or the cost to the nation.

From my analysis, he who the "elected government official 1 in Ghana" was, has dented the image of Ghana and caused a financial loss to the state so he has to be investigated and dealt with according to the stipulations of the nation's criminal laws. Some people may see nothing wrong about the attitude of former President John Dramani Mahama, the proven "elected government official 1 in Ghana" but I do.

It is because of such types of leaders abounding in Africa that the continent is never respected by our white contemporaries and treated with disdain every now and then. They deride Africa as a continent of shithole countries, a cemetery, a place where you can easily bribe their fellows to kill their kind etc. What a shame!

This ongoing deadly novel coronavirus must teach us a lesson that will reform us to reason and do things as, but not like, human beings. We do no longer have to behave irrationally like low-level thinking animals in the wild to cause our own needless deaths as it is currently our behaviour.

I rest my case.
Rockson Adofo
Saturday, 4 April 2020