Kumasipioneer.com Truth l Accuracy l Fairness
Sycophancy, which is the act of praising rich or powerful people in order to gain an advantage, has been the bane of Ghana’s socioeconomic and political advancement.
Instead of people being bold enough to tell the truth to power (as I am doing through this post) to enhance or promote good governance, sadly, the opposite has always been what we all have to contend with.
It is the same or similar kind of behaviour that the majority of Ghanaians did exhibit when Ex-President Nana Akufo-Addo was in power.
Instead of telling him in the face that he was mismanaging the Ghanaian economy, the they adopted bootlicking, sycophantic and opportunistic approach culminating in the current dire economic abyss Ghanaians are grappling with.
Less than two months in office, the Ghanaian President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has breached a number of the provisions of our laws, among them is the Presidential Office Act which enjoins him to appoint his presidential staff on the advice of the Council of State.
However, at the time the President did make such appointments to his office, the Council of State was not constituted and yet he went ahead and appointed a considerable number of NDC apparatchiks to work in his office.
He did the same with the appointment of Mr Johnson Asiamah as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.
As if those were not enough, the President has breached the *Article 286(1)(a) of the 1992 Constitution* and *Act 550 (1998) Section (1)* as regards the *Declaration of Assets and Liabilities of a Public Officer* and *Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act.* The provision states among others that.
“A person who holds a public office mentioned in clause (5) of this article shall submit to the Auditor-General a written declaration of all property or assets owned by, or liabilities owned by, him whether directly or indirectly, within three months after coming into force of this Constitution or BEFORE TAKING OFFICE, as the case may be.”
Three months after Constitution came into force (was applied and people must obey it) was the 7th April, 1993 and the President took office on the 7th January, 2025.
This means, the President was enjoined by the Constitution, from the 9th December, 2024 when the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana declared him as the winner of the 2024 presidential election and the President-elect, to 6th January, 2025 to comply with the Article 286(1)(a) and Act 550 (1998).
However, the President waited till *43 days* in office, before he invited the Auditor-General, Mr Johnson Akuamoah to the presidency and submitted his declaration of assets and liabilities to him in fragrant violation of the above provisions in the Ghanaian laws.
To add insult to injury, (that is to make a bad situation even worse), he has urged his appointees who are busily working, up to the end of next month (31st March, 2025) to lodge their declaration of assets and liabilities forms at the office of the Auditor-General. What kind of impunity is this?
The framers of the Constitution, mindful of the extent to which politicians can plunge the resources of the country, simply put in the Constitution, BEFORE one takes the office and not within three months AFTER one takes an office. What the President Mahama has done, is
tantamount to total disregard of the Constitution he swore to protect and defend on the 7th January, 2025.
Now the harmless question is, if the erstwhile Akufo-Addo’s Addo-led administration could issue 318 mining related licences to his family and friends in just the last six (6) days in office,what can’t President Mahama and his appointees do within three months in office if they want to amass wealth illegally? When the President issued the threat to sack his appointees who will fail to declare their assets by the end of March, 2025, he should have sacked himself first, since he had woefully failed to uphold and defend the laws of Ghana.
These are the bunch of politicians who are using the so-called Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) team, to hunt or persecute their real and or imagined political opponents mainly from the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP)! God have mercy on us!
Thank you.
Written by: MAJOR ONE
