The Akufo-Addo government has not demonstrated seriousness to the fight against corruption, former General Secretary of the Ghana Christian Council, Rev Dr Kwabena Opuni Frimpong, has said.
Similarly, he said past governments did not show any commitment to fighting graft.
Speaking about a recent admonishing by Senior Presidential Advisor Yaw Osafo Maafo to the church about festering corruption and illegal small-scale mining despite more than 70 per cent of Ghanaians being Christian, Rev Opuni Frimpong observed: “Over the years, we are hearing reports from the public accounts committee and the Auditor-General and I daresay that the current government and past governments have not shown any seriousness about corruption fight”.
“They are all benefitting from it, especially when it affects their own”, Rev Frimpong alleged in an interview with Kwame Okyere Junior (KOJ) in an interview on Class91.3FM’s mid-day news, 12 Live on Wednesday, 23 August 2023.
Buttressing his point, he said: “We have got instances where journalists and civil society groups have raised issues. What you hear from the government is, ‘Bring evidence'”, when, in his view, the government has a whole state machinery, including the police and investigative bodies, at its disposal to investigate such exposés.
He, thus, found it puzzling that Mr Osafo Maafo would choose to confront the Church about the canker when he was in a more privileged position to deal with the menace.
Concerning galamsey, for instance, Rev Opuni Frimoong bemoaned that Mr Osafo Maafo knows that some members of his own party, the New Patriotic Party, have been outed as being involved in galamsey, yet, “you leave cabinet meetings, come to church and ask innocent church people to help you fight galamsey”.
He urged the government to learn from Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II , who is fighting galamsey in his own backyard using destoolment as a tool against culpable chiefs.
“At least, in recent days, we have a typical example of how to fight corruption from Manhyia. Asantehene; where chiefs, who are doing multiple sale of lands and galamsey, have been destooled”.
Source: classfmonline.com
