Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Friday, November 14, 2014
Pastor Mensah Otabil, founder of International
Central Gospel Church (ICGC) says corruption can never be uprooted unless the
leadership of the country changed their attitude and approach towards the
fight.
“Leadership
is a difficult task…it is hard, tough and lonely but it comes with a choice.
This choice comes with responsibility. The President must start fighting
corruption from his own house. You don’t start it attacking your enemies.”
He said when that is done, the President will be
‘misunderstood’ but, “if he hits himself, his government and his party, nobody
can complain if he extends it everywhere.”
The ICGC founder was speaking at a heavily-attended
forum on corruption organized by Occupy Ghana, a fast growing
pressure group together with IMANI Ghana, a policy analysis think tank at the
Parish Hall of Christ the King Catholic Church in Accra on Wednesday evening.
In what can be seen as an indirect critic of the
government’s poor handling of reported rampant cases of corruption in the
country, Pastor Otabil charged President John Mahama to “take up the challenge
of fighting corruption.”
He said responsible leadership was what was needed
to stem the tide of corruption.
"Citizens in every country are inherently
corrupt. However, the only difference between the cases of corruption in Ghana
and elsewhere is that over there the law works and anybody found to be corrupt
is dealt with.”
“Ghanaian who
urinates in public will not dare do that in say London and this is not because
he is a changed person but it is because the laws work over there,” adding
“people religiously file their taxes elsewhere because they are afraid of the
law. Until the law bites, corruption will never be eradicated,”
Lawyer Ace Ankomah who set the tone at the forum
reviewed extensively, the various statutes on corruption in the country and
said “you will fall in love in the fight against corruption if you read
Ghanaian laws but upon a careful assessment you realize that these laws have
never been applied.”
“I call this a paper tiger because the term refers
to something that looks threatening but is actually ineffective," adding
“in Ghana, the system has set you out to give out money.”
He announced that Occupy Ghana had given the Auditor
General a 30 day ultimatum to recover all stolen and unaccounted monies
documented in the Auditor’s various reports over the last eleven years or be
sued in court.
He said the notice had also been served on the
presidency at the Flagstaff House as well as the Attorney-General and Minister
of Justice.
Mr. Ankomah said from the Attorney-General’s
Department, the courts, Auditor-General, national security to immigration and
police everybody had turned a ‘blind eye’ to the laws whilst corruption was ‘festering’
in the country.
He complained bitterly about how corruption had been
placed in the lowest category of offences in the statutes and said that must
change without delay.
He predicted doom for the Freedom of Information
Bill saying “it will not have oxygen the way it has been formulated when passed
into law.”
Dr. Esi Ansah of Ashesi University who tackled
corruption the private sector called on activists to parry the political tag in
the course of fighting corruption saying “we can’t afford to be silent
anymore.”
She said the corruption battle had been mostly
fought in the public sector and private entities were perpetrating crimes
unnoticed adding “they buy the politicians and the media and get away with it.”
Manasseh Awuni Azure, a journalist from Joy FM said
naming and shaming people suspected to have indulged in corruption could also
help to stem the tide.
Sydney Casely-Hayford, a leading member of Occupy
Ghana said the “stench of corruption is beginning to carry too far.”
He said Occupy Ghana is not a violent or partisan
movement neither were they working towards regime change saying “we are only
interested in ensuring that the right things are done for the country.”
Goerge Andah, another leader said “we have to help
to make corruption unattractive in the country.”
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