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Opinions of Monday, 27 October 2014

Columnist: Appiah-Osei, Lawrence

Nana Addo's GHC600,000 Is Not Donation

It Is Corruption!!

Before I convince you that the GHC600,000 Nana Akufo-Addo gave to the 140,000 delegates is bribery and corruption, I have to first define bribery and corruption to you. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, bribery is defined as something, such as money or a favor, offered or given to a person in a position of trust to influence that person’s view or conduct. The same dictionary defines the word “corrupt” as to destroy or subvert the honesty or integrity of……… or to change the original form of ……. Corruption is also defined as the act or process of corrupting. Donation, on the other hand is defined by Wikipedia as a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and or to benefit a cause. Donations are given without return consideration. Are we clear on those? Good.

On Thursday October 16, 2014 Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, aka, “Sir John” was on Adom FM accusing the NPP executives of trying to postpone the elections. After making all those allegations, he ended his comments with an appeal to Nana Addo to bring money so the elections could go on. Within 3 hours after the appeal, Nana’s camp announced to the whole world that Nana Addo was supporting the PARTY with GHC600,000, in spite of the fact that the party chairman, Paul Afoko, was on Asempa FM refuting Sir John’s allegations. Interesting coincidence indeed!!!

The following day, Sir John was on Asempa FM saying Nana Akufo-Addo had donated GHC600,000 to the PARTY to help with the elections. The host, KABA, then called the party headquarters and spoke with Mr. Kwabana Agyapong about the donation. Mr. Agyapong said even as he was speaking, the Treasurer was sitting across his desk and no one has received any such donation from anybody. KABA then called the Greater Accra Chairman/Coordinator of Nana’s campaign and he confirmed that, he just left one constituency and moving to the other constituencies to supervise the distribution of the money. Wow!

In addition to what went on as stated above, it was reported by Citifmonline on October 18, 2014 under the heading “Nana Addo’s ‘vote-buying tactics’ angers Addai Nimoh, that some constituency executives including, the Okaikoi North, Gomoa West, and the Bortianor Negleshie Amanfrom confirmed to Citi news that Nana Addo asked them to share 10 and 25 ghana to the delegates to take care of their transportation. The delegates were also given letters signed by Nana Addo, urging them to vote for him. 

From the above, do you see the elements of bribery and corruption clearly associated with Nana Akufo-Addo? If you don’t, I will help you. The money looked like “donation” but the elements of “given without return consideration” is missing from the transaction that took place on Election Day. So it is NOT Donation. Now follow the definition of bribery with me. There was the element of money (GHC600,000) being offered to persons in a position of trust (constituency executives) to influence their view or conduct (the letter to vote for Nana) All elements of bribery and corruption are found from the time the money was given out until the voting was counted. 

Do you see why Nana’s GHC600,000 is not donation but corruption? Meanwhile, on that Friday when the money and letters were changing hands, the National Executive Council of the NPP had banned campaigning in every shape or form. So if something went wrong per Nana’s calculations, was he going to collect the money from the party or from where? Doesn’t that alone qualify the amount given out as bribery and corruption? By the way, would the NPP call that election free and fair? Or it was free and fair because Nana Addo won. Funny people’s party.

After Nana Addo had bribed and corrupted the 140,000 delegates, the results were announced and he had 117,413 votes representing 94.35% as against 1,128 votes representing 0.91% for Hon. Addai Nimoh, and 5,908 votes representing 4.75% for Alan Kyeremanten. A total of 124,449 votes representing 100.01% (Source: Peacefmonline on October 20, 2014) Will Nana call for cancellation of his votes? Immediately after the elections, the Nana Addo’s team was on radio and TV saying there is unity in the party and that Nana helped and bailed-out the NPP from financial crisis. And when some Ghanaians question the motive behind Nana’s corruption, all you hear is that the elections are over and so we should let bygone be bygone. 

They continue to say there is unity in the party and so what the party needs is to move forward. Move forward to where? This is a piece of crap coming from the NPP. By the way, the NPP is talking of unity in the party. Have they asked themselves why all the 140,000 bribed delegates did not vote? Do they know why after Nana Addo had spent GHC600,000, he still could not get 100% of the votes? Is this called “unity” in a party and can such bribery and corruption win general elections? Dr. Arthur Kennedy, a leading member of the NPP, said on Adom FM on October 24, 2014 that anyone who will think there is unity in the NPP is NOT serious.

Fellow Ghanaians, my greatest concern is if Sir John said Nana donated GHC600,000 to the PARTY, why didn’t the money go through the Headquarters? Why can’t anybody in the NPP ask Nana why he went around the National Executives and went straight to the constituency executives? If Nana goes around the National Executives and forms his own shadow national executives, would someone have the courage to question him? Don’t we have brave and wise men and women in the NPP anymore? OMG! Maybe, Nana went around the National Executives because he had already said he could not work with them. Or is it because Nana doesn’t trust them? 

Or it is because Paul Afoko, the chairman, is a Notherner. The NPP has never trusted and liked Northerners. They always make them either Vice or Deputies, nothing more. If you are an NPP member, don’t you see that Nana used the GHC600,000 to get 100% votes so that you will think there is unity in the party, when in actual fact, the cracks and crisis are still downloading underneath? Refer to Dr. Arthur Kennedy’s statement above.

Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Afoko, also distributed money at an NPP congress at Legon in 2006 on behalf of Alan K. and he was slapped. He was slapped because some people said he was corrupting the delegates for Alan. So why would Nana Addo do the same thing and this same people call it donation? Are some people in the NPP allowed to bribe and corrupt delegates whilst others are not? That beats my political understanding. 

Nana Akufo-Addo bribed the regional chairmen to win the primaries and paid GHC600,000 to corrupt the 140,000 delegates. Has Nana’s desperation for power allowed himself to be corrupt? Maybe, Nana has been corrupt since birth but it is now that frustration has exposed him. Nana can run but can’t hide. Now that we know Nana corrupts to win, he should be prepared to corrupt all the 15 million voters in Ghana or else he should forget the 2016 general elections.

For the first time in Nana Addo’s political history, when he gave his acceptance/victory speech, the words “bribery and corruption” were not mentioned in it. Nana has taken those two words from the campaign language of the NPP because his two feet, two hands and head are all deep inside corruption. Some NPP members would like that the bribery and corruption by Nana would go away soon but some of us will never allow it to go away. We will continue to remind Ghanaians of the corrupt character of Nana Akufo-Addo until we retire him in 2016. We are sick and tired of hearing “Nana has never corrupt “

Lawrence Appiah-Osei (Protocol)

Public Relations Officer (PRO)

NDC Washington Metro Branch