The chairman of the Nigerian branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kofi Atiemo-Gyan says former President Jerry John Rawlings does not have the moral right to accuse people of corruption.
This, he said, was because “Jerry Rawlings himself presided over corruption and indiscipline.”
In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, he accused the former President of promoting corruption by instilling indiscipline into the Ghanaian society.
“His government was corrupt than any other I’ve known in Ghana,” he indicated.
He alleged that many appointees of Mr Rawlings virtually became rich overnight and put up houses all over the country through corrupt and dubious means.
“This was indiscipline at the highest order and this resulted in widespread corruption.”
“Look at his ministers; some of them were jailed for the various roles they played for deliberately causing financial loss to the state; aside that how much were they paid that they were able to drive cars and build big houses, which they are living in,” he quizzed.
The NPP member said when Rawlings came to power, he started this Citizens Vetting Committee; people were vetted and were asked how they acquired all their property and you had 10 minutes to answer all these questions. People were beaten up and they forfeited their properties but when he left office, I thought this Vetting Committee will continue for him to account for the several properties he had acquired but that didn’t happen.”
Interestingly, he said ex-President Rawlings managed to smuggle an Indemnity Clause into the country’s constitution to indemnify him from prosecution.
Basis
He accused the former President, who is also the founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), of superintending over corruption, adding that “he does not have the moral right to talk about corruption.”
Atiemo-Gyan alleged that Mr Rawlings sold state-owned establishments, including the Nsawam Cannery to his wife.
Furthermore, he noted “this is a man who came to power under the pretext of a notorious house-cleaning exercise and ended up executing people by tying them to stakes and shooting them at the military range for contracting bank loans claiming it was corruption.”
“Even those who were even executed, he admitted in the Supreme court that they were not properly investigated before they were executed. Meanwhile, some of those who were executed did not even have shelter for themselves; Acheampong did not have anything but he (Rawlings) came in and you saw the rot. Ghana was virtually written off.”
According to the NPP man, “When these things were going on during Busia’s short stay in government, we were trying to eliminate corruption by introducing the Centre for Civic Education so things started changing, but Rawlings came in and started introducing indiscipline into the society and he doesn’t have the moral justification to talk about corruption in Ghana at all because his government was deep in it.”
He noted that “Rawlings should come out and tell us how to bring an end to corruption and not be only interested in accusing people.”
Mr. Atiemo-Gyan expressed sadness that some institutions had conferred honorary degrees on him, saying “he destroyed the country and when Kufuor took over, we had to go to HIPC.”
“And at the time we were trying to water it to grow, the NDC came in again and look at our economy. The economy is so bad that people who decided to invest in the economy have regretted, some of them are withdrawing,” he stated.
