The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) is contemplating boycotting all programmes organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), if the economic think tank’s bias towards the party is not stopped.
This means that the two Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, organized by the IEA and which are held in election years, would be boycotted by the NDC.
In fact, the NDC says it is not enthused at all over the biasness the IEA exhibits towards it, hence the party’s decision to reconsider its relationship with the Think Tank body.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the NDC, who dropped the hint to The Enquirer, stated that the NDC has been suspicious of the neutrality of the IEA over the years, adding the latest to have confirmed their fears was the recent anti-corruption conference held last Tuesday April 28.
Before the anti-Corruption conference, the IEA, in February, this year, released a survey it claimed was conducted in the 10 regions of the country, where it cited the presidency as the second most corrupt.
But that survey was dismissed by government, as it said it seriously rejects any such suggestion that the office is corrupt, let alone being the second most corrupt institution in Ghana. It is against this backdrop that Aseidu Nketia, known in political circles as General Mosquito, believes strongly that the recent IEA anti-corruption conference was politically motivated to push an NPP agenda.
For instance, the speakers at the conference were packed with well-known opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) apparatchiks, as the keynote speaker lambasted the NDC with glee.
Other speakers at the night was Dr. Albert Kan-Dapaa, a former minister under Kufuor, and Mr. Dua Agyeman, a former Auditor General, who passed his retirement age but was re-engaged by Kufuor for obvious reasons.
It was under the watch of Dr. Kan-Dapaah as Interior Minister, when the infamous 77 parcels of cocaine got missing in 2007.
Ironically, the voices of the likes of Prof. Yankah was not heard at the time, when cocaine trade boomed, but fast forward to 2015, Prof. Yankah, in his keynote speech, singled out Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, the affable former Minister of youth and Sports, and shred him into pieces.
“When government appointees are cited for embezzlement or corruption, no machine is set in motion for investigation, prosecution and indictment,” he said.
Prof. Yankah pointed out that “the presidency is perceived to have become a comfortable refuge for officials suspect to have been involved in corruption and are under investigation,” arguing further that there is “shelving in the Presidency of several reports on probes and investigations in which public appointees have been fingered for corruption, embezzlement and procurement.”
Interestingly, attempts to respond to the attacks on the government by General Mosquito, on the serious allegations, did not materialize, as he was denied the opportunity by the chairman of the occasion, Most Rev. Charles palmer-Buckle, Metropolitan Archbishop for Accra.
The chief scribe of the governing party, who appeared furious, noted that the party will meet and reconsider its relationship with the think-tank.
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