Former President John Mahama not long ago marked the beginning of another electioneering season aimed at the presidency of Ghana.
But even before Ghanaians indulge him, questions are being posed as to the viability of his candidature, looking back at a legacy of profound corruption and egregious conflicts of interest he left behind, the repercussions of which continues to echo six and half years after he left office.
After campaigning on the promise that he would stamp out corruption in public office, Mahama did the opposite, using his power as the President to boost his own profits through numerous underhand dealings and contract inflation.
In actual fact, Mahama provided corporate lobbyists, foreign actors, special interests and anyone else seeking political clout a way to gain access to his administration.
Indeed, he opened the presidency up for business, and for four years, the influence was for sale, and he flouted all kinds of norms set by previous presidents, starting with his decision not to divest from his business interests while in office, setting the stage for what became an administration marked by placing self-interest and profiteering at the highest levels above the public interest and culminated in a humiliating electoral defeat.
It was no wonder when the Economic Management Team sponsored the Ministerial Committee report on the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) review document and found Mahama culpable relating to some underdealings on the matter of the Tema Port Expansion Project.
A Committee under the Chairmanship of the then Honorable Deputy Minister of Transport and Member of Parliament (Tema East Constituency) Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover was appointed on the instructions
of His Excellency The Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the Economic Management
Team, to assist the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to review several documents relating
to the concession/contracts between the GPHA and Meridian Port Services Limited (MPS). The review
the exercise covered all relevant engagements related to the container terminal operations at the Port of
Tema from August 2004 to 2015.
In summary, the ministerial investigations show how Bolloré and his foreign partners ripped Ghana off with the help of former President Mahama.
Indeed, the French ports-to-media conglomerate, Bolloré Africa Logistics, partnered by the Danish shipping giant Maersk's ports arm won the right to build and run the new container port of Tema, through Mahama’s legacy of corruption.
It is a tale of intrigue based on the Westerners' 'lack of transparency and ethical discipline', and the former President's gluttonous self-indulgence.
The terms of the agreements between MPS and the state are so tilted against Ghana's interests.
The concessions Bolloré won from Ghana was shrouded in secrecy, with no tender or bids, in 2014, and even violating procurement laws of the country and overstated the planned investment by a factor of two which won tax holidays worth $832 million from an unwitting parliament. The deal
surreptitiously cut Ghana's equity in MPS to 15% after first agreeing to 30%.
It also gave an undue monopoly to Bolloré on handling containers and placed thousands of jobs at other port concerns at risk and driving up prices and
reduced the fees payable to the government over the life of the concession by $4.1 billion.
The ministerial report also averred that the terms under which MPS operates the new terminal were 'gravely detrimental to the government and people of Ghana. The deal do not reflect honest business ethics between the parties.
This is the story of how the deal took shape, and how a fightback within the Transport Ministry and the NPP against the MPS deal was finally quashed, and the legendary ability of Vincent Bolloré to accommodate political change asserted itself.
With all this albatross dangling around his neck, Mahama is out there singing a new tune that he's the man to take Ghana to the promised land.
I wonder how a man seen by many as the most corrupt politician ever in Ghana thinks of the Ghanaian people, so much that he want to return to political office to continue with his corruption.
I shall be back
Source: Ernest Kofi Owusu-Bempah - Deputy Director of Communications, NPP.
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See, sitting in the comfort of your office and writing damaging things about John Mahama is not the issue , you may laugh at the wrong side of your mouth come 7 December , 2024. How many of the rural folks can access what you have been writing? Are you aware the illiterate population in the voters register far outnumber the educated ones? Currently, enthusiasm among NPP supporters is at an all time low. Better leave your comfort zone and move to the countryside and engage NPP supporters , their urtetances will give you a clue as to what 2024 elections will look like for the NPP. The time to correct the wrongs is now. Am NPP but i fear for the party in 2024. You need to be on the ground to appreciate what's happening. John Mahama initially never thought of coming back to the Ghanaian political scene. However, having sat back to watch events as they unfold with the NPP shooting its own foot on a daily bases, John Mahama may have said, if this is what is happening, then i was a saint. This is what is giving him hope. If i were him i will stage a comeback too. I keep asking myself how it will look like if Akuffo Addo were to hand over power to John Mahama in January 2025. What message will Ghanaians be sending to the NPP ? That the NDC with all the sins it committed when they were in power is still far better than the NPP ? As to how come the current NPP appointees and those at the presidency didn't pick any lessons from the Kufuor administration to the Mills administration and to the Mahama administration is mind boggling. You all saw and know what led to the fall of the NDC in 2016. To come in to repeat same mistakes if not worse is difficult to understand . A appointee of the government goes to report a ***barred word*** case in her house running into several millions of foreign currency. The news of the ***barred word*** goes viral. You still had some space since you were not immediately arrested. After some days, you were arrested and granted bail same day and marched to your house and many more foreign currencies were still found in your house. What prevented this appointee from evacuating the money out of the house? How was she able to bring such huge amounts home but couldn't use same means to carry the money out? Is this normal. I pity those moving around the country campaigning to be flag bearer of the NPP , even though none of them have been implicated in this matter , it's still an albatross on their Necks because the target of the main opponent is larger NPP not an individual appointee. I keep asking what will be going through their minds on this whole saga. Owusu Bempah, these are the things that should concern you not John Mahama. Don't joke with the Ghanaian . Politics of equalization is old fashioned now. You make people angry when you say NDC also did this, they did that . That is why they were booted out. Fear people who are quiet, they can be very unpredictable especially the Ghanaian. In Ghana the answer to " where are you going" is " I am coming". This is how unpredictable thevghanaian can be.
***barred word*** Owusu Bempah must ***barred word*** . Corruption in the Current Akuffo Addo government is unprecedented. I am surprise this goat never talk about that and always making JDM popular. Ghanaians know it all.
I will always say tat, John Maham has no right to state a come bak but the ineptitudeness of this bunch of npp government has reignited JM to stage a comeback. This government just revived the political career of John Mahama and see how he is gaining attention every day. never again, never. instead for this government to do a self-introspection they are there just popularizing Mahama, I am now damn sure JM is coming back just look at the content of this article
I'm also neither NDC nor NPP. I'm simply a Ghanaian, I'm concerned about the livelihoods and dignity of those existing today and those who will come tomorrow. Clearly, politicians on the 2 divide have shown that they don't have these concerns at heart. But what is more provoking is the fact that some characters in the NPP like the writer of this meaningless article think so highly of themselves, they assume that taking the media at deafening crescendo gives them any advantage, even in the moments that we find ourselves. They will do themselves some good if they re-look their communication strategy. Inward looking people like this writer and the entire government infuriate level headed people when they talk. You can remember scandals that happened over 10 years ago but cannot see those which are still ongoing. It's unarguably true that Akufo Addo's government has engaged in more loots and rot governance than we have witnessed in our lifetime. Albeit, this author is throwing all of that under the carpet and foo1ishly believing that readers can be convinced that Mahama is more corrupt than Bawumiah. In any case, Ghana deserves better. Both NPP and NDC are just rubbish!
That is why we expected more from Nana Addo but he failed us and have become the worse president in Ghana's history, thought no one could beat Atta and Mahama's record of the worst presidents but Showboy was able to beat them, I dont have time to write his failures but he actually is the worst, and I am not NDC,