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Former President John Kufuor has said his long-time comment that ‘corruption was as old as Adam’ was misunderstood to mean he endorsed graft.

During his term in office, Mr Kufuor made the comment to parry accusations that his government was not doing enough to fight the canker.

While addressing a group of young people at the ‘DreamOval Thoughts Transfer Series’ at his residence in Accra, Mr Kufuor clarified that: “…Eve came around to the Garden of Eden with all the beauty that God created her from Adam’s own rib. So the serpent to Eve and the fruit that God had warned Adam never to taste, the serpent convinced Eve that it was the fruit of wisdom and that the old man (God), doesn’t want Adam to be wise so he got Adam to taste it and see; and that was where man fell.”

“… When anybody tells you that corruption was there from Adam, that person is not really endorsing corruption; no. The person is rather reminding you to go back to history and see how your forebear Adam fell so you become wiser not to go that way. But again, it became like a surrogate for Kufuor. Kufuor says corruption is as old as Adam, so anybody can continue; no. Kufuor never did that. Kufuor was rather trying to advise office holders to be careful because the temptations are thrown all over the place. Once you get into office, that’s the nature of power. Power attracts, and it attracts in ways that if the holder is not careful, he will end up in disgrace. So yes; I was there alright; but I kept reminding myself; I didn’t pretend that I could easily overcome the weaknesses; but I kept reminding myself of how others fell so as to keep myself in check from pursuing my natural inclinations many times so that was what saved me”.