There
is this renowned Burkinabe based road contractor by name, Jibriel Kanazoe who has
been coming to Ghana since 2003 apparently to seek for contracts but was never
successful until he was introduced to President John Mahama (then as Veep).
According to the man himself, he was introduced to the President by a
contractor in 2011, Mike Aidoo (obviously a friend of government). This is Mr.
Kanazoe talking, “one day, he (Mike Aidoo) told me he knew the vice president
(John Mahama) so let’s go and salute (greet) him. And I showed him what we do
in Burkina Faso. And we became friends (Kanazoe and Mahama). We talk a lot! We
talk a lot. One day when my father died, he sent a delegation (which was led by
a Minister of State, Mark Woyongo) to my village to salute the family” he said.
So the decision to establish friendship with His Excellency John Mahama was
purely for business expediency and nothing else.
After
establishing this relationship with Vice President Mahama who later became
President in 2012 after Mills’ demise, Mr. Kanazoe started getting contracts in
Ghana. In fact, when asked how he got to know about a particular contract in
relation to the construction of a fence wall for the Ghana Embassy in
Ouagadougou, Mr. Kanazoe stated that the Ghana Embassy rather wrote to his
company to request for price quotations for the project, which is in clear
VIOLATION of the explicit provisions in the Public Procurement Act which states
that any contract beyond GHc 20,000 must necessarily be opened to COMPETITIVE
TENDERING. This contract alone costed the Ghanaian taxpayer over US$656,000. Kanozoe
said his company submitted the quotes as requested and got the job…. as easy as
that.
The Fence Wall that is costing a whopping $ 650,000
These
revelations came to light when officials of Bank of Ghana appeared before the
Public Accounts Committee in September, 2014. The MPs were so shocked about
this outrageous figure and thus, ordered for an immediate investigation to
unravel the mystery. It was at this juncture that Manasseh Azure of joy fm
decided to conduct a probe into this matter for the love of God and country. After
his painstaking investigation which took him to Burkina Faso and also after speaking
with all the people that matter, it emerged that President Mahama may have
influenced this decision after incontrovertible evidence revealed that Mr.
Kanazoe gave President Mahama a brand new Ford Expedition, worth US$100,000 the
same year he won the contract.
Government
itself has admitted that the said vehicle was indeed given to John Mahama, the
President but chose to describe it as a “gift” without shame. Mr. Kanozoe says
the President personally called to thank him after receiving the car. Government’s
defense was that the vehicle was added to the official pool of vehicles at the
Presidency to be used by the State in accordance to a certain established
convention, which they refused to tell us. Meanwhile, facts are that, the
vehicle was given to the president (according to the giver himself) and not
meant for the State. Again, there is no such convention which government is
talking about.
In 2012, Mr. Kanozoe won another contract (worth € 25 million) to construct the Dodo Pepeso-Nkwanta road which is part of the eastern corridor roads. This road was commissioned by President Mahama in April 2016 and these were his exact words, “I want to take this opportunity to thank Messrs Oumarou Kanazoe Construction Limited of Burkina Faso for the very high quality of work they have done on this stretch of road. As I have said, perhaps this is one of the best quality roads in Ghana today and I will urge the Minister of Roads and Highways to bring other contractors to come and see so that they can emulate it in other parts of the country” (President Mahama said this on April 19, 2016). Meanwhile, media reports have confirmed that this same road has started developing potholes as we speak.
The
Ministry of Roads and for that matter government, was in the process of
awarding another GH¢ 82 million SOLE SOURCING CONTRACT to this same Mr. Kanozoe
to construct the “Wa-Hamile road” which again contravenes our laws (the Public
Procurement Act). However, because of
these scandalous and mindboggling revelations, Mr. Kanazoe now says he wouldn’t
take the job anymore. Because of the apparent rush to dole out this contract to
Kanozoe and justify same, government talks about “Wa-Hamile road” which in
fact, does not exist. What we have is rather Jirapa-Hamile road which is yet to
be constructed. That is the sad narrative of how governance in this country has
been reduced to; purely, family and friends business.
BREACHES OF LAW, CONSTITUTION AND
CONVENTION
It
is clear that the president’s action has occasioned several constitutional
breaches and contravention of laws and conventions. His reprehensible conduct
has brought international embarrassment to Ghana and subjected his High Office
into ridicule and disrepute, a development that violates several provisions in
the 1992 Constitution of Ghana including Article 284. The President has also
violated CHRAJ Regulations and Guidelines for Public Office Holders as well as
HIS OWN CODE OF ETHICS issued in 2013 which states among other things that, a public
officer should NOT accept a gift, favour or advantage that has the POTENTIAL to
influence the proper discharge of his judgement, from a person with whom the
public officer comes into contact with. It also states that “to avoid the CREATION
or APPEARANCE of an obligation, gifts in cash or kind should not be solicited
or ACCEPTED (my emphasis) from a commercial enterprise or any other
organization…..”.
Daniel Bartidan and Mannesseh
In
shedding more light on these provisions, the President’s own advisor on
corruption and governance Mr. Daniel Bartidan emphatically stated that “it will
be IRRESPONSIBLE for any public official, much less a president to accept a
gift worth US$ 100,000. Gifts can do qualify as brides. They are a very high
potential ground for corruption. The president is the number one public officer
and anything to do with the conduct of public officers begins and ends with
him”, he added. Whilst Bartidan thinks the president’s conduct is
IRRESPONSIBLE, the celebrated international policy analyst and founder of Imani
Ghana/Africa, Mr. Franklin Cudjo thinks that the president was CARELESS to have
accepted such a gift so called.
The
former commissioner of CHRAJ, Justice Emile Short also states that “a gift”
that is not given in public and is of significant value qualifies as BRIBE. No
one can convince me that US$100,000 is insignificant. Emile Short also
intimates that because it is difficult to prove actual conflict of interest or
bribe, that is why the constitution puts emphasis on PUBLIC PERCEPTION or
POTENTIAL conflict of interest; so the standard of proof is not high. Perhaps
this explains why it was easier of president Mahama and the CJ to sack the
judges that were captured in Anas’ video accepting gifts in the forms of tubers
of yam, goats, beans etc which the president described as bribes. Yet he now
thinks that the US$100,000 car gift he received from the contractor who has
business interest in Ghana doesn’t qualify as bribe. How ironic!
Other legitimate questions/concerns
cudgeling the minds of Ghanaians in this MahamaFord scandal include:
1)
Why did Mr. Kanazoe, at first
instance, categorically deny that he gave a car gift (brand new Ford Expedition)
to President John Mahama until he was confronted with documentary evidence by
Mannaseh to the contrary? Isn’t this a tacit admission of a wrongdoing?
2)
If Mannaseh hadn’t investigated this
matter, how would Ghanaians know that our President has accepted a “gift” from
a foreign contractor who has been struggling to secure a contract in Ghana?
3)
How many more “gifts” has the
president taken from private contractors who have business interest in Ghana
behind our back?
4)
If the President didn’t need the “car
gift” as we are now being told by government, then why did he accept it?
Couldn’t he have suggested to his good friend, Mr. Kanazoe to rather donate the
car to the State? Why did he (president
Mahama) have to call the giver (Mr. Kanazoe) to personally thank him for the
donation?
5)
Why was the vehicle registered as a
“used” vehicle which was cleared at Tema port
when in fact, the vehicle was a brand new one and never passed through
Tema port as confirmed by the giver and the ambassador who facilitated the transportation
of the car into Ghana.
6)
Why was gift tax NOT paid on the car
as stipulated in our laws?
7)
If government claims the vehicle was
meant for the State, why was it registered in somebody’s name and duty of GHc
23,646.41 paid on the vehicle. Why is it that all the registration details are
now missing from the records of the DVLA?
8)
Why has government failed to provide
any evidence to prove that the car has indeed been added to the so called pool
of vehicles at the presidency? If so, is the car there as the President’s
private property especially because it was NOT registered in the name of the
State?
9)
Why would a president who “sacked”
judges for accepting gifts in the forms of tubers of yam, goats, beans etc
which he (the president) described as bribes; yet see nothing wrong with him
accepting a US$100,000 car gift from a contractor who has business interest in
Ghana?
10) Why
was the Public Procurement Act breached on three occasions in favour of Mr.
Kanazoe, the president’s friend? Why did the President himself violate the 1992
constitution of Ghana, CHRAJ Regulation as well as his own code of ethics?
In
fact, the questions are endless…
CONCLUSION
From
the foregoing, it is abundantly clear that a lot has gone wrong which cannot be
justified by any stretch of imagination. The conduct of our President in this
unfolding saga has been most incurably reprehensible. Any attempt to justify
this disservice can only be an exercise in terminal ineptitude and futility.
Therefore, the least we expect from President John Mahama is to be REMORSEFUL and
APOLOGETIC to Ghanaians for bringing shame to this country and subjecting his
office to public ridicule and disrepute. The Constitution of Ghana, precisely
Article 69 makes it clear that this is enough ground for impeaching the
president. Even though I do not think this impeachment will be successful
because the NDC has majority in Parliament, I still think the impeachment
process must be activated in order to serve as deterrent precedence for future
presidents.
Fellow
Ghanaian electorates, as we head to the polls on November/December 7, we must
make a strong case of our strong abhorrence for corruption because it is the
gravamen of developmental woes as a nation. With this albatross on the neck of
the NDC flagbearer, candidate John Mahama, I am not sure he can boldly say that
he is incorruptible, he has never been corrupt, he cannot be corrupt and will
demand same of all his appointees WITHOUT being challenged. But who am I to
decide for you? I however want to believe in your sense of discernment to rise
to the occasion on the D-Day and take a decision that Ghana will forever be
proud of. [END OF STORY]
Thank
you.
Compiled
by a concerned Ghanaian in the struggle for God and country.
IDDI
MUHAYU-DEEN
Youth
Activist/Social Commentator
Former
NUGS Secretary
(0245335197)
Please,
it is shareable…
