President Akufo-Addo has described the corruption perception some Ghanaians have about him as “thoughtless” and just a figment of their imagination.
This comes as a response to the uproar that greeted his supposed retirement of former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo which was amplified by anti-graft activists; the President takes strong exception.
Many Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have criticized and questioned President’ Akufo-Addo’s anti-corruption tag after the coerced removal of Domelevo from office.
According to these CSOs, the President has failed to fight corruption and is rather fighting those fighting corruption which in effect defeats his much-touted aversion for corruption.
One of these comments came in from the co-founder and Executive Director of Afrobarometer, Prof Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi who strongly condemned the government’s resolve to fight corruption after Domelevo was retired.
He commented: “as for the President’s credibility in terms of anti-corruption, I am afraid to say it is in tatters. It has been in tatters for a while but this puts a nail in the coffin. I see Domelevo as a victim of well-orchestrated actions by individuals who are [government] officials and by state institutions,”.
President Akufo-Addo was clearly rubbed the wrong way by this comment and has not taken it lightly. In response, the President has said these comments were baseless and were made without any prior critical reasoning.
“It is, thus, very disappointing to hear a very senior and otherwise distinguished member of civil society make such loose and thoughtless statements like the President’s credibility on anti-corruption is in ‘tatters’ and ‘has been in tatters for a while, and that the compulsory retirement of Mr Domelevo puts the nail in the coffin of the President’s credibility.”
“Such statements are not based on facts and driven likely by emotions. The fact is that the President’s credibility on anti-corruption is unmatched and no amount of misconceived opinions can change that.”
“It is noteworthy that no sound of caution or condemnation was heard from you or your colleagues in civil society when Mr Domelevo was using his office to engage in such unacceptable and unconscionable conduct. Indeed, a less charitable perspective would be that this was a patent abuse of office. Yet, there was no chatter from our friends of Civil Society,” the statement added.
The President’s statement concluded by saying Domelevo’s work as Auditor-General was not as embarrassing to his governments as many perceive.
