ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
Indeed, the leader and Flag-bearer of the NDC, and the next President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E John Dramani Mahama is on record to have served notice that he will abrogate the deal when elected.
And the entire NDC, have vehemently opposed what we considered to be a corrupt deal, cooked within the corridors of power for the benefit of a few greedy family relatives of President Akufo Addo, at the expense of the State.
These issues that we in the NDC have constantly raised relative to the “Agyapa” deal, are what the Special Prosecutor has come to confirm.
The Corruption Risk Assessment conducted on the “Agyapa” scandal by the Special Prosecutor confirms our long-held position that the whole Agyapa deal is daylight robbery.
As found by the OSP, the transaction processes and Mandate Agreement violated the Public Procurement Act, the Financial Management Act, and the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, hence null and void.
As a matter of fact, the processes leading to the transaction agreements and Mandate Agreement were shady, opaque, and fraught with procurement rigging, stonewalling, fraud, statutory and constitutional breaches.
The valuation of our gold royalties and transaction agreements that President Akufo Addo and his corrupt New Patriotic Party approved was a ripoff and an affront to the sovereignty of our dear nation.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, the OSP has found, that the Mandate Agreement under which billions of cedis have been paid to companies like Databank, which is owned by the President’s cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of President Akufo Addo, Gabby Otchere Darko and their foreign partners, are illegal and therefore null and void.
What Ghanaians must be interested in at this stage, are the steps the Akufo Addo government is taking to retrieve the illegal payments that they have made to these companies.
This is because you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand.
If the agreements under which these companies were made are null and void, then so are the payments made thereto, hence must be refunded to the State.
Friends from the media, the NDC is appalled by the refusal of President Akufo Addo to crack the whip on the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta who supervised this daylight heist, and his Deputy, Charles Adu Boahen, who fraudulently signed the Mandate Agreement when he had no locus to do so under our laws.
It is sad but unsurprising, that these government officials who are responsible for the shady Agyapa deal which has occasioned a huge financial loss to the nation, are still at post.
In any serious country, Ken Ofori Atta and Charles Adu Boahen would have been suspended pending criminal investigations or under criminal prosecution by now.
Sadly, in our case, President Akufo Addo has decided to shield these corrupt officials from punishment, as he usually does.
We must state without any equivocation, that the attitude of President Akufo Addo who has earned the unenviable reputation of being the “Chief Corruption Clearing Agent”, does not come as a surprise to us in the NDC.
This is exactly what nepotism does to a country.
It completely blinds leaders and weakens their ability to crack the whip on their errant and corrupt appointees.
We are therefore not surprised that President Akufo Addo has not shown any interest whatsoever, in punishing his corrupt officials who have been found culpable in this Agyapa imbroglio and retrieving billions of taxpayers monies that have been paid under the shady deal.
President Akufo Addo has time and again, proven to be the chief enabler and promoter of corruption in his government.
He has continuously defended and shielded his corrupt officials from punishment since he took office as was witnessed in the BOSTGATE corruption scandal, PDS scandal, Missing excavators scandal, Australian VISA fraud scandal, just to mention a few.
Indeed, the fact that President Akufo Addo himself blessed this shady “Agyapa” deal from the beginning and continues to affirm his confidence in his cousin the Finance Minister, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of corruption against him, speaks to his complicity in this whole “Agyapa” scam.
The evidence shows that President Akufo-Addo, was the very person who approved the stinking Agyapa deal and supervised the illegal payments made to companies owned by his cousins and their cronies, in flagrant violation of our laws and against the national interest.
President Akufo Addo was the chief mastermind and promoter of the shady Agyapa deal, hence cannot be trusted to bring his accomplices like Ken Ofori Atta and Charles Adu Boahen to book.
This is why we in the NDC, continue to take on President Akufo Addo by exposing the pervasive cronyism and nepotism that he has been superintending over.
Nepotism and corruption are inseparable bedfellows.
Nepotism will always breed corruption.
With his family and friends occupying various key positions within this government and the state machinery, it goes without saying that President Akufo-Addo lacks the moral high ground to stem the tide of corruption and malfeasance that have engulfed his government.
President Akufo Addo and his government can never recover from the embarrassment that this “Agyapa” deal has brought to them.
Indeed, many were those in this government, including their surrogates who defended this fraud in the face of overwhelming evidence, that this vehicle called “Agyapa” was one vitiated with cronyism and illegality.
The NPP Majority caucus in Parliament used their numbers to railroad illegality in support of the family and friends’ cabal at the helm of affairs today.
Now, here we are, with President Akufo-Addo yet again trying to shift blame, by shamelessly directing the deal to go back to Parliament.
Why should a bill which emanated from the Executive and passed unanimously by the majority caucus in Parliament, now be portrayed as though it was an error of judgement on the part of Parliament?
Friends, we are sorry to disappoint President Akufo Addo, but there is absolutely no way he can exculpate himself from blame in this “Agyapa” matter.
Friends from the media, we wish to submit forcefully, that the findings of Procurement rigging, fraud, potential money laundering and corruption, among others, border on serious offenses that cannot be remedied by any Parliamentary review of the deal as is being urged on us by President Akufo Addo.
These issues can only and must be addressed through the criminal justice system of this country.
The Special Prosecutor ought to be reminded that he is mandated by law to investigate and prosecute among other offenses, breaches of the Public Procurement Law, and the other offenses he has uncovered through his investigations into this Agyapa scam.
The OSP must conduct criminal investigations into this matter and ensure that anyone who directly or indirectly played any role in this Agyapa scam, faces the full rigors of the law.
That is the only way we can salvage the failing fight against corruption in our country.
Ladies and Gentlemen, is it not intriguing and most bizarre, that President Akufo-Addo in his official response to the verdict of the Special Prosecutor, urged the nation to defer proceedings on this “Agyapa” daylight robbery until after the upcoming elections?
Why does the President want this bad deal to be revived in the unlikely event he wins the upcoming election?
To all intents and purposes, ladies and gentlemen, President Akufo-Addo has not given up on the Agyapa deal, neither is he a man who is interested in safeguarding state resources and promoting the collective good of the Ghanaian people.
He doesn’t care about you and I. All our President dreams about, is four more years to steal more; four more years to promote cronyism and shady nepotistic deals like the Agyapa deal; and four more years to advance his family’s rape of the nation’s resources.
Colleagues from the media, this must stop somewhere.
Our nation cannot continue with this kind of leadership.
President Akufo Addo and the NPP cannot be trusted with another mandate to handle the affairs of this country.
Ghanaians can simply not afford four more years of such grand, calculated stealing of our resources.
On 7th December, the Ghanaian people will remember that “Agyapa” still remains a fraudulent vehicle that Akufo Addo and his cronies in government are hellbent on using to control our gold royalties in perpetuity.
Ghanaians will remember how President Akufo Addo and his cousins cooked up this whole Agyapa scam for themselves and their cronies.
President Akufo Addo has proven beyond every doubt, that he is a FAMILY BUILDER and not a NATION BUILDER.
And we know without a shudder of doubt, that Ghanaians will kick him out on 7th December and vote for the visionary Nation Builder, John Dramani Mahama to come and create prosperity for all and not a select few and restore our beloved country back to the path of development and true progress.
The NDC hereby demands, that President Akufo retrieves for the state the billions of cedis his government has illegally paid under the shady “Agyapa” deal to Databank, which is owned by his cousin and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta; African Legal Associates, which is owned by another cousin of his, Gabby Otchere Darko; and their foreign compradors, within the next 7 days, failing which the NDC and other like-minded progressive forces, shall embark on series of protest and legal actions to ensure that every pesewa paid to these companies are refunded back to the State for nation building.
Finally, we must serve notice, that this “Agyapa” scam, like other similar corrupt acts of the Akufo Addo government, will not go unpunished.
We have just about twenty-seven days to Vote for Change like the Americans have done.
The new government of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama and the NDC “Insha Allah”, shall investigate this “Agyapa” robbery and punish all the culprits and masterminds behind it through the Operation Sting crusade.
Let it be known that crime has no expiry date.
THEME Ghana’s democracy under the Fourth Republic – Gains, Challenges and Prospects 10 a.m.
Monday, September 12, 2022, Ho, Volta East Region.
His excellency the president of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Representative of his lordship the chief justice, justice jones victor Mawulorm Dotse, Honourable ministers of state, The chairman of the conference and president of the Ghana Bar Association, Yaw Acheampong Boafo, The Volta Regional Minister, Dr.
Archibald Letsa, Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, Deputy Attorney General, Diana Asona Dapaah, Members of the Bar Council, The president of the Volta Regional Bar, Members of the Bar, Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, friends of the media I am pleased to be called upon to deliver this address.
I always look forward to the annual bar conference with great anticipation for this simple reason.
Apart from a discussion of germane issues of national concern, it presents a distinct opportunity to enjoy the company of the bar, judicial and other colleagues away from the adversarial arena.
Comradeship and collegiality are key cornerstones of our profession.
They nurture courtesy, industry and appropriate ethical conduct.
Taking a look around the hall, I cannot but fail to place on record that, indeed, we are a strong bar, in quality and in quantity.
I find the theme for this year’s conference – “Democracy in the Fourth Republic, Gains, Prospects and Challenges ”- so relevant to the current circumstances of the nation that I elect to stay within it for the purpose of this address, even though I have been given a blank cheque.
If for any reason I veer outside the parameters of the theme, let all be reminded that at the Bar Conference, the Attorney-General has a licence to speak on any topic at all.
The record shows that the people of this land have in unmistakable terms, always registered their desire to live under a democratic form of government.
The “Bond of 1844”, executed on 6 March 1844, even though was the first attempt by the British to formalise the hitherto undetermined relations between themselves and the people of the Gold Coast, was the culmination of agitation against the dictatorship of Governor George Maclean.
The formation of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society in 1897, which survived the withdrawal of the two Land Bills of 1894 and 1897 in respect of which the Society had been formed, constituted the fulcrum for agitation for constitutional reform in the Gold Coast.
The United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was formed in 1947 to resist colonial rule, and this paved the way for the independence of the Gold Coast a decade later.
Such was the appetite of the people of this country for democratic governance that, after over twenty years of the imposition of military dictatorship between 1972 and 1993, apart from that brief period of democracy from 1979 to 1981, the citizens of Ghana overwhelmingly expressed their choice to live under a democracy.
Thus, on 28 th April 1992, the people of Ghana in an overwhelming vote of 92.59%, being “Yes” votes, adopted the Constitution 1992.
That Constitution prescribed a form of government universally touted to be the best means of assuring a determination by the citizenry of the kind of leadership deemed fit for the country at all times, that is, democracy.
Ever since, Ghana has been the beacon of the quest for democracy, good governance and generally, the rule of law in Africa.
Mr President, that democracy is the best form of government, is a fact of history.
The acclaimed British statesman, Sir Winston Churchill, in his address to the British Parliament in November 1947, stated: “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.
Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
In the view of Churchill, therefore, all other forms of government tried in the course of human history are worse than democracy, even if democracy is perceived to be the worst form of government.
An illustrious and very distinguished son of Ghana, the former UN Secretary-General, our own Dr Kofi Annan (may his soul rest in peace), observed in a speech at CDD’s Kronti ne Akwamu Lecture in June 2016 thus: “Ghana has thrived under democracy since it was reintroduced [under the Fourth Republic], and our society, as well as our economy, have thrived as a result.
We must never stop reminding ourselves of that fact.
Yes, our country has its problems, but all countries have problems.”
In my respectful view, the attributes of a sound democratic state are ultimately the same as the objects of the Rule of Law.
I regard seven (7) of these attributes as the most important.
These are: The right of individual citizens of the land of sound mind and reasonable age to vote at regular elections- with each individual entitled to one vote under the principle of “one man, one vote”; The existence of a majority rule, i.e.
where a party secures the vote of more than half or the majority of the votes of the eligible electorate or such amount of votes prescribed by the laws of the country; The entitlement of each individual of a statutorily prescribed age to offer himself for a political office; A freely elected government accountable to the people; Where the government loses the confidence of the people, that government must be changed through a constitutionally established procedure and not through any coup d’etat or other violent means.
The existence of independent arms of government – the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, with each performing distinct roles and mindful of the limits to their constitutionally imposed functions.
It is, however, worthy to point out that though the three branches of government are independent, they are also inter-dependent, as it pertains to every democracy.
A free and responsible media cognisant of not only its rights but also its responsibilities as regards free expression and the rights and dignity of members of the society.
Importance of the role of the Electoral Commission in Ghana’s democracy These vital elements of a democracy show that the conduct of elections is the bedrock of democracy itself.
National elections represent a pre-eminent and, I will say, an undeniable vehicle for the electorate of every country (the people) to exercise real power over how they are governed and by whom.
It is imperative, therefore, for the body constitutionally charged with the organisation of free and fair elections in a democracy to live up to its constitutional duties.
I am pleased to observe that over the course of time, the Electoral Commission of Ghana clearly has demonstrated a sound understanding of the sacred responsibility it bears to the people of Ghana to organise elections in a manner prescribed by the Constitution.
This clear understanding of its basic duty to hold credible elections was firmly established in 2020, when under the most trying conditions forced upon the world by COVID-19, the Electoral Commission of Ghana remained unshaken in its quest to give to the people of Ghana an opportunity to select their own leadership.
The Electoral Commission indeed rose to the occasion and delivered an internationally affirmed free, fair, and perhaps, the most transparent elections in Ghana since the inception of the Fourth Republican Constitution.
Such was the credibility of the election that the complaints of unfairness made in the Supreme Court by a losing candidate in the Presidential election, strangely bordering on allegations of “ wrong aggregation of votes ” and “ vote padding ,” even though proven to be untrue at the trial, collectively involved a meagre 6,622 votes – an amount patently insignificant to materially affect the outcome of an election in which the winner won by well over 500,000 votes.
It is important to note that the total number of registered voters in the last election was 17,027,941.
The total number of valid votes cast (definitely less than the turn out) was over 13 million.
Without belabouring the point, I allude to these figures to demonstrate that the appetite of the people of Ghana to freely choose their leaders in the generally acclaimed best way remained the same even in the teeth of COVID-19.
I consider it fitting as the leader of the Bar, to call on lawyers to support the Electoral Commission as presently constituted, to persist in its quest to deliver for the nation a free, fair and credible election capable of measuring up to the test of international standards, and also for the Bar to resist the misguided and parochial efforts of certain characters to undermine our democracy through unwarranted attacks on the Electoral Commission.
The Judiciary and the legal system of Ghana Of the three branches of government, the one whose functions I daresay, is crucially indispensable and fundamental to our existence as a country, whether under democratic governance or not, is the Judiciary.
It thus cannot be far-fetched why, even upon a military take-over, the Judiciary is the only organ of government preserved.
It is the Judiciary which gives to the nation both certainty and clarity of the law.
The effect of the work of the Judiciary permeates every facet of our nation’s life.
Lack of confidence in the integrity of the judicial and legal system holds back investment, trade and hopes of prosperity in countries that desperately need that investment and trade.
So, it is important to say this morning that, for me, the rule of law and the independence of the courts sit at the very heart of our society and our democracy.
We cannot underestimate the enormity and complexity of the work of the Judiciary.
Judges are often called upon to make decisions on some of the most difficult moral, social, economic and political questions.
They are decisions that very few of us would feel comfortable making.
However, it is judges, with their wisdom derived from long experience, intellect, discipline and knowledge of the law, that shoulder the grave responsibility for adjudicating on those issues in furtherance of the principle that justice should be done.
As Attorney-General, I have not had every ruling on cases contested by me in the courts go in my favour.
An example is the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Ezuame Mannan vrs.
the Attorney-General and the Speaker of Parliament in which the Supreme Court by a 3-2 decision, declared section 43 of the Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019) as unconstitutional.
But when I look back at that case, regardless of my own views on the questions being judged ( and of course, I have taken steps in accordance with due process to lodge a review against the decision ), it seems to me that what it actually does illustrate is a very profound constitutional principle in which all of us should take pride namely, that an aggrieved citizen can go to an independent Supreme Court and challenge anyone, including their elected government and Parliament, and be confident that the Court will give a decision without fear or favour.
This is because we live in a country governed by the rule of law, not the rule of men or women.
This country has gained a worldwide reputation for its justice system and legal services.
Central to that reputation is the integrity of her Judiciary and the quality of judgments emanating from our courts, with decisions of our Superior Courts cited in cases in other jurisdictions.
Our courts are recognised throughout the world for their excellence and openness to innovation.
Chief Justice Azu Crabbe in 1976 summed up the contribution of our legal system to the progress of the nation, on the occasion of the centenary celebration of the establishment of the Supreme Court in these words: “ If our legal history has been eventful in this past century, we can also say that we have been lucky in the people of our nation who have been alive, in every generation, to match the grandeur of the events of their time.
We have, in these years past, never needed a hero in the law to speak up for our people, - a Casely-Hayford to warn the imperial power to keep our lands inviolate; a Mensah Sarbah to plead the people’s cause in the highest councils of the Empire; a Coussey to guide in the writing of our first constitution towards independence, in our own lifetime, a Danquah to keep us reminded of the need for legal self-discipline in the tumultuous years immediately after independence, and a Korsah to hold, first among our people, the scales of justice evenly between the Government, the Legislature and the people”.
Subsequently, decisions of the Supreme Court in cases like Tuffour v. Attorney-General New Patriotic Party v. Attorney-General (the 31 st December Case), New Patriotic Party v. Ghana Broadcasting Corporation J. H. Mensah v. Attorney-General Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo & 2 Others v. John Mahama & Electoral Commission (the 2013 Presidential Election Petition), James Kwabena Bomfeh vrs.
the Attorney-General (the National Cathedral Case) , National Democratic Congress v. the Attorney-General and Electoral Commission (the voter registration case) and John Mahama vrs.
Nana Akufo-Addo & the Electoral Commission (the second Presidential Election Petition case) have had a pervasive and profound effect on the stability of our nation and the lifestyle of the people.
Former President Mahama’s unjustified attacks on the Judiciary The Judiciary has shown consistently that it is the last line of defence for our country.
It was thus with great dismay and embarrassment that I heard a person who has occupied the highest office of State, former President John Mahama, recently launch an unwarranted attack on the integrity of Ghana’s Judiciary.
And I observed that this was really the latest instalment of systematic and caustic attacks on our courts by the former President, albeit unjustified.
I am compelled to comment on same in this address because they border on the security of the state and constitute a deliberate pattern of conduct aimed at undermining the independence of the Judiciary, an arm of government whose autonomy is crucial to its proper functioning.
Such conduct is clearly deplorable, coming from one who has occupied the highest office of President and aspires again to that office.