Dr. Ishmael Yamson, a renowned business management consultant, has stated that every leader since Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has left Ghana bankrupt.
The guy known as a giant in the private sector for his significant contributions to corporate growth expressed these comments in an interview with Joy News’ Evans Mensah.
Dr Yamson, speaking on a yet-to-air edition of PM Express on Joy News, criticised the suspected vote-buying during the recently concluded presidential primaries of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to the octogenarian, corruption in Ghana has hit a tipping point and is only getting worse.
If anything has developed in my opinion, it is corruption. We just finished the NPP primaries, and I was startled, not to mention irritated, that someone would have the arrogance to claim, “We paid 4,000, and some paid 2,000.” As a result, our leadership is up for grabs to the highest bidder.
The corporate titan was especially worried about how vote-buying promotes corruption after politicians are in government.
The economist also blamed political party money for Ghana’s widespread corruption.
“Now, when that man or woman has paid all that money to acquire the position, to go to parliament, where is he going to get the money to pay back? I have a clip that I have been showing to people. Someone who has contested parliament and sat in parliament offered to say that yes we paid. My competitors paid, I didn’t pay that much but they paid and I also paid.”
There’s no shame even about telling people that you got that position not on merit but only because you could raise more money, or bribe your way into that office. And he actually answered the question; ‘when I get there whose money do you think I am going to use but state money? I will make sure I get the money and pay.”
So, I think that we have a problem with corruption and we have to accept it” he noted.
Helping others to buy our votes will not in any way change Ghana. It will not change this country” he stressed angrily.
“This country, for as long as we have leaders who have come into office indebted to people and they have to pay them back, Evans I am sorry. I am painting too bleak a picture, but it’s the reality” he told the host.
According to Dr. Ishmael Evans Yamson, President Akufo-Addo has failed to combat corruption. He only mentioned Ghana’s first president as someone who stood up to corruption, adding that all subsequent presidents, including the current President, had failed miserably, leaving the country bankrupt at the end of their terms.
“…Because even if you yourself as an individual have not dipped your hands into the state coffers, what about all your followers and what have you done about them?”
He criticized President Akufo-Addo for his commentary on the case involving the former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Dapaah, who stashed millions of cedis in her home.
“My greatest disappointment was when recently we had a case about a Minister who had so much money in her home, and the President said he hoped her integrity would be proven in the end. Why would the President even get involved in this when there are state agencies handling the matter?.”
If you are our leader and you say you trust the person, how do you expect the people following you to go and say the person cannot be trusted; it’s not possible. I don’t think he [President Akufo-Addo] has been able to stamp down corruption in this country; he hasn’t.
“Because if he has, then all the scandals that come up day after day, why hasn’t he taken firm action to deal with all those things and stop them? Why isn’t any of his people who have been found culpable not in jail?” he asked.
