Former President John Mahama has admitted that dealing with corruption is one of the most difficult tasks for presidents.
He indicated that it was due to the persons that were usually involved in the practice and in most instances, the people implicated in the corrupt act were closely related.
“The important aspect of decision-making for presidents is dealing with corruption, it is not as easy as you think it is, sometimes the person who has been involved in corruption is somebody that you know well and probably somebody who has been a member of your team, but unfortunately, has fallen by the wayside,” former President Mahama pointed out.
He made the admission at a lecture at Academic City University College on a Leadership Seminar Series by the university designed as part of its efforts to nurture next generation of African leaders.
It was aimed at ensuring knowledge developed in class is directly applied to address contemporary societal challenges and it is expected that the course will provide platform for students to interact with renowned African leaders who have transcended from political, innovation, education, and industrial realms through sheer force of will and have impacted many lives.
Former President Mahama, who took the students through what leadership entails, said when that happened, as a president, gather courage to act to serve as deterrent to others and cited two instances he had to deal with during his tenure in which one of the culprits resigned and the other was imprisoned but pardoned by government on health grounds.
“There had been procurement that had taken place and the minister had not gone through the procurement processes properly and as a result, there was an accusation the cost of procurement was far above what it should be which created a major scandal for the government.
“I asked the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and the Chief of Staff at the time to investigate the allegations which they did and report confirmed procurement processes has not gone through
properly, I called the minister involved and she tendered her resignation.
“Punishing persons involved in corrupt practices has not been the case with the current government, unfortunately that is part of the problem we are facing today the President cannot sack people who have been accused of corruption.
“Leadership is about responsibility and decision making, you must accept responsibility for position you occupy, as a leader, people look up to you to take responsibility and based upon that responsibility, take decisive action because you cannot take proper decisions when you have not accepted responsibility for taking those decisions,” former President Mahama postulated challenges with acquisition of the Ghana Card.
The EC has repetitively assured the citizenry it has no intention to use Ghana Card as source of identification for 2024 general election and would continue to issue voters to any consultation in whatsoever form that agreed to make Ghana Card sole identification document for upcoming limited voter registration exercise and has served notice it will use all legitimate means to oppose decision by EC to use Ghana Card as sole identification document for voter registration.
Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, a former chairman of the Commission, also contended that any attempt by the commission to use Ghana Card as sole document for voter registration would lead to disenfranchisement of millions of Ghanaians for which reason the C.I should be looked at again before Parliament gave approval.
Mr Bagbin insisted that the independence of arms meant neither the Executive nor the Judiciary control both arm and that was what separation of powers was about and they must work together because Parliament leads governments by passing the law to create the commission.
