In this sharp political commentary, Felix Anim-Appau draws a powerful parallel between the swift punishment of a hungry young man jailed for stealing a bunch of plantain and the persistent impunity enjoyed by Ghanaian public officials who have cost the state an estimated GH₵100 billion through financial irregularities over the past decade. The author argues that while President John Mahama has delivered notable economic improvements since taking office, his legacy will ultimately be judged not by falling inflation or stable exchange rates, but by whether he breaks the cycle of corruption that has defined successive administrations.

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Why President Mahama must not be the new Akufo-Addo

By Felix Anim-Appau

It was a normal week day at Assin Sibinso, my father’s hometown in the Assin South district of the Central region, almost two and a half decades ago.

I was visiting some teacher friends of mine after school when I saw Kwadwo Amoako, a young man in his mid to late twenties then, having been arrested by the residents for stealing a bunch of plantain because he was hungry.

He was beaten to pulp, paraded through the major streets of the community and later handed over to the police. Kwadwo was arraigned, convicted, and sentenced to two years imprisonment for stealing. There was no consideration for the fact that he was answering to nature’s call- hunger.

It’s been a while since I went to church but I remember in Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28, and Luke 6:1-5, Jesus and his disciples harvested some corn and ate because they were hungry. Matthew 12:1 puts it as follows:

“At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them”.

The grain didn’t belong to them but it is interpreted by Bible scholars that once they were harvesting to eat and not to sell, it didn’t constitute stealing. If what the Bible says is anything to go by, it means if a man is hungry and takes something little to satisfy his hunger, that should not be deemed stealing.

But Ghana has laws which are incongruous with what’s in the Bible.So, what Kwadwo did is not permitted by Ghanaian laws. Because of that, he was beaten, shamed and jailed in addition.Ghana travel guide

The Auditor-General’s Report
In 2012, when Captain Smart assumed duty at Adom FM as the host of the morning show, the editorial segment dubbed: Fabɛwɔso, was mainly focused on the Report of the Auditor-General (A-G). When I became his Production Assistant in 2017, I had the opportunity to keep in my custody, some copies of the Report. Till date, I still have with me some photocopies of the malfeasance recorded by some state institutions at the time. It started in millions of cedis before increasing to billions.

According to the Auditor-General’s reports over the past decade as reported by Graphic.com, financial irregularities including misappropriation, cash irregularities, procurement breaches, and payroll fraud have cost the state approximately GH₵99.57 billion between 2014 and 2023.TV Shows & Programs

I have never been a friend of Mathematics, but I still remember that when a decimal is five or more, you can round it up to the nearest figure. So, in ten years, this nation lost GH₵100 billion to ‘public servants’ per the A-G’s report.

Public servants and politicians do what Kwadwo did, harvesting where they have not planted, and because they use pens and computers, unlike Kwadwo, who harvested someone’s plantain, or the armed robber who pulled a knife or a gun to rob, their acts have been classified with “nice adjectives” that do not present a true picture of their deeds.

Instead of describing their acts as stealing and labeling them as thieves, we say “financial irregularities,” categorised into misappropriation, cash irregularities, procurement breaches, payroll fraud, and a host of others. Oh, I forgot that other nice name under which all these deeds are branded: Corruption.

Every year, the A-G comes out with a report and I am yet to count just ten people who have been jailed directly in relation to these malfeasance uncovered by the Auditor-General in at least, the last decade.

Public servants and politicians alike, take what belongs to the State everyday. They create, loot and share. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been playing political chairs with power, and whoever gets the opportunity to govern mess our funds up and go unpunished. It has become a ‘scratch my back and let me scratch your back’ situation. And the few moments one government attempts a prosecution on a political opponent, party foot soldiers besiege the premises of the security agency undertaking the investigations to demand the release of the accused. The process is branded political witch-hunt.Election coverage.

Sometimes, I struggle to understand the mentality of the Ghanaian. Because a person belongs to your political party, it becomes a crime for him to answer to how he expended State funds? Due to this, politicians and civil servants always team up and turn our resources into their own, leaving the poor tax payer at the mercy of posterity.

Scandals under both NPP and NDC
Several high-profile political scandals have occurred in Ghana under both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) administrations between 2009 and 2024. I am not saying the years prior to that were scandal-free.Ghana travel guide

But for the purposes of this discussion, I want to limit it to this period. These involved allegations of corruption, procurement breaches, and financial mismanagement, frequently sparking intense public debate and political finger-pointing. However, few weeks after the release of the report, sometimes even days, we will not hear about it again until the next report comes.

If Ghana were any serious country, people should have been languishing in jail for their corrupt deeds. But as usual, scratch my back and I scratch your back so we are still where we are. Let me share with you a few of the major scandals recorded under both governments between the period in question.

Some scandals under NDC administration (2009 to 2016)
GYEEDA Scandal (2013): The Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) was found to have paid millions of Ghana cedis to private companies through irregular, sole-sourced contracts for training and services that were largely non-existent.
SADA Guinea Fowl Scandal (2013): The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) spent millions of cedis on projects, including a widely criticised guinea fowl rearing project, with little to show for the investment.
AMERI Deal Scandal (2015): The US$510 million deal for AMERI Energy to supply 10 power turbines to address the power crisis was deemed by opposition MPs to be severely inflated by over US$150 million.

• Some scandals under NPP administration (2017 to 2024)
  BOST Contaminated Fuel Scandal (2017): The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) sold 5 million litres of contaminated fuel to unlicensed companies, causing a financial loss of about GHC 15 million in revenue to the state.
• US$2.25 Billion Bond Saga (2017): Then Finance Minister, Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, who is now a fugitive from justice, was accused of a conflict of interest, alleging that the bond was tailored to benefit his cronies in the banking sector.
  Cash for Seat Scandal (2018): Expatriate businesses were allegedly charged up to US$100,000 to sit close to President Akufo-Addo at an awards ceremony, sparking accusations of influence peddling.
• PDS Electricity Scandal (2019): The contract to manage Ghana’s electricity distribution was terminated after it was discovered that the Power Distribution Services (PDS) provided fraudulent bank guarantees.
• Agyapa Royalties Deal (2020/2021): The government’s plan to monetise future gold royalties via a listing in Jersey in the Channel Islands (a British Crown Dependency known as a tax haven) was suspended following a report by the Special Prosecutor citing corruption risks, lack of transparency, and procurement breaches.

These are just a few of the many corruption cases reported by the Auditor-General between the period under consideration. Causing financial loss to the State at the various departments and agencies as well as state institutions occurs every year.

The ones I mentioned are just those the public will be familiar with. But the question is, how many people can we count as having been jailed for these scandals?

However, Kwadwo Amoako, like other petty thieves, was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for taking someone’s plantain. As for those taking what belongs to the State, they are walking free. I wonder how this will not incentivise others to learn from those who have gone scot-free.

What influences the voting pattern of some of us
Mr. President, I know the wheels of justice turn slowly as you the politicians have always been telling us. But this time around, you must change the wheels if they’re old so they can move faster. We have been patient for too long and the political chairs have lingered for so many years.TV Shows & Programs

How long should we sit aloof for people to continue milking the state to enrich themselves and their families at the expense of the masses?

In his attempts to become President of the Republic, I voted for him because William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was known to be the ‘no-nonsense’ man who had no heart to tolerate an iota of corruption under his watch.

But what did we see? He turned out to be the ‘Clearer-General’ who was clearing his appointees of corruption even before investigations were conducted.

Because you have been there before and promised to recover every penny taken from the State, many Ghanaians who are not members of the NDC voted for you to see that become a reality due to the level of rot we witnessed under the erstwhile administration.Election coverage

When you were voted into power, I gave you an 18-month “honeymoon” to put things in place before I start critiquing you. Because I felt eight years of damage was too much to be demanding a lot from you in less than a year and a half.

It’s not 18 months yet and what I expected you to be able to do from 18 months on, you were able to do that in less than a year after taking over power. Talk of inflation, exchange rate, fuel prices and what have you.

With the trajectory of the economy as you inherited and where it is now, only a political hypocrite or sycophant would say you haven’t done anything. The economic indices are awesome and I dare say that with what we witnessed under the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, if they were still in power, Ghana’s exchange rate would have been hovering around 25 cedis to a dollar, with a litre of petrol not doing less than same amount.Ghana travel guide

This is based on global indices at their time compared to now, with the current tensions in the Middle East in perspective. Even though the NPP claim you didn’t do anything to achieve this economic feat, they couldn’t achieve same with the “something” they did at the time.

Why Mahama’s achievements will be ‘meaningless’ if…
Despite everything you have achieved and yet to achieve, for some of us, you’ll not be measured by how well the cedi stabilised under you, or how you improved the cost of living. You will not be in my good books for bringing down inflation or fuel prices. But the number of corrupt officials you were able to jail.

Many Ghanaians voted for you because of Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL). But how much have we recovered almost 18 months into your administration? Those who have been found by the Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine, to have plundered the nation into losses are still walking in town as if they haven’t done anything wrong.

On the contrary, those who steal goats, fowls, coins and foodstuffs to satisfy their hunger just like Kwadwo Amoako are handed the swiftest sentences because they are poor. Meanwhile, those who are making the nation lose millions and billions are walking free and all we see from your Attorney-General is update upon update upon updates. Sixteen months is enough to have at least, recorded some convictions.

Another Auditor-General’s report has come and this time around, we don’t want it to be business as usual. We need action. You should act. I am not an expert in law, but I know there are fast-track courts where some cases can be expedited for people found culpable to go to jail.

Or are we going to do the usual back and forth for your tenure to end so that a new government will come and file dozens of nolle prosequis to free their apogees on trial? We are watching you closely to see if you would let people pay for their deeds or it would be business as usual.

Conclusion
Dear Mr. President, the Auditor-General’s reports have become a recurring narrative of causing financial loss to the State and impunity, with perpetrators often escaping accountability every year, at least, since the commencement of the Fourth Republic.

From Rawlings to Akufo-Addo, the Public Accounts Committee hearings has only become a mere formality, with the pattern of corruption being repeated as same movie script with different actors.

Every administration makes an attempt with some prosecutions, but these efforts are often dismissed as politically motivated witch-hunts. But if there are witches, why shouldn’t we hunt them? Why do we shy away from holding those responsible accountable?

Every pesewa misappropriated by these public officials as contained in the Auditor-General’s reports tells us the opportunities we are missing. Our classrooms lack furniture, our communities lack potable water, while basic amenities have become alien to our vicinities. Yet the poor are punished for the petty crimes they commit, while those who loot the State coffers walk free.

Mr. President, I know you’re not directly responsible for jailing people who misappropriate state resources. It is the courts. But, before that could be done, your Attorney-General and Minister of Justice must initiate prosecution for such people to face justice. You promised to recover the loots and I know you knew what you meant when you made that promise.

If you fail to realise this achievement of making those responsible for such losses face the full rigours of the law, your achievements in other areas will be of no relevance to some of us. We will not remember the economic growth or infrastructural projects you have accomplished if those through whom the nation lost billions still visit the same shopping malls with us and shop in trolleys as if they are going to open shopping marts in their homes, drive all the latest vehicles and live lavishly at the expense of the trader who risks her life to Burkina Faso to import tomatoes and pay taxes.

We see how some of your appointees laugh, dine and publicly worship some of the very people you all swore in opposition to prosecute if you’re given the mandate. Today, you’re in power and instead of such persons explaining to the courts how the state lost those huge sums of monies through them, your appointees are feasting with them. What happened, Mr. President?

If those causing financial loss to the State escape justice and walk as free men, describing those making it genuinely in life as lazy or useless because they have benefited in one way or the other from what the State lost through them, what then would be the motivation for people to do what is right? After all, they know they can create, loot and share, and in the end, nothing will happen.

In all honesty, if we don’t see as many prosecutions and convictions as possible under your tenure, I, for one, will not see any difference between your administration and that of Akufo-Addo.

It is time to break this cycle of impunity and show Ghanaians that Justice, is not merely a name given to males in Ghana, nor is it just a title for judges at the courts; Probity and Accountability, are not mere political slogans; but rather, words that should remind every Ghanaian entrusted with State resources that, one day, they will account for their stewardship and should therefore discharge the role as if whatever is under their care are their personal or family properties.TV Shows & Programs

The words have been enough since 1992 and the time for action is now.

Sincerely,
Felix Anim-Appau.

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The writer, Felix Anim-Appau, works with the online unit at Media General. The views expressed in this piece are his personal opinions and do not reflect, in any form or shape, those of the Media General Group, where he works. His email address is kwadwoasiedu2012@gmail.com, and he can be found on X as @platofintegrity

In this open letter to the European Union Ambassador to Ghana, policy analyst Seth Kwame Awuku condemns the EU’s abstention from UNGA Resolution A/80/L.48—a Ghana-led resolution naming the transatlantic slave trade a crime against humanity. Awuku argues that Europe’s silence, masked by legal technicalities, constitutes a moral evasion that wounds the possibility of true partnership.

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To the EU Ambassador: The Triple Wound of Silence

By Seth Kwame Awuku

Ghana speaks from the depths of ancestral memory – will Europe answer with the poetry of conscience, or the cold prose of abstention?

To: His Excellency, Ambassador of the European Union to Ghana

Subject: Ghana’s Leadership on Reparative Justice and the EU’s Abstention on UNGA Resolution A/80/L.48

Your Excellency,

History does not forget. It merely waits – patient as the Atlantic, restless as the spirits of the Middle Passage – for the silenced to reclaim their voice.

On 25 March 2026, even as Ghana and the European Union formalized a new pact of cooperation, the United Nations became a theatre of reckoning. Ghana, carrying the scars and the soul of a continent, led Resolution A/80/L.48. It passed with 123 votes in favor, only three against, and 52 abstentions – the entire European Union among them.

The resolution does not invent new truths. It simply names what was long softened by euphemism: the transatlantic trafficking in human beings and the racialized chattel enslavement of millions as among the gravest crimes against humanity – a profound violation of jus cogens, those peremptory norms that no civilization may forever evade.

And yet Europe abstained.

How does one reconcile this? A Europe that adorns itself in the robes of enlightenment, human rights, and moral universality suddenly finds its voice faltering when confronted with the chains it once forged, the ships it once commanded, and the fortunes it once harvested from African blood and bone.

President John Dramani Mahama cut through the veils with piercing clarity:

“Truth begins with language. There was no such thing as a slave , there were human beings who were trafficked and enslaved.”

Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa reminded the world that this was no solitary lament, but the collective heartbeat of Africa.

The response was telling. The African Union and CARICOM stood united. Arab and Muslim-majority nations lent their voices. Even Russia added its weight. Most strikingly, the two most populous nations on earth – China and India – stood firmly in favor, joining the global majority that now numbers well over half of humanity.

Europe, meanwhile, retreated behind the familiar shield of legal technicalities – non-retroactivity, hierarchies of suffering, the comforting arithmetic of intertemporal law.

Yet some wounds run too deep for procedural salve. When millions were reduced to cargo across the bitter sea, when entire societies were bled to fuel another continent’s ascent, morality does not dissolve merely because the laws of that era looked the other way. Silence, in the face of such a triple wound – capture, crossing, and commodification – is not neutrality. It is an echo of the old evasion.

Ghana seeks no vengeance cloaked in justice. We extend an open hand: for honest dialogue on apology, for the restitution of stolen cultural souls, for guarantees that yesterday’s dehumanization finds no new masks in our time.

This is the triple heritage we bear: Africa’s ancient resilience, the open wound of yesterday, and the shared moral burden for tomorrow.

Your Excellency, true partnership between Europe and Africa cannot take root in the barren soil of selective amnesia. It must be nourished by truth, watered by memory, and protected by the courage to face history without flinching.

Will Europe persist in the comfort of abstention, or will it rise to the higher poetry of genuine engagement?

The eyes of Africa, the restless spirits of the ancestors, the billions represented by China and India, and generations yet unborn are watching.

The choice, as ever, rests with Europe.

Yours in the restless pursuit of a more honest humanity,

Seth K. Awuku.

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About Seth K. Awuku
Policy analyst, writer, poet, and former immigration and refugee law practitioner in Canada; He writes on law, governance, diplomacy and international relations. He is Principal, Sovereign Advisory Ltd, Takoradi.

Email: sethawuku.sa@gmail.com
Tel: 0243022027

In this thoughtful opinion piece, Seth Kwame Awuku reflects on Ghana’s leadership in the recent UN resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. He responds to Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin’s remarks highlighting African complicity in the trade, arguing that while internal agency must be acknowledged, it should not overshadow the industrial scale, systematic brutality, and long-term dehumanisation driven primarily by European powers.

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Between Memory and Partnership: Ghana’s Moral Test on Reparatory Justice

By Seth Kwame Awuku

There are moments in a nation’s life that call less for outrage than for honest reflection.

The recent remarks by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin on reparatory justice offer precisely such a moment. Measured in tone yet unflinching in substance, his intervention deserves careful consideration as Ghana weighs its relationship with history, memory, and international diplomacy.

In Parliament, Afenyo-Markin posed a pointed question: “Somebody parks a vessel at Cape Coast, and you go to the North, to Brong, Ashanti, Assin… [and apprehend the strongest among your own people]. Then, after 100 years, you say you should be compensated – who should compensate whom?” He added that “we maltreated our own and told the white man that he must also maltreat our own.”

Why Ghanaian Officials Must Know About and Prepare for the Hidden Risks of a Mass Black American Return to Ghana

The latter claim somewhat overstates the case – Ghanaians did not “tell” Europeans to maltreat their kin – but his broader point highlights an uncomfortable complexity: African agency and complicity in the capture and sale of fellow Africans. Acknowledging this reality does not negate the case for reparations, nor does it justify Western reluctance to confront their role.

However, overemphasizing internal complicity risks obscuring the scale and character of the transatlantic slave trade.

To his credit, Afenyo-Markin explicitly condemned “the inhumane treatment – the humiliation, injustice, marginalisation, and abuse of our ancestors who became victims of the slave trade.”

This tension, moral recognition without a corresponding commitment to meaningful redress, lies at the heart of the current debate, particularly in the wake of Ghana’s leadership at the United Nations.

Recognizing the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity is, at its core, about establishing historical and moral truth. Yes, some African actors participated in the trade.

But the enterprise was externally driven, massively scaled, and ruthlessly industrialized by European powers. What began as localized capture and sale evolved into a vast system of chattel slavery, sustained by the horrors of the Middle Passage and generations of hereditary bondage. The vivid brutality portrayed in Roots, through the story of Kunta Kinte, stripped of name, culture, and dignity, captures not merely forced labor, but a deliberate and enduring project of dehumanization.

Ghana, as custodian of these painful memories, carries a unique symbolic weight. Its coastal slave forts- Cape Coast Castle, Elmina, and others- stand as solemn reminders of both unimaginable suffering and the uneasy partnerships that enabled it. Reparatory justice therefore demands moral consistency: does acknowledgment alone suffice, or must it extend to material and structural redress for the enduring legacies of slavery and colonialism?

The Minority Leader’s emphasis on practical national interests is understandable. Ghana must sustain strong diplomatic and economic partnerships with Western nations. Yet an overemphasis on African complicity can inadvertently weaken the moral claim, allowing historical accountability to give way to diplomatic convenience.

Serious advocates of reparatory justice do not deny African agency; rather, they situate it within its proper historical context. While some local actors profited from the sale of captives, it was Europe that industrialized the trade, accumulated immense wealth from it, and later entrenched colonial systems whose effects persist.

Ghana’s challenge, then, is to strike a careful balance: pragmatic diplomacy on one hand, and Pan-African ethical conviction on the other. This balance is most credible when grounded in historical clarity and moral courage, the kind embodied by thinkers such as Kwame Nkrumah and Ali Mazrui.

Ghana must now choose with clarity and conviction. Pragmatic partnerships need not come at the expense of historical justice. True leadership demands confronting the full truth of the slave trade, both the painful African role and the overwhelming European responsibility, without allowing discomfort to dilute moral purpose.

At this quiet crossroads, Ghana should lead not by equivocation, but by insisting that reparatory justice is not an act of charity, but a rightful claim grounded in truth, dignity, and the unfinished business of history. Only by upholding principle alongside partnership can we honour our ancestors and secure a future rooted in genuine equity.

About the Author
Seth Kwame Awuku is a Ghanaian writer and policy commentator with a background in law, political science, and international relations. He writes on governance, diplomacy, and questions of historical justice in Africa.

Principal, Sovereign Advisory Ltd
Takoradi, Ghana
Email: sethawuku.sa@gmail.com
Tel: +233 24 302 2027