Corruption: Ghana sacks minister as Jonathan keeps Oduah on !
The fight against
corruption has assumed a new dimension in Ghana as President John Mahama
has sacked the Deputy Minister of Communications, Victoria Hammah, for
allegedly making a statement that suggested that
she could be corrupt.
On Thursday, a taped
conversation that Hammah had with someone, in which she allegedly said
she would not leave politics until she had made $1m, leaked. By Friday,
she was sacked by the government.
This is coming at a time
that Nigerians are impatiently awaiting a decisive step by President
Goodluck Jonathan over the role of the Aviation Minister, Stella Oduah,
in the purchase of two armoured vehicles at
a mind-boggling cost of about N255m.
Ghana’s decision appears
to have reminded concerned Nigerians that by geographical standards,
their country and Ghana are neighbours. They have also shared some
historical moments, so much that they can sometimes
be regarded as political allies. But despite such affinities, both
countries are far from being on the same page when it comes to the
treatment of corruption.
Although Hammah had not
carried out the intention credited to her in the said tape, she was
fired nonetheless. In the tape circulating online, she appears to have
said, “If you have money, then you can control
people.”
Interestingly, Hammah
and Oduah are said to have played similar active roles in the elections
of their respective principals. According to a BBC report, Hammah had,
ironically, also openly expressed disgust at
corruption months back.
“In August, she said
there was a lot of pressure on her to steal public money because people
thought that, as a minister, she was rich. She described such demands as
obnoxious,”
BBC quotes Ghanaweb news site as saying. She is said to have added that “corrupt politicians are the reflection of a corrupt society.”
Apart from the fact that
Oduah has confessed to giving the approval when she appeared before the
House of Reps Committee on Aviation that probed her and other parties
involved, two other limousines bought by
FAAN has been linked to her. Yet, she is still a minister in the
Jonathan cabinet.
The highest that
President Jonathan has done is to set up a probe panel in which many
people have little or no confidence. Many observers may not have any
problems with the integrity of the members of the committee.
Rather, people are bothered about the sincerity of the President, the
political will to deal with the situation and the fact that nothing
concrete had come from similar probe panels in the past.
Indeed, some are tempted
to describe the Nigerian government’s backyard as a cemetery of reports
of other similar earlier panels.
The fear assumed more
substance considering a report that Jonathan might not think highly of
the House of Assembly’s recommendation that Oduah be sacked.
Reacting to the
development, the Governance Manager of the Action Aid International
Nigeria, Obo Effanga, notes that although every President has the
latitude to choose who he appoints or retains as a minister,
he must always consider the feelings of the people he governs on an
issue like the ‘Oduahgate’.
Effanga says, “Another
issue is that when you are talking about fighting corruption, there
should be evidence that every step you have taken points towards that.
The experience we have had with committees also
shows that they take time to complete their work. It also takes another
long time for the President or whoever is involved to act on the
committees’ reports.
“On this bulletproof
cars matter, we have wasted a lot of time, and we have yet to take a
decision on it. One of the issues we need to address is: Were they
provided for in the budget? Who approved the purchase?
Does the person have the authority to do so? Whoever committed a crime
in the whole matter should be made to face the punishment due to anyone
in that circumstance. The President has delayed too much on the matter.”
He adds that it is wrong
to give the impression that a political office is meant for a
particular person, who must remain there no matter the circumstance.
Lagos-based lawyer,
Bamidele Aturu, also notes that the Oduah-Hammah story shows contrasting
political cultures in Nigeria and Ghana. In a telephone interview with
our correspondent, he argues that what Ghana
has done shows that it has a political culture that listens to the
yearnings of the people.
He says, “It shows that
Ghana has a culture of decency. It shows that in Ghana, anybody who has
done something indefensible cannot hold political offices. It depicts
that theirs is a culture that does not accommodate
indecency.
“On the other hand, the
development shows that we have a political culture that accommodates
indecency in Nigeria; a culture in which you can grab whatever you can
for yourself without being responsive to the
yearnings of the people. It shows clearly a corrupt culture and culture
of brigandage. It shows that those in government can go away with blue
murder. They can steal anything and go away with it.”
Aturu decries the
working of what he calls a cultic committee in the Odua scandal, saying
that any committee who Nigerians do not know when it is holding its
meeting and who it is talking to is a cultic one.
According to him, the step the aviation minister took in the purchase of the car amounts to recklessness of the highest order.
He says, “That tells you
why we are where we are. It is a wake-up call to Nigerians: We must
insist on the right thing. We must stop people perpetuating this culture
of impunity and brigandage.”
Human right activist and
President of the Campaign for Democracy, Joe Okei-Odumakin, salutes
Ghana for having made ‘giant strides’ in sanitising its clime. But she
is sad that Nigeria has not shown any sign of
seriousness in this regard.
“One salutes Ghana for
efforts it is making. No wonder, the country has continued to make
steady progress. In our own clime, impunity continues to thrive. Even
when the matter of the scandalous purchase of the
bulletproof cars had become public knowledge and source of public
outrage, some of our people embarked on a journey to Israel, including
the indicted person. We had probe panels working on the issue, we have
the relevant agencies, like the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, yet everyone embarked on the journey to Israel.
“There must be enough
political will to sanitise Nigeria. There is so much poverty,
unemployment, insecurity and other problems in the country. Yet, someone
is spending so much money on cars. This culture of impunity
must stop. What is happening in Ghana should serve as a clarion call to
Nigeria. President Jonathan must act now because justice delayed is
justice denied,” Okei-Odumakin adds.