By Osbert Lartey

Accra - Mr. Michael Agbotui Sousoudis, co-founder of the Egle Party, has said President Rawlings is surrounded by over two thousand crooks and people of questionable character who feed him with nothing but lies. He said this has created problems for the President.

When I advise him, he goes to these people to cross-check and what do they tell him? Lies".

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Ghanaian Chronicle at his hugely constructed private residence strategically located very close to Burma Camp, Accra, Mr. Sousoudis, who is also a direct cousin of Rawlings, said the President had a great vision for Ghana and would have loved to see the country develop faster than it has, but unfortunately his advisers have let him down.

Sporting a blue long-sleeved shirt over a spotless white pair of trousers and surrounded by a few business and political associates who had called on him for counselling, Sousoudis, who was once introduced to the late Nigerian dictator Gen. Sani Abacha by President Rawlings as his most troublesome cousin, told the Chronicle that those who shouted probity and accountability at the rooftops have now become averse to the very principles they espoused and championed.

He said the revolutions of 1979 and 1981 were supposed to eradicate corruption and champion the cause of probity and accountability, but regrettably, these noble objectives have been thrown to the dogs.

Sousoudis said people who have become accountable to the people by virtue of governance should always remember that there is always a price to pay for every conduct or misconduct after they have left office.

He said the NDC's resort to the police and Castle guards to intimidate perceived opponents of government will soon be a thing of the past.

Touching on the crisis-ridden Egle Party, Sousoudis asked, "isn't it amazing that the very people who used accountability to measure the success of others in the past denied me a certificate to form a political party because of the word accountability?", he queried.

Mr. Sousoudis revealed that immediately after the formation of the Eagle Party, an acronym for Every Accountable Ghanaian Living Everywhere has been registered by the National Electoral Commission, Executives of the Party were taken to court for flouting the electoral laws of the land by using the Eagle as its emblem and the imprint of accountability as its slogan.

According to Sousoudis, moments after the court's ruling, Dr. Obed Asamoah, then the Attorney-General and Secretary for Foreign Affairs, commanded a bus load of policemen to chase them from the party's headquarters which had been rented by the party. He regretted that a party which was formed to enhance the growth of democracy has been hijacked by people he described as corrupt sycophants and bootlickers.

The former Egle boss asserted that he would soon drag the Electoral Commission to court to seek justice for what he described as an act of aberration.

Touching on the socio-economic crisis the nation is currently facing, Soussoudis said the only solution to the decline of the economy is to stabilise the rate of the dollar.

He added that Ghanaian entrepreneurs work so hard to export their products but for reasons best known to them, they choose to save the dollar they earn in their foreign accounts, even though government policy has made it possible for individuals to operate foreign accounts locally.

He said corruption has permeated every facet of national life and does not subscribe to the notion that only politicians are corrupt.

Soussoudis blamed civil servants, businessmen and even some academicians for the increased rate of corruption in the country Sounding very emotional, he revealed that as a businessman, he sometimes has to tip the civil servant to get certain transactions handled fast for him, adding that the same goes for the thousands of traders who have to tip customs officers at the ports of entry to get goods cleared.

He also debunked claims that Ghana's corruption rate is exceptional. "Even America which is the most powerful and the most scientifically developed nation in the world is corrupt."

On the nation's young but fragile democracy, Soussoudis advised Ghanaians to drink the water of patience because despite the teething problems, democracy is the best form of government, even though very expensive.

"We are on the right path and it is incumbent on all of us to protect the system to avoid an explosive situation," he concluded.