By Rockson Adofo

With the ongoing parliamentary investigations into the corruption scandal involving some Members of the Appointment/Vetting Committee, one will just hope and wait that the alleged bribery never happened. However it turns out, someone or some people, and of course Members of Parliament, will come out bruised.

Their reputation will be tarnished as either greedy bastards taking bribes on top of all their enhanced salaries and emoluments that they call Ex-gratia and the unqualified respect they command in the public eye as HONOURABLES or people lying with intent to defame fellow politicians with the ulterior motive only known to them.

There is now a division within the Members of the Appointment/Vetting Committee. One group, principally the NPP members supported by Hon. Muntaka (is he not the one who once used State money to purchase Christmas hampers and nappies for his girlfriend?) from the minority NDC Caucus on the Committee, say that no bribe was offered or taken. The other group from the minority NDC members on the Committee are insisting and shouting it LOUD that they were offered or given bribes.

The alleged bribery has to do with Hon. Boakye Agyarko, the current Energy Minister. It was allegedly offered to facilitate his successful passage through the vetting process. If indeed it was offered as alleged, then my question to the public, the Vetting Committee and Mr Agyarko himself is, what was his hidden problem that made him think that without offering the bribe he could not be cleared by the Appointments/Vetting Committee? Is he not the Saint we all know him to be? Is he a wolf in a lamb’s skin?

On the other hand, why should people be so devious to intentionally devise a plot to tarnish his image? Are they afraid that Hon. Boakye Agyarko will in less than no time perform a marvellous job in his post to prove beyond doubt that President Mahama and his NDC-led government were so incompetent and intrinsically corrupt that they could for all the eight years in power unable to solve the outrageously ruinous power outages (dumsor) faced by the nation and the people of Ghana?

As I said earlier on, whatever the case is and however it pans out, a member or some members of the supposedly august house, parliament, will be caught lying. It will either be Mahama Ayariga and Okudzeto Ablakwah’s camp (those saying bribery or attempted bribery took place) or Osei-Wusu’s camp (those saying no instance of bribery did take place at the Committee’s sitting).

Whichever group is determined to be lying or to have committed a crime must be punished. They will have become unfit for their job as parliamentarians and dishonourable enough to be called honourable who sit in parliament to make laws for the nation of which laws, they do not respect or conform to themselves.

When it comes to this point, I shall request of them to resign as Members of
Parliament for by-elections to be held in their various constituencies to enable Ghanaians elect other men and women of integrity but not corrupt people or those who do deliberately pervert the course of justice through utter lies oozing out of their mouth full of sharp baby teeth.

When at all will Ghanaian politicians be role models to the youth by ceasing to be corrupt so that they can become more respectable to earn the public respect? Honestly, and as matters stand now, with my knowledge of President Mahama and his Ghanaian version of the Arabian Ali Baba and his forty thieves government, being corrupt beyond imagination, I currently have less respect for the Ghanaian parliamentarian, politician or judge.

Heads will roll so let the heads roll! Sack the corrupt and lying parliamentarians!