Prez Mahama Should Not Imitate His Predecessors In Fighting Corruption

President John Dramani Mahama has been asked not to let his calls for Ministers to fight and eschew corruption be mere rhetoric but be backed with action. President Mahama a few days ago warned his ministers that he will not countenance any act of corruption during the swearing in of 17 ministerial nominees into office. He reminded them that they are in office to serve Ghanaians and not to accumulate wealth for their personal gains. Speaking to Suhiyini Alhassan as a panelist on Radio Gold�s news analysis programme, "Alhaji and Alhaji", Bernard Mornah, General Secretary of the People�s National Convention (PNC) urged President Mahama not to follow his predecessors in just making the call to fight corruption and then �when the going gets tough, a different thing is said�. �This is not the first time such a calling has been made...under President Kufuor (former), he said we will have zero tolerance for corruption and yet by the close of his term in office, we saw the kind of things that was done which one can equate to gargantuan corruption. "Calls are not just sufficient, but it must be backed by action. We must see that the President is moving on to check and ensure that his call is adhered to. The record in the past should guide our match forward in the future,� he asserted. Bernard Mornah, however, commended the President for taking such a step in discouraging his ministers from indulging in corrupt practices. He admonished the Ministers to also send the same message to their subordinates who are also likely to indulge in corrupt practices. �The call must be looked into in a manner that will assure citizens that our appointees are not there for their own selfish interest. The call has been appropriate, it has been good and the President should move beyond just the talk of it but to assure the nation that this talk will not be the one we saw yesterday; where we declare zero tolerance for corruption and at the end we will say corruption is as old as Adam,� he stressed.