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THE ELDER PROFESSOR STEPHEN ADEI NEVER WAS
It is very refreshing to note that, indeed, the outcome of the 2024 general election has evoked a new sense of feeling of a second independence, and Ghana is preparing to rejoin the comity of nations as the beacon of hope for the African Continent.
Just when we thought hypocrisy, which has become a ruling variable in our body politik will, this time around, take a back seat and allow for conscience to lead in our national conversations, the real hypocrites have just surfaced after a long break and dinning with “the devil”. Prof. Stephen Adei is back in his old glasses and thinking cap.
Let this notice be served in its raw state, that all the so called critical voices that found no reason to be critical of Akuffo-Addo in the past 8 years, even when there were cogent reasons to do so, shall not be allowed the space to join any chorus of criticisms when President Mahama assumes office in January 7, 2025. The only voices that will reserve the moral right to genuinely shape and contribute to the conversation and be critical of Mahama will surely be those who have been in the trenches, under very dangerous conditions, in criticising Akuffo-Addo. And this notice is not an attempt to suppress criticisms or freedom of speech, but an assurance that, if those “hypocrites” attempt to put clogs on the way of President Mahama, we are also ready to put thorns on their walkways.
Professor Stephen, a renowned Educationist, an Economist, a Diplomat, marriage counsellor and a moderate preacher of the gospel of Christ, gained so much attention in the run-up to the 2016 general election. His critical voice added to the negative steam on President Mahama’s person and gathered masses around President Akuffo-Addo’s campaigns.
In fact, at the time when there was no credible data to support the “family and friends government” tag on President Mahama in the lead up to the 2016 general elections, Prof. Adei, somehow, miraculously conjured some data and made a very hollow argument from same to assert and ground this tag. Speaking at the Prempeh Colleges’ Pearson Osae lectures in August 2016, elder Adei strongly asserted that 1 out of every 4 of Mahama’s appointments came from his own people. What he meant by “his own people”, only God knows. At the time he was making this claim, Princess Joyce Bawah Mogtari, President Mahama’s niece, was the only family member of the President at that time, who held a position of a Deputy Minister of Transport.
So, this position held and embellished by Prof Adei could not be supported by credible data and could only be a concoction, mischievous and meant to cause unsolicited disaffection for President Mahama at the time. And this political masquerading was being paraded as a backdoor tool to get Nana Addo elected as President and not for any genuine course.
Whoever thought that the good old Prof Adei was doing all these bidding in preparation to serve in Nana Addo’s government. In 2019 when Prof Adei took the oath of office as chairman of the board of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the oath was administered by a cousin of President Akuffo-Addo, Ken Ofori Attah, the Finance Minister at the time. That was not close enough to be considered as a family and friends government. This can only be meaningful within the confines of the adage that, “the mouth that is full does not speak.
Indeed, in the history of Ghana, it is only President Akuffo-Addo who has appointed his biological child into his own government. The worst of it was that, at the time Ghanaians were complaining of the deep-seated nepotism and cronyism in Akuffo-Addo’s government, the ordained Prime Minister of Akuffo-Addo’s government, Gabby O. Darko, told us to go kiss the sea. In fact, to add salt to injury, Gabby’s teaser was that, at the time our (Ghanaians) grandfathers sent us to go hunting, their (Ofori Attah’s) “wise grandfather” sent them to school. So, if today they are in government, it was because they were better educated and qualified to rule than all of us. Even this one, Prof Adei saw nothing wrong because he was part of the government and was chopping with both hands and feet.
Don’t forget, Prof Adei was already an appointee of President Akuffo-Addo as the chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) before his second appointment to chair the GRA board. It was even speculated that he was one of the advisers to the Finance Minister and Ministry when the reckless borrowing got to its apogee.
This implies that, at the time Prof Adei chaired both the NDPC and GRA board, Ken Ofori Attah and President Akuffo-Addo made very reckless economic decisions, including reckless borrowing for consumption. Meanwhile, pursuant to Article 87 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the NDPC is required to advise the President of Ghana on development planning policy and strategy. Paragraph (c) of sub-clause 1 of the same Article empowers the NDPC to make such proposals, including, the proposal and policy direction for the protection of Ghana’s natural and physical environment. What then was Prof. Adei’s NDPC advice to the President in the wake of the galamsey menace?
It is interesting to note that under Prof. Adei as board chairman, recruitments into the GRA could cost a jobless Ghanaian Youth a whopping GHC 40,000 if not more. Lest we forget, it was under the Chairmanship of Prof. Adei that the GRA signed that dubious contract with SML in 2019 and 2022 without Parliamentary approval. A supposed anti-corruption campaigner cannot be a part of this grand scheme to rip the Ghanaian taxpayer off with the SML contract.
I can safely and reasonably conclude that, Prof Adei was blindfolded by his tribal bigotry and as a result, he either engaged in misrepresentations, palpable falsehoods or deliberate spinning against President Mahama even in opposition. Can you imagine that even when corruption had reached monumental proportions under Akuffo-Addo, Prof Adei, in April 2022, on Accra FM, made the claim that data he had seen points to the fact that corruption under Akuffo-Addo was better than what it were under Mahama.
Meanwhile, a quick search on Google would have revealed to the old Prof that Mahama’s worst performance of 43 was Akuffo-Addo’s best at the time he was making such a lame argument. In fact, it took the Fourth Estate to fact-check and flagged his claim as false. Such a person lacks credibility and could only under the direction of his stomach and not his conscience.
It is now clear that Prof Adei as Board chairman of GRA, was part of the proponents of the wicked and nuisance taxes like the E-levy, betting tax, among others. If you heard him lately, making the suggestion to President Mahama to maintain the nuisance E-levy and the betting tax, it only suggests that Prof Adei was part of those who were advising Akuffo-Addo not to listen to the suffering Ghanaian when we came complaining of these taxes. Even when the economy had been sunk into a junk status, Prof Stephen Adei only regained his voice to speak up after he was forced out of the position of Board Chairman of GRA in 2023 without adequate and reasonable notice by President Akuffo-Addo. Such an unprincipled character cannot be listed amongst statesmen and the elders with conscience.
All of a sudden, Prof Adei has just realised that the removal of Charlotte Osei by Akuffo-Addo in 2018 was a bad precedent. Ironically, it has only been seen as bad when the masses have collectively gathered around the popular call for the removal of Madam Jean Mensah as the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission and the Chief Justice of Ghana, Her Ladyship, Justice Torkono, for stated misconduct and incompetence.
Even when Jean Mensah’s recent conducts pre and post 2024 general elections are enablers of insecurity and anarchy, Prof Adei wants her to be maintained to continue with her impunity and contract inflations. We are all governed by the supreme law of Ghana, the 1992 Constitution, and once the law provides grounds for the removal of the EC and the CJ alike, where such ground is established, and the law is duly followed just as Akuffo-Addo did in 2018, the opinion of Prof Adei will not count. The Prof can and should undertake a study across the country on the credibility and competence test of Madam Jean Mensah and see if she will get 5 out of every 100 persons to support her.
The fact that Prof. Adei had been a part of Nana Akuffo-Addo’s government from 2019, and served in one of the critical agencies like the GRA and NDPC, he cannot extricate himself from the economic mess this government created as a result of the reckless economic decisions they made. And for such a man who partook in such economic and social suicide cannot be a saint and a reasonable statesman whose opinions should count in any national conversation. Prof Stephen Adei has lost the bid of a counsellor of the nation.
To all those who watched and subtly or tacitly assisted or approved President Akuffo-Addo’s cruelty for the past 8 years, you have no business contributing into the pool of opinions and suggestions for the running of yet-to-be inaugurated Mahama’s administration. If you lost your voice for the past 8 years, please, be ready to continue in the same posture and give Mahama the peace of mind to govern his country. Thank you for your understanding!
Shalom!!!
By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese
(Youth Imam from Laribanga)
0244198031
