Blunt Thoughts || Bare-faced thievery, brazen arrogance and a crisis of leadership: The beginning of the end - JoyNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00 (singing in foreign language)
00:03 My name is Benjamin Akaku.
00:15 I'm about to share my blunt thoughts with you this morning.
00:18 But when I sing the song I did,
00:20 for those of you who don't understand,
00:22 it's because I come in peace
00:25 with a little bit of violence, like we say here.
00:29 Peace to the masses,
00:31 bow-will-ence, or violence if you like,
00:35 to whom the cap fit.
00:37 This morning I've titled my blunt thoughts
00:40 Bare-Faced Thievery,
00:42 Brazen Arrogance,
00:45 and the Crisis of Leadership,
00:47 The Beginning of the End.
00:50 Permit me to start, God of War,
00:54 by reflecting on some of what Professor
00:58 T.L.O. Lumumba, a renowned lawyer and activist,
01:01 has been sharing with us in recent times
01:03 as he spoke about our former president,
01:05 may he so rest in peace, John Evans Atta-Mills.
01:07 He said, "We are celebrating President Atta-Mills
01:11 "because he taught us that it is not how long you serve,
01:15 "but how well you serve that matters."
01:18 Some people today are talking about breaking the eight.
01:21 To do what, exactly?
01:24 More damage to us as a people?
01:26 What they couldn't do in eight years,
01:28 will they now somehow have the magic wand to wave
01:30 to work miracles on the back of an IMF program?
01:32 Will they?
01:33 Again, T.L.O. Lumumba says,
01:37 "African leaders are arrogant and corrupt,
01:41 "unlike Professor Mills, who can be remembered
01:43 "for his short but good service."
01:47 Good service!
01:48 Not the sheer arrogance and power-drunkenness
01:51 that we've seen this administration display,
01:53 right from Mr. President down to even DCEs.
01:57 That is not the way to go.
01:59 Mr. President slammed the chief for asking,
02:02 for a free SHS facility.
02:06 He slammed another chief with a medical condition
02:09 for not standing up during the singing
02:11 of the national anthem.
02:12 When his daughter did it, that was very okay.
02:16 As for that insidiously arrogant DCE,
02:19 who wanted to send a police officer to N.C.
02:21 for merely doing his job,
02:23 the least said about him, the better.
02:25 This state of affairs makes one thing very clear.
02:30 There is a different set of standards or laws
02:32 for the political class or the political elite,
02:36 and a distinct one for the masses, you and me.
02:39 That is why some anti-Graft crusaders have insisted,
02:42 especially on the back of the glaring integrity painting,
02:45 acceptance letter to Cecilia Abner,
02:47 the press resignation, that nothing will come
02:50 of all these so-called investigations
02:52 into whatever she may have done.
02:55 Which is what brings me now to my slides,
02:59 and I'll play two videos for you today.
03:02 But let's hasten slowly, let's go slowly.
03:05 $1 million, the Cecilia Dappa theft saga.
03:08 Let's go into the details.
03:11 $1 million plus what?
03:15 300,000 euros, let's go to the next slide, please.
03:18 Okay, so we'll quickly get there.
03:23 300,000 euros, next slide.
03:26 Then again, Ghana CDs, 350,000, next slide.
03:32 Then six pieces of assorted kente cloth, if you like,
03:39 at the cost of 90,000 Ghana CDs, next slide.
03:42 Then, oh, the suits as well for her husband.
03:46 Six sets of men's suits valued at some $3,000 each.
03:52 Let's go to the next slide.
03:53 There's more, assorted clothes
03:57 worth about 95,000 Ghana CDs.
03:59 Some people in this country will not even see
04:01 95,000 Ghana CDs before they die.
04:03 That is just someone's, that is part of her wardrobe.
04:06 What was stolen, no, not what is left, next slide.
04:09 And then again, assorted handbags, $35,000 worth.
04:15 It's not to say that people don't do this,
04:17 but when you're a politically exposed person,
04:19 when you're in office, the dynamics are different.
04:22 Yeah, the benchmark is higher, next slide.
04:26 But that's not all, there's also jewelry.
04:28 Assorted perfumes, there's $1,400.
04:31 I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.
04:33 Cecilia, I'm just Cecilia, it'll be okay.
04:35 Let's go to the next one.
04:36 There's jewelry as well, $95,000 worth of jewelry.
04:41 All into thin air, thanks to those staff at home,
04:49 who decided pilfering was the way to go.
04:51 Let's go to the next slide.
04:54 Now, $1 million, what can it do?
04:59 It can fill a table, but there's more it can do
05:03 in terms of our national dynamics.
05:05 Come with me, you will find out what $1 million can do,
05:07 and how serious the situation is,
05:09 why we need to get to the bottom of this matter.
05:12 Now, in terms of the allocations
05:14 to different sectors of our economy, allocation, item.
05:19 Child or human trafficking fund,
05:21 we gave them one million cities.
05:23 And mind you, keep in mind that $1 million
05:25 is the equivalent as of today of 11.3 million Ghana cities.
05:29 So child or human trafficking fund, one million Ghana cities.
05:32 Mental health fund, 1.406 million.
05:36 Operation Vanguard, that is the anti-Gallup operations
05:39 and Red Sec, that is the regional security council,
05:41 3.2 million Ghana cities.
05:43 The Green Ghana Project, 2.5 million.
05:45 Cybersecurity authority, 1.7 million.
05:48 Cybersecurity domestic violence, one million.
05:52 Actually, if you add all of these together,
05:55 you get 10.86 million Ghana cities.
05:58 It is still less than the $1 million
06:01 that was stolen from Sisi Adapa in terms of value,
06:04 because then we would have 431,480 cities left.
06:09 That is what $1 million is.
06:12 This is what it means.
06:13 But let me break it down even further.
06:15 In the lives of ordinary Joes,
06:17 (speaking in foreign language)
06:19 This is what it means.
06:20 Let's go to the next slide.
06:21 This is what it means.
06:22 A senior university lecturer
06:26 who earns about 10,000 Ghana cities a month
06:28 needs to work for 1,180 months,
06:31 or 94 years to get $1 million, 94 years.
06:35 A junior university lecturer
06:37 who earns about 5,000 cities a month
06:39 needs to work for 188 years to get one million.
06:44 A graduate teacher at secondary or basic school
06:46 who earns about 3,000 Ghana cities a month
06:49 needs to work for 313 years to get $1 million.
06:54 A diploma teacher who earns about 2,500 a month
06:58 needs to work for 377 years to arrive at $1 million.
07:03 A junior medical doctor
07:05 who earns about 10,000 Ghana cities a month
07:07 needs to work for 94 years, let's go to the next slide,
07:11 to get $1 million.
07:14 A senior nurse or midwife who earns about 8,000 a month
07:17 needs to work for 118 years.
07:19 A well-paid journalist in Ghana who earns about 12,000,
07:21 that's even on the high side.
07:23 We know what it is.
07:25 About 12,000 a month needs to work for 78 years.
07:30 By that time, don't go.
07:32 To make $1 million.
07:34 $1 million can buy 240 taxi cabs, 240.
07:41 $1 million can build 14 six-unit classroom blocks
07:46 to reduce schools and the trees in our rural areas.
07:48 14 six-unit blocks, school blocks.
07:52 Look at how many schools we have on the trees.
07:56 Now, the interesting part for me,
07:59 Cecilia Dapa's monthly salary as a minister,
08:02 we checked everything, okay, is around 30,206 Ghana cities.
08:08 And that is per the Professor Yaa Ntia Mwabedu
08:12 emolument report, 2017 to 2021.
08:15 So we sourced it from there.
08:16 30,206 Ghana cities.
08:18 She needs to work for 31 years to get $1 million.
08:23 How long was she at post again?
08:25 Okay, next slide.
08:28 Now, before I get into this,
08:32 I want you to watch this video up next.
08:36 It shows Cecilia Abnada in parliament
08:39 when there was the probe about COVID-19 funding
08:41 and how much had gone to the sanitation
08:43 and water resources ministry when she was still minister.
08:46 These were her responses.
08:48 Pay attention.
08:49 - Mr. Chairman, the components for my ministry
08:52 is $43 million.
08:54 And I think I spoke about it earlier.
08:57 That is to take care of the adult basin,
09:00 to clean it up and to cut the heaps of waste
09:05 that we see around the basin.
09:10 Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
09:11 - You claim that your ministry had 43 million
09:27 out of the $200 million.
09:30 How was that 43 million applied?
09:34 (phone ringing)
09:37 - Mr. Chairman, I have given the components out.
09:43 It's to cut about five heaps around the Tantan
09:51 and then the adult basin.
09:54 And it's also to clean up the adult basin
09:57 to make the channels open for water to flow in.
10:00 Yes.
10:01 (silence)
10:03 - Were you satisfied with those answers
10:10 from Cecilia Abana-Dapar?
10:14 Were you satisfied?
10:15 Former minister for sanitation and water resources.
10:18 Well, I wasn't either.
10:19 Yet she got clean away without parliament
10:22 doing a lot more digging to get her to deliver
10:24 a better account of how she had expended
10:26 her $43 million of COVID-19 cash.
10:31 What am I saying?
10:33 What am I insinuating?
10:35 I'm neither saying nor insinuating anything.
10:38 But you can read between the lines, if you will.
10:40 Like Jesus with the masses of his day,
10:42 apart from his followers, that is.
10:44 I shall speak to you in parables only.
10:46 You do the math.
10:47 You go work it out for yourselves.
10:49 (speaking in foreign language)
10:50 But let's also watch this second video from News File
10:55 on November the 9th, 2013.
10:57 You see, why am I digging up some of these things?
11:00 Because the rhetoric today of those in power
11:02 versus the rhetoric then of those in opposition
11:05 speaks volumes.
11:05 And that is the circus we play in this country.
11:07 In opposition, they see all kinds of nice things,
11:09 NBC, MPP.
11:11 When they come to power, that confusion, I am a sir.
11:14 This is Ursula Uswe Kufu on that day
11:17 and what she said about accountability, poverty.
11:21 Listen to her.
11:22 (silence)
11:24 - Talk about making money.
11:31 Do you think that there's a need to investigate that?
11:34 You think that's necessary?
11:36 - Absolutely.
11:37 I think that for starters, and I've said that in other book,
11:39 we need to start with a lifestyle audit.
11:42 We need to start with a lifestyle audit
11:46 of our people in positions of authority.
11:49 You heard President Mills saying that if self-sufficient,
11:52 are able to build a house in three years,
11:55 then it means they're corrupt.
11:56 What about government officials?
11:58 Whose only official source of income is their salary?
12:02 Acquiring property in three, four years.
12:04 Isn't that worth investigating?
12:05 - But the thing that President Mills spoke about,
12:07 and God bless his soul,
12:09 we know them, we just play ostrich, don't we?
12:11 - That is why I'm saying that
12:13 we shouldn't just pay lip service to it
12:15 and say things that we want people to hear.
12:18 But we should move beyond that
12:20 and start with a lifestyle audit
12:22 of our people in positions of authority.
12:24 (speaking in foreign language)
12:31 - I agree to you this morning.
12:34 As I rap, that is why we need
12:36 the conduct of public officers law.
12:39 This bill, as in our books,
12:40 the bill when passed into law
12:42 would prevent the issue of public officers
12:44 having unexplained wealth with the laws of the country
12:47 seemingly impotent in dealing with it.
12:50 That's Occupy Ghana and recently
12:53 what they've been pushing for.
12:55 The approval of the bill has been stalled by cabinet.
12:59 Let's get to the next slide.
13:01 By cabinet.
13:02 By cabinet.
13:03 Why?
13:06 We need that law.
13:07 We do.
13:09 And just to wrap up the conversation
13:10 as we talk about money matters and all of that,
13:12 even now, if you look at the state of our debt,
13:15 look, over the last few,
13:16 this is how I'll wrap and then next slide,
13:18 our public debt has increased by 20.3%
13:21 in terms of billions of Ghana cities
13:23 on the back of the latest Bank of Ghana dynamic.
13:25 So from December 2022, 473.2 billion.
13:28 Now it is at 569.3 billion.
13:31 That's our current debt.
13:33 An increment of 96.1 billion Ghana cities, 20.3% increment.
13:37 That is where we find ourselves as a country.
13:39 While some people are keeping cash couleur in their houses,
13:43 we are going to pay the debt.
13:45 We haven't benefited.
13:47 Next slide.
13:48 Now in terms of how much this means,
13:51 look, the Ghana Jollof Index, I found this interesting.
13:53 The cost of cooking Jollof has increased.
13:56 Yeah.
13:57 So in January, 2023, you would have spent 277.75 cities.
14:02 In February, it was at 286.
14:05 March, 280.
14:06 It fell.
14:07 April, 277.
14:08 Now, if you're cooking for a family of five,
14:11 a household of five,
14:12 you would spend 317 cities, 50 Pesos.
14:14 Basically, a day.
14:16 Come on Jollof, rise with good chop.
14:18 Well, this is the picture.
14:28 This is the reality.
14:31 The videos speak for themselves.
14:33 I have nothing more to say.
14:34 You judge for yourselves.
14:37 My name is Benjamin Akaku.
14:38 These are my bland thoughts
14:40 that I've shared with you this morning.
14:42 Go and reflect on them.
14:44 I pray for Ghana.
14:46 I pray for our motherland.
14:48 May God bless our country
14:49 and make her great and strong.
14:52 (dramatic music)
14:54 (dramatic music)
14:57 (dramatic music)
15:01 (dramatic music)
15:04 (dramatic music)
15:06 (dramatic music)
15:09 (dramatic music)
15:12 (dramatic music)
15:16 (dramatic music)
15:18 (thud)