Rev. Peter Kwasi Sarpong, Archbishop of Kumasi, Addresses Embezzlement Of Public Funds

A retired Archbishop of Kumasi, Most Rev. Peter Kwasi Sarpong, has raised his voice against the rising tide of embezzlement of public funds in the country, describing it as a rip-off of the economy by political untouchables.

Without mentioning names of people who had fraudulently misrepresented themselves and fleeced the state of millions of Ghana Cedis, the respected Archbishop pointed out that the political untouchables were ripping the country off.

He condemned the blatant corruption in the country, wondering why politicians had abandoned their responsibilities to the people.

The Most Rev. Peter Sarpong made the observation yesterday when he delivered an inaugural lecture organized by the Centre for Freedom and Accuracy (CFA) at the Coconut Grove Hotel in Accra dubbed, ‘Freedom Power Lectures’.

Political Untouchables

Most Rev. Peter Sarpong stated emphatically that “political untouchables” were being allowed to plunder the nation with impunity. “Our democracy has become the rule of embezzlement. Huge sums of money are misappropriated by people whom nobody dares to question, and Ghana is savagely plundered by political untouchables,” he said.

He took a swipe at the prevailing tribalistic order in the country where according to him, tribalism had become so farcical that “in a given situation, not a single person is elected from outside one particular party in a region, and all candidates belonging to other parties received between 100 and 400 votes each, not more, out of anything between 20,000 and 30,000!!!”

Prejudice And Vendetta

Ghanaians, he said, “should refuse to accept in our democracy, situations where prejudice, stereotypes, vendetta, have become such that a person can be accused of horrible, treasonable felonies for which there is no bail, for remarks made on an FM radio”.

He posed the question: “How long can we tolerate a democracy of superiority complex?” adding, “This is the politics of leaders abusing the intelligence of citizens by interpreting statements by their opponents, which everybody else has heard, in their own way.  It is the democracy of people deploring whatever one party has said and done because they do not believe it.”

Local democracy, he observed, had become a democracy of vengeance and vendetta, explaining that “one party’s aim is to exonerate criminals in the party who have been taken to task and hunting for criminals from the other party to show them sense, whether they have evidence for it or not.”

Deceit And Impossible Promises

Archbishop Sarpong decried the manner in which local politics was being practised, describing it as an occupation characterized by a high dose of deceit, impossible promises, with politicians pledging heaven and earth to gullible electorate.

Most politicians, he lamented, had exhausted their reservoir of truth and integrity which, according to him, were the bedrock of democracy. “Ghana’s politics has been characterised by deceit, impossible promises, unrealistic undertakings,” he said.

 Showing little confidence in the country’s democracy, the Archbishop noted that it had largely degenerated into corruption.

He held his audience spellbound as he fired on all cylinders on issues which clergymen would ordinarily not delve into.

He had earlier, in a lengthy but revealing preamble, explained the need for church leaders to be involved in discussions about matters bordering on socio-political matters of the land.

Church leaders, he said, should not shy away from participating in politics because as Ghanaians, human beings and Christians, it behooves them to participate in such matters.

Corruption, Rule Of Terror

“Our so-called democracy has largely degenerated into corruption, a rule of terror and inward looking,” he said, adding that “political party democracy has carried with it the danger of parties thinking more about how to win the next elections than about the good of the nation.”

Those who graced the ‘Freedom Lectures’, as the Executive Director of the CFA, Andrew Awuni dubbed them, did not regret it, given the all-encompassing theme of the programme: ‘Truth, Integrity & Democratic Development: How Ghana Is Faring?’.

The Archbishop, noted for his audacious dealing with societal issues, when he turned his attention to the aftermath of elections in the country, lamented that it painfully featured the dismissal of personnel in the Civil Service, corporations, business appointed by the former government and creation of opportunities for party supporters.

The lecture was attended by a cross-section of Ghanaians from all walks of life including Pastor Mensal Otabil, and Freddy Blay, former deputy Speaker of Parliament.

Akosua Puni And Michael Essien

Child Rights International Calls For Investigations Into Student's Assaulted By Teachers