The former Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo, has urged President Akufo-Addo to implement strategies that will boost public trust in the fight against corruption.
He emphasized that such measures could help avoid protests similar to those recently witnessed in Kenya.
Domelevo suggested that the current government should learn from the Kenyan protests and take proactive steps to address corruption.
Speaking at the 2024 Domelevo Accountability Lecture in Accra, he remarked, “if only President William Ruto would have been minded last year or even early this year to do the things that he’s doing today, I think he would have been a hero. But now, even if he cuts his throat for them, people will not appreciate it. It is too late.
“The question we want to ask is, have the other African leaders, including our own President [Akufo-Addo], taken note of it? It would have been so heartwarming for us to hear from the President. Given the heat in the country and what I have heard from somewhere, I will reduce my cabinet or ministers to 40. If the President starts to do some of these things, I think it will help to calm nerves. It’s never too late. Those who have the ears of the President, it’s never too late to repent and do the right thing,” Daniel Domelevo opined.
On his part, General Secretary of the Opposition NDC, Fifi Kwetey, opined that corruption goes beyond the political elites. “If we have a society that is fundamentally premised on not respecting the character of people or the impact of people, then that society is premised on what you have in your pockets. That is a society that can never simply overcome corruption.
“And so, you will have a Jerry Rawlings [late former President], who will come and three heads of state will be executed, a lot of things would have been done. What we simply have achieved is simply because of a situation where people will go a little underground, and they will resurrect again. Because the real virus is in the heart of society,” Fifi Kwetey said.