Retrieve state assets from ‘NON-STATE’ actors like Chiraahemaa, who were complicit in Akufo-Addo’s rot: Open Letter to The National Security Coordinator
Dear National Security Coordinator,
Belated congratulations on your appointment, Sir. Perhaps it would be appropriate to put this open letter in its proper context by introducing myself to you.
I am a card-bearing, founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). But, I also worked for that Party in government during the latter part of President Kufuor’s administration, serving as the Deputy National Coordinator of the School Feeding Programme, in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation.
In writing to you, I join the millions of Ghanaians who continue to be grateful to you and the many other operatives in the NDC who have worked so hard to facilitate President Mahama’s agenda of resetting the country.
While the commendations the Mahama administration has received from Ghanaians across the political divide after only seven months in office are largely due to the collective effort of several appointees, your outfit has been the single most talked about regarding these successes.
The significance of singling you out for praise so far lies in the fact that of the many promises of the president, the agenda of retrieving stolen state assets and eventually punishing the culprits seems the most important to the majority of Ghanaians.
Ghanaians are legitimately angry in the face of the revelations regarding the extent of the looting and plundering of state resources that took place under the watchful eyes of a president whose mantra was the “protection of the public purse.”
It is needless to say that this singular agenda of the Mahama administration is what will make or break the administration in the years ahead, especially its success or failure in the 2028 elections.
It is within the context of the Ghanaians’ expectations regarding how sincere the administration would be in executing this mandate of retrieving the stolen state assets and jailing those who are culpable that I write you this open letter.
Specifically, I write to draw your attention to the fact that even though you have so far done well in holding Akuffo-Addo’s appointees accountable, the record is so far silent on what, for lack of a better term, I call “non-state” actors who equally contributed to the rot under the former president.
Non-state actors, including friends, kinsmen, and financiers who were beneficiaries of the large-scale corruption and malfeasance that took place during the last administration, must equally be held to account as part of the efforts to streamline our governance going forward as a country.
State assets that were dished out to this group of people, Land Cruisers, huge cash donations, and the use of state resources like military helicopters to attend funerals, weddings of relatives, and of such presidential friends and acquaintances.
Even though such cases of freebies frequently occurred during the corrupt Akuffo Addo administration, one case was emblematic of the wasteful expenditure on these friends and acquaintances of the former president.
The name of this woman is Yeboa Penee, the Queen Mother of Chiraa, a town in the Sunyani West District and the Benkum Division of the Dormaa Traditional Area.
The shenanigans of this Queen Mother at the Jubilee House became the subject of an exposé by Kevin Taylor some three years ago, an exposé that brought this woman to national attention for the first time.
This woman manipulated the former president for her daughter to work at the presidency, while Akuffo-Addo gifted this so-called Queen Mother a brand new Land Cruiser (Tear rubber, in the Ghanaian parlance).
When the mother of this Queen Mother died in 2023, Akuffo-Addo flew in a Military helicopter from Accra to attend the thanksgiving service at Chiraa and donated more than GHs2 billion of taxpayers’ money to this woman.
At this juncture, the question that begs for an answer is: What work did this political chameleon of a Divisional Queen Mother do for the state to deserve such a vehicle with a price tag of almost $100,000 when Akuffo-Addo inflicted severe economic hardships on a large section of the population?
In conclusion, Sir, I implore you and your esteemed outfit to pay attention to such instances of thievery and looting of state assets exemplified by this manipulative Queen Mother, as you have been doing in the case of government appointees.
Thank you
Yours truly,
Acheampong Yaw Amoateng, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Catholic University of Ghana, Fiapre, Bono Region.
