Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways and Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, says the current pressure on government to deliver on accountability is not because the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) spoke extensively about corruption, but because Ghanaians personally witnessed it under the previous administration.
According to him, the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government could be described as one that was involved in a national scandal almost every week.
Speaking on Metro TV on October 23, he said it was therefore understandable that Ghanaians now expect the government to be held accountable.
“Government is under intense pressure to deliver on the issues of accountability, and that is fair,” he said.
“But that is not because the NDC spoke a lot about issues of corruption in the past government, it is because the people themselves saw acts of corruption every day around them.”
He added, “It got to a point, the previous government could easily pass as one that engaged in a scandal every week.”
He emphasized that these perceptions were not fueled by the then opposition NDC but by the reality Ghanaians witnessed.
“It was the people of Ghana witnessing the acts of corruption, the misuse of public resources. It was all over the place,” he said.
Mr. Suhuyini added that the scale of corruption and mismanagement was among the factors that pushed Ghana into bankruptcy.
“Our country got to the new low of having to declare. It’s one of the reasons. Never before in the history of this country had we gotten to a point where we were simply unable to pay our debts,” he said.
He also referenced comments made in 2023 by Kennedy Agyapong, who at the time criticized his own party, alleging massive looting of state funds and resources.
“To the point that one who is seeking to lead their party today, at the time, joined the chorus and confirmed that their people in government were stealing like there was no tomorrow,” he stated.
“The pressure that is being brought to bear on us is not because we talked so much in opposition. It’s because the evidence of wrongdoing was that palpable,” he stressed.
Mr. Suhuyini explained the demand for accountability from the public is therefore understandable but must be pursued within the rule of law.
“We need to understand that we live in a country where we have undertaken to be governed by laws. So the government has to meet these expectations within the democratic framework that we have all accepted to operate under.”
