Does The Buck Stop With Us?
Thursday July 09, 2009
By Yela Awunyo-Akaba
The youth are clamouring for a chance to rule the world: convinced they can do better than the older folks are doing, Our exuberance, zeal and drive notwithstanding, unless we learn through the drudgery of experience to take responsibility for our actions, we will not be successful.
The former Minister for Youth and Sports, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak is the poster boy for those who eagerly enter the big leagues but shy away from the serious business of being trustworthy public servants.
Ghanaian youth are enjoying opportunities our parents would never have dreamt about.
Young people in their twenties and thirties are managing companies and businesses, marketing innovative products and effortlessly navigating technology with people on all corners of the globe at the touch of a button. It is indeed a great time to be young in Ghana.
However, behind the gloss lurks a dark side that must be defeated through hard work, discipline, and respect for authority?
Even though it is the former minister who is in the hot seat today, all of us have our Achilles heel and no one is invincible.
The 38-year-old Alhaji Muntaka, until 2005, was unknown by the majority of Ghanaians until he won the Asawase by-election and succeeded the late Dr. Gibril Adamu Mohammed.
He subsequently retained his seat in the 2008 Parliamentary elections and was appointed Minister of Youth and Sports barely four months ago.
This was surely a meteoric rise to fame through the goodwill of President Atta Mills and the NDC leadership. I can only assume they recognized certain qualities and capabilities in him though there were other more qualified and experienced candidates.
However, those who entrusted him with this important position have been left with raw egg on their faces.
He has put President Atta Mills to shame and made a mockery of the NDC’s pledge to depart from the corrupt practices of the past.
I would have assumed that as a member of the ruling party, he has experienced, firsthand, their struggles to come to power and would have exhibited more respect for maintaining the image of his party.
With the revelations about the alleged mismanagement by the Minister, he was asked to proceed on leave.
I would have thought that even his admission of having travelled with a female companion on the taxpayer’s tab was enough reason for his resignation. How does he justify asking his subordinates to procure a visa for the woman in question when she was not qualified to do so?
I am certain this action constitutes a form of visa fraud and we prosecute people for lesser offences.
Even if he is not criminally liable for carrying on an illicit relationship, using state funds in such a fashion is reprehensible.
Having been caught with his pants down, does he apologise and resign to save the image of the government?
No, he embarks on a public campaign to prove that he did nothing wrong and is the victim of a conspiracy to destroy him.
Even if none of the other allegations were made, just this one about travelling at the state’s expense with a female companion is enough to warrant his dismissal.
Now, it appears as if the President is being lenient with his young protégé even though there was no proof that he committed most of the alleged offences levelled against him.
However, it is hard for anyone to believe he is entirely innocent of all these charges when his credibility is in tatters.
Then when party members also say he is being framed, and dismiss the girlfriend angle, it only seems as if they are justifying his wrong actions.
The issue is worsened when his constituency executives resign in solidarity with the MP and other supporters destroy public property and deface the President’s posters in protest.
But, perhaps we are all guilty of trying to grab as much as we can when we get the opportunity.
We only work when the boss is around but we’re always clamouring for a pay rise even though our productivity is minimum.
We use our workplace phones to make personal calls and take office stationery home for our children to use.
So perhaps most of us would have fallen prey if we were handed large amounts of foreign exchange as per diem for each foreign trip.
We would not question whether the payment is justified or look at this excessive per diem as a drain on the national coffers.
However, the problem is that as Minister of State, Alhaji Muntaka cannot pass the blame to anyone else since he was ultimately in charge.
Why could he not have declined to travel on those trips and instead allowed the technical people – the head coaches and their assistants who would benefit more from the trip-to accompany the players?
If he really had the nation’s interest at heart, he might have taken such a decision and removed himself from the mess he eventually found himself in.
I would have expected that the real man who is being lauded by his supporters would stand up and own up to his mistakes. A public apology, offer of repayment and immediate resignation would have won him some goodwill and perhaps spared the government this embarrassment.
Instead, he actively or indirectly went on a bid to save his image and tried to throw dust into our eyes by pointing out the misdeeds of his subordinates.
Consequently, he’s badly dented the NDC’s efforts to portray themselves as more honest than their predecessors.
However, even after our worst defeat, redemption is possible if we recognize our faults, and seek to make amends.
For Alhaji Muntaka, I hope it will involve a private apology to the President, the NDC party and his constituents for failing to live up to the high standards of his position.
The rest of us deserve a sincere public admission that he erred in his actions and is prepared to make the necessary restitution as soon as possible.
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