Rev. Kwabena Opuni Frimpong, a former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, has levelled accusations against Ghanaian politicians, indicating that they are taking advantage of corruption to benefit from the nation.
In a news report by Accra-based myjoyonline.com, he argued that politicians, both from past and present administrations, have failed to demonstrate a genuine commitment to combating corruption.
According to Rev. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, this lack of seriousness stems from the fact that politicians are capitalising on corruption for their own gains.
“They are all benefiting from it. Now going into politics has become business. They are all milking the nation. Therefore, if I found the government official just doing this when I heard it in the room. It sounds like a cliché,” he said.
The comments by Rev. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong came at the time the Senior Advisor to the president, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, called on Christians to take a lead in the battle against corruption.
Yaw Osafo-Maafo questioned the quality of the moral impact of the church, as 70 per cent of Ghanaians profess to be Christians.
However, reacting to this, Rev Opuni-Frimpong described the call by the senior advisor as a ‘political sound bite’.
“Past and present governments have not proved to anybody that they are serious with the corruption fight. They have just made the corruption fight a political sound bite,” he noted.
Criticising the rationale behind Osafo-Maafo’s call on Christians to fight corruption, Rev. Opuni-Frimpong questioned why the government demands evidence only when its own appointees are accused of corruption.
“I was expecting what he said should come from a Pastor, even if they clap for him. Going back, he must ask himself what exactly he was telling us. Is fighting corruption a church business? What are we hearing from Parliament? The kind of things from Ministries and all that they go to Parliament for on the Auditor General’s Report.
“You expect Pastors and Bishops to do what? How many people (accused of corruption) even from the government’s own side even those that people have brought up, what have we heard? Bring evidence. Is that not what the pattern has been over the years?” Rev. Opuni-Frimpong stated.
He continued: “You leave all your cabinet meetings only to go and stand before innocent church people and ask them you are 72 per cent what? You are in government, you are on the cabinet, you advise the President and the question of why should come to him. Not to Pastors, not church members. So, to me what I heard in the room is a political soundbite.”