Anti-graft crusader Vitus Azeem is advocating a change in leadership in order to tackle corruption in the country.
According to him, Ghana requires leadership with the political will and determination to holistically and decisively deal with the canker.
He argued that the current leadership lack not only the will but are themselves neck deep in the rot and therefore , are unable to combat it head-on.
“Nobody is fighting corruption in this country. We just talk about it for political capital. We have various laws and we have various institutions but most of them are not effective. We need a change of leadership. A leadership that will say ‘we cannot tolerate this, we must deal with’,” he stated.
Vitus Azeem also believes a change in attitude on the part of citizens will be key in the fight against corruption.
He said the masses, who mostly bear the brunt of such rot, must be willing to report acts of corruption and pile pressure on authorities to investigate and prosecute perpetrators.
“We also need a change of attitude from the ordinary people who will no longer see corrupt money as money from heaven, will report acts of corruption in your community, in your office to the appropriate institutions and follow up and insist through demonstrations, pronouncements that actions be taken”.
The anti-corruption crusader was speaking in an interview on Breakfast News on Dreamz FM on the conviction of former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) and former Operations Manager of the entity of corruption.
The former CEO Sedina Tamakloe Attionu and the former Operations Manager Daniel Axim were found guilty of stealing, money laundering and causing the loss of 93,044,134.66 to the state by an Accra High Court.
The court, accordingly, sentenced Ms. Sedina Tamakloe to 10 years in prison with hard labour and Mr. Axim 5 years.
Reacting to the development, Vitus Azeem described the prosecution and conviction as “a drop in a mighty ocean”.
He contended that there are many alleged corrupt cases even in the current administration which are more grievous but have been left unattended to.
He also expressed dissatisfaction with the punishment handed the convicts as he argued that the court should have ordered recovery of the stolen money aside from handing them custodian sentences.
