No northerner may be voted president in the next 20-30 years – Martin Amidu

Former Attorney-General Martin Amidu is predicting that no one from the north may be elected president of Ghana again in the next 20 to 30 years.

He says the conduct of President John Dramani Mahama is responsible for his rather gloomy prediction.

Martin Amidu told Joy FM and MultiTV’s news analysis programme, Newsfile, the president, who is a northerner, is damaging the brand of northerners.

Northerners are largely perceived to be straightforward, truthful, honest and incorruptible people.

This brand, Mr. Amidu contends, is being damaged by the president who is running of a government widely perceived to be corrupt.

The former A-G has been touted as one of Ghana’s foremost anti-corruption crusaders.

He has consistently fought graft particularly in government and even after his removal from office as Attorney-General, he continued with the fight.

Mr. Amidu went to the Supreme Court and obtained favourable judgments asking private companies to return millions of Ghana cedis and Euros to the state.

A self-styled financier of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alfred Agbesi Woyome, was ordered to refund ¢51.2 million he unlawfully obtained from the state as a judgment debt award.

Spanish firm, Waterville, was also ordered to return some €47 million Martin Amidu said it unconstitutionally got from the state and the Supreme Court agreed.

Not a dime has been retrieved by government since 2014 when Mr. Amidu obtained the judgments.

He points to this as the president’s lack of commitment to fight corruption and lead a government of integrity.

In view of this, no northerner, he maintains, will gain the confidence of the Ghanaian people again.

Is Martin Amidu having a personal problem with the President? he was asked.

“I don’t have anything against him except that I have told him that, look as a young Northerner to ascend to this position, discharge your duties with utmost integrity to uphold the image of we northerners – we’ve been known from time immemorial to be honest people. The government you are running corruptly is damaging us,” he said.

The president, he stressed, is “disgracing me as a Northerner. I don’t like it.”

A member of the NDC’s legal team, Abraham Amabliba, a northerner himself, condemned Mr. Amidu’s comments as demeaning.

He called on northern groups to speak up against Amidu’s prediction.