GII apologises to Mahama over 'mentoring' comment

Europa

December 10, 2015 2:01 PM

The Ghana Integrity Initiative had in a statement urged President John Dramani Mahama to go for a mentoring session from some African heads of state who are making progress in the fight against corruption.

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has offered an unqualified apology to President John Dramani Mahama for the use of the word ‘mentoring’ in its statement on corruption released on December 9, 2015.

The Ghana Integrity Initiative had in the said statement urged President John Dramani Mahama to go for a mentoring session from some African heads of state who are making progress in the fight against corruption.

The president had at a high level meeting on the National Anti-corruption Action Plan in Accra, dismissed the interpretation put on a Transparency International (TI) report that Ghana is the second most corrupt country in Africa.

But the Ghana chapter of Transparency International, (GII) defended the report.

According to GII, it "wishes to appeal to President John Dramani Mahama to turn to President Muhammudu Buhari and President John Magufuli for mentoring and act more swiftly to curb corruption in this country.”

This comes at a time when Ghana joined the world to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day.

However, the GII, in a new press statement signed by its Executive Director, Vitus Adaboo Azeem, said it has retracted from the earlier 'mentoring' comment.

"We recognise that the President is the first gentleman of the land and must be treated with all the necessary respect from all the citizens of the country," the statement said.

Below is the statement:

GHANA INTEGRITY INITIATIVE

(GHANA CHAPTER OF TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL)

The attention of the Board and Management of the Ghana Integrity Initiative has been drawn to the inappropriate use of the word, “mentoring” in the last paragraph of the Press release it issued yesterday to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day and wish to apologise unreservedly to His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama and, indeed, the people of this country for the use of the word. GII wishes to withdraw that entire sentence from the Press Release.

We recognise that the President is the first gentleman of the land and must be treated with all the necessary respect from all the citizens of the country.

We wish to emphasize that the Press Release did not intend to denigrate the President and should not be seen in that light. We sincerely call on all Ghanaians to avoid using this error to divert the import of the Press Release which calls on the President to use all his powers to “BREAK THE CORRUPTION CHAIN”

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