After his public address to Rotary Club in Accra, Sam Kwesi Esson Jonah KBE, has come under immense criticism from persons close to the government who feel that portions of his address attacked the Executive.
The latest criticism is coming from Paul Adom-Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana (GEG), who in his biweekly show on Metro TV, tried to ‘punch holes’ in the senior stateman’s speech.
According to him, Sam Jonah KBE, must have had a role in Ashanti Gold which later turned into AngloGold Ashanti, therefore, he should be able to tell the young people of Ghana the role he played while working with the company.
On his show, Thursday, April 29, 2021, Adom-Otchere stated that, if Sam Jonah KBE wants to talk about the future of Ghana, then he must first of all open up about his past.
“Sam Jonah cannot come and talk about the future without answering questions about his past…it behoves him to make statements about his past. If he won’t say anything at all, at least we know his role with Adisadel College and AshGold Football Club, we do not know his role in that major transaction that has punctuated the corporate and political history of our society, the Ashanti transaction,” Paul Adom-Otchere said on his show monitored by GhanaWeb.
He indicated that, there are two Ashanti transactions, one was failed by the government of Ghana, which left a lot of rancour’s between JJ Rawlings and Sam Jonah and their relationship broke off completely.
“We don’t know the details. Sam Jonah must come and tell us. And then the transaction was rehashed and relaunched in 2001 and 2002, this time it was supported by the JA Kufuor government and it was successful. In both transactions, there was a critical decision about the heritage of the Ghanaian young person; because this gold resource, which is a Ghanaian resource was being treated in a certain way, was it being treated in the right way to guarantee the future of the young people that today Sam Jonah is concerned about?
“Was it being treated in a certain way that eventually guaranteed our future? Was there an option with Randgold resources and other people who wanted to participate that could have been better for the future of Ghana?” he asked.
Adom-Otchere stressed that, Sam Jonah KBE must answer these questions.
“He [Sam Jonah] is a big man, he has been around for a very long time, and he comes and says the youth of Ghana, I now feel the responsibility to speak and you don’t tell us what you’ve been doing in the past, when you have had such a tenacious relationship with the political decision making of Ghana since 1983; you won’t tell us what has happened about that…?”
Paul Adom-Otchere argues that, Sam Jonah’s answer to the question will help the Ghanaian youth understand whether or not he has found a new philosophy or a new idea.
“So that we can understand whether the idea you present today is the idea that has been with you for a very long time. If that idea that you present today is not an idea that has been with for a long time, it is still a welcome idea but we want to know so that we put it on record because the record is important,” he stressed.