Sam Jonah must answer questions about his past – Adom Otchere

According to him, the former AnglogoldAshanti CEO has answer questions on his role in the deal that led to the takeover of the mining company.

Speaking during his editorial session on Thursday, Mr. Adom-Otchere said the businessman must show his fidelity to Ghanaians before commenting on current issues.

“Sam Jonah cannot come and talk about the future without answering questions about his past...it behoves him to make statements about his past,” the veteran journalist said.

“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.

“…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?”

Mr. Jonah, Knight of British Empire (KBE) courted controversy when he slammed Ghana’s lack of progress in recent years.

Delivering a speech at a public lecture with Rotarians in Accra, he touched on a number of controversial topics.

The businessman spoke about the return of a culture of silence, the Chinese’s destruction of lands and water bodies due to illegal mining and the bleak future of Ghanaian youth due to some damning decisions taken by the government.

Mr. Adom-Otchere, however, believes Sam Jonah has a lot of questions to answer about his role in creating the current system. 

“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…?”

“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 added.

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