Several years after his rather infamous comment to the effect that ‘corruption was as old as Adam’, Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, has explained that, the comment was not an endorsement of corruption, as some have frequently referred to it in their justification of government’s inability to tackle the canker effectively.
Mr. Kufuor said this while addressing a group of young people at the ‘DreamOval Thoughts Transfer Series’, which is a monthly forum that focuses on inspiring and nurturing young minds to do.
The comment, which is many years old, had been interpreted to mean that, corruption was not a new thing. Others also concluded that the comment exposed Mr. Kufuor as someone who was not committed to fight the canker, by cracking the whip on corrupt officials in his administration at the time.
But several years down the line, Mr. Kufuor has had to clarify the comment.
This was after one of the young people who gathered at his residence, for the ‘DreamOval Thoughts Transfer Series’, put the question to him, and also requested to know how he as a person avoided the temptation of being corrupted.
He said: “…Eve came around to the Garden of Eden with all the beauty that God created her from Adam’s own rib. So the serpent to Eve and the fruit that God had warned Adam never to taste, the serpent convinced Eve that it was the fruit of wisdom and that the old man (God), doesn’t want Adam to be wise so he got Adam to taste it and see; and that was where man fell.”
“…And so; when anybody tells you that corruption was there from Adam, that person is not really endorsing corruption; no. The person is rather reminding you to go back to history and see how your forebear Adam fell so you become wiser not to go that way. But again, it became like a surrogate for Kufuor.
Kufuor says corruption is as old as Adam, so anybody can continue; no. Kufuor never did that. Kufuor was rather trying to advise office holders to be careful because the temptations are thrown all over the place. Once you get into office, that’s the nature of power. Power attracts, and it attracts in ways that if the holder is not careful, he will end up in disgrace. So yes; I was there alright; but I kept reminding myself; I didn’t pretend that I could easily overcome the weaknesses; but I kept reminding myself of how others fell so as to keep myself in check from pursuing my natural inclinations many times so that was what saved me”.
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