A former Deputy Minister of Local Goverment and Rural
Development and Environment under the erstwhile John Kufuor administration, Abraham Dwuma Odoom has said he was once vilified for doing the right thing.
The then Twifo Praso District Chief Executive speaking on Maakye Wednesday, August 10, 2022, said he was given money from the HIPC fund to undertake certain projects in his district where there was a surplus he refunded to the presidency.
But the Agribusiness expert said his family, friends and church members blasted him for doing that.
According to them, that was an avenue for him to enrich himself.
He said some even went to his mother to inform her how foolish her son is.
“When I was a DCE at Twifo Praso, I was given some HIPC money to do some things in the district. We did everything fine! Then I returned the remaining money to the president. And the insults I received? I was called a fool. They said I have no sense. They went to my mother and told her ‘your son came to tour the beach’. My family was part, friends and even church members. I attend the Church of Pentecost and some of the members didn’t understand why I returned the money,” he disclosed.
His revelation was in reaction to the mindset of people in ensuring that the right things are done. He says Ghana is so corrupted that doing the right thing becomes abnormal.
But he shared later that, he knows whatever money given him was from government which is taxpayers money and also, based on an advice from his mother, he developed the attitude of honesty in all his dealings.
“People suffer to pay tax so we need not to misuse it.
My mother told me what happened at my childbirth and told me never to take government money”
The deed, he also revealed, bestowed on him an honour from John Agyekum Kufuor, who asked him to make a wish to be done for him.
“Kufuor was pleased with what I did so he asked me, what should I do for you? That time he was building higher institutions for people so I told him I needed a school so he should help me build one.
So I moved the community school to a new site and developed it and got the Twifo Praso Nursing Training College [at the old site where the SHS was].
Abraham Dwuma Odoom is an agribusiness specialist who went to Nigeria to help them become self sustainence due to his involvement in the Bill and Melana Gates and the Kufuor Foundation.
By Felix Anim-Appau|Onuaonline.com
