A former Assin Central Member of Parliament, Kennedy Agyapong, has threatened to release documents exposing New Patriotic Party (NPP) members for allegedly selling Agenda 111 hospital contracts to themselves and taking kickbacks. 

The outspoken former MP felt he had had it up to his neck when NPP MPs toured the Afari Military Hospital and used the occasion to criticise the present National Democratic Congress (NDC) government for stalling this particular project and Agenda 111 projects.

The basis for Kennedy Agyepong’s allegations, video-recorded and played back on YouTube, is that these corrupt dealings and contract sales—rather than structural system failures—are what have hindered the government from completing the Agenda 111 infrastructure projects.

The core of his accusations centred on a number of claims. One of them is “Inflated Costs”.

He asserts that the estimated cost of the hospital projects (approximately $16.88 million per facility) was highly inflated. Another is “Kickbacks and Subletting”.

He alleges that certain individuals who secured the initial Agenda 111 contracts turned around and sublet/sold the contracts to others, while pocketing a 10% kickback of the total contract value for themselves. 

Indeed, he goes on, “NPP party people approached my wife with an offer to give her one such contract for 11% kickback.”

He concludes that these practices led to massive leakages of state funds, which ultimately resulted in the abandonment and delayed completion of many of the hospital projects.

He claims he knows what he is talking about because he once served on and chaired the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament. In that capacity, he knew details of the contract sum and other matters.

The Afari Military Hospital project is an uncompleted 500-bed health facility located in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti Region.

Initiated in 2014, the project is intended to ease pressure on the 37 Military Hospital in Accra and improve emergency medical services across Ghana's middle belt.

On completion, it will serve as a major referral and treatment centre for military personnel in the Central and Northern sectors of the country, in addition to providing health care to the general public.

The project dates back to earlier administrations, with conceptual work beginning under former President John Agyekum Kufuor. Construction officially commenced in March 2014 during the first administration of President John Dramani Mahama, with an initial completion target set for 2016.

Here we are, in 2026, ten solid years after the completion target date, and we are still being told it is 98% complete. Kennedy Agyapong is insisting that the delay is the result of corruption.

Anticipating the backlash from the party for this public exposure, he has warned the NPP party to stop targeting him, or he will reveal how these internal practices caused the projects to fail.

And here is where I come in. Must Ghana wait till Kennedy Agyapong gets angry enough to spill his beans? Haven’t we, as a nation, suffered too much already from the effects of kickbacks and contract sum inflation?

Are we not angered enough by these disclosures to task the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), among others, to invite Kennedy Agyepong to “spill the beans” now, including the names of those who approached his wife with the offer?

Will this call ever be heeded? Ghanaians are being treated like the masses in George Orwell’s fictional country, Oceania, in his book, ‘1984’.

To a victim of state torture, the torturer said, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” 

That’s powerlessness. Social Psychologists say it leads to a state of alienation.

And that is how Ghanaians are being made to feel under our democracy.

We are living in a state where the words of the masses, no matter how loud they shout, do not matter.

As I write, I feel a sense of alienation, a certain hopelessness resulting from knowing that Ken Agyapong will never be invited.

The rich, the influential and the mighty will never be punished for crimes committed against the state, no matter how long I or any other concerned Ghanaian writes – unless the exposure and agitation for probity emanate from a source close to political power.

An example is the 2012 Woyome GH¢51.2 million judgment debt scandal.

It took the same Kennedy Agyapong, at that time as an MP, shouting from within the power structure, to get the state to act.

Even in that capacity, Kennedy Agyapong endured legal battles, including a contempt case.

The repeated rhetoric by a vociferous MP amplified public anger and kept the scandal in the headlines. 

We are helpless; the masses have no voice, no real power, the only exception being what we exercise on election day.

Once in power, however, the masses can go hang.

To consolidate their hold on power and to secure their future, the politician will amass wealth through inflated contracts, very well assured that even if the scandal is discovered, the system will protect them.

Why don’t we dare Kennedy Agyapong!