Between forgiveness and accountability, a dollar gift tests the moral spine of a reset agenda.
President Mahama stares at a humongous cross in front of him as Chief Debrah stands behind with the Public Servants Code of Conduct in his right hand and the Bible in his left.
He clears his throat. “My Lord, how oft shall appointees sin against us, and we forgive them? Till seven times?”
President Mahama does not look back. His gaze is fixed on a nation watching, a promise looming, and a dollar gift that has set tongues wagging.
“I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22, KJV)¹
It is a moment of reckoning, not only for Sammy Gyamfi, whose political eloquence is now momentarily eclipsed by a viral dollar gift, but also for a President whose incumbency rests on a promise to fight (perceived acts of) corruption and to uphold the integrity of public office².
Sammy Gyamfi’s $800 offering to Nana Agradaa, purportedly for fuel, has stirred an ethical storm. Agradaa claims the money followed a conversation in which Gyamfi entreated her to stop maligning President Mahama³. A plea for restraint. A political pacification. Or perhaps, depending on one’s vantage point, a transactional olive branch cloaked in generosity.
If Agradaa’s testimony holds, then the dollar gift goes beyond mere kindness; it becomes persuasion dressed as charity. The conversion of a once-hostile voice into silence or support. Yet in a nation teetering between economic uncertainty and calls for probity, the sight of a public official dishing out foreign currency to a controversial figure invites questions no amount of good intention can silence.
The newly launched Public Servants Code of Conduct, which Chief Debrah now wields like a second scripture, reads:
“A public servant shall avoid any conduct that may bring the public service into disrepute or compromise its integrity, including acts that create the perception of favouritism, undue influence, or conflict of interest.”⁴
Gyamfi’s apology came swiftly. He called it a personal act of kindness, never meant for public view⁵. But in politics, what is private can quickly become symbolic, and what is symbolic can define a season.
President Mahama, now cast in this uncomfortable passion play, must decide. Does he extend forgiveness and carry Gyamfi along, or does he uphold the written code and let the weight of consequence fall?
The cross looms large. The scriptures are open. And Peter still waits for his answer.
Footnotes:
¹ Matthew 18:22 (King James Version).
² President Mahama reiterates his anti-corruption and public accountability stance during his second tenure.
³ Nana Agradaa claims in a widely circulated live video, May 2025.
⁴ Code of Conduct for Public Servants, launched by President Mahama, April 2025.
⁵ Sammy Gyamfi’s statement via Facebook/X, 10 May 2025.