Politicians Pave Way For Looting

CORRUPTION REPLACES PATRIOTISM

...As Politicians Pave Way For Looting

By Newman Dotse

Patriotism involves the love for one’s country and the willingness to defend it at all cost. Many Ghanaians are not well inclined to rendering services free of charge in the interest of the nation as corruption has taken over the entire nation, thus asphyxiating the pace of development. However, there are Ghanaians who believe this country is no longer worth dying for because the very people who are supposed to help develop this nation have all of a sudden developed a long and itching hand, thus looting state coffers just to make certain that their descendants continue to swim in wealth. Of course, reasons adduced for their nonchalant attitude is legitimate. How would a country so blessed with natural resources as Ghana, have her citizens lurch in abject poverty? Ghanaians hear their leaders talk about the quantum of revenue generated from the Country’s natural resources, yet the people live in desolation because the revenue is being used on few people who have links to the government . CORRUPTION:

Corruption is one issue that has been discussed several times. It is a monster that has refused to go away because many politicians in this Country have adopted the “scratch my back I scratch your back tactics’, hence our attempt to drive it away has been feeble and pathetic.

For Ghana to be redeemed from the chronic disease called corruption, it must be tackled frontally. Many people have described the penalty slapped on past corrupt officials as laughable while some see it as a ridicule of the anti corruption war of the people of Ghana. There are people who see the plea bargaining arrangement between Ghanaian politicians contemptible.

Plea bargain does not do justice to the Country or to majority of Ghanaians, who suffer from the political corruption that has kept this Country lying prostrate over the years, thus dwindling the development of the people. The entire Ghanaian landscape is inundated with dilapidated infrastructure, abandoned projects, secondary schools without basic equipment that could probably propel teaching and learning and roads that are un-motorable. The list of problems caused by corruption in high places is endless. However, there is one thing that I know for sure. Justice, they say, can only be done if anyone caught with evidence of corruptly enriching him or herself is made to face the full weight of the law of the land to at least curb corruption so as to allow development flow at its normal pace to kill the doubt in the minds of the people about politicians.

Corruption has eaten deep into majority of politicians to the extent that some no longer care about who is watching them, hence, majority of the citizens do not believe that government is set up to achieve the good of the society. Government, most people argue, is established as an agency of the state to achieve the wish of very few people in the good books of the officials in the high places.

My question is; what did we do with the gargantuan revenue generated from our natural resources?

The government has become overburdened with bureaucracy, such that corruption has become the bane. Today, you need to be in government or be connected with the powers that be to be able to make headway in Ghana. This is one of the reasons many people want to become politicians, with one main goal; to amass wealth. There are genuine politicians whose objectives are to make sure that the people they are serving get a fair share though; but majority are into politics to make more money at the expense of the poor and needy. Lives of Ghanaians are taken with impunity, with the government looking helpless when the lives of citizens are in danger. If the government fails to protect citizens within the country, how does one expect it to protect its citizens outside the shores of the land? Aside all these basic challenges the citizens encounter from government officials, there are certain deliberate actions on the part of government officials who do not take proper account of the citizens’ welfare.

Citizens are now aware of, courtesy the media, how corruption is carried out massively by some state officials. Today, it is easy to conclude that even when prosecution commences on fraudulent cases involving bigwigs in government, there may not be diligent prosecution eventually because of the ‘scratch my back I scratch your back syndrome’.

Ghanaians can be patriotic if there are good examples to learn from the leadership. Objectivity, sincerity and hard work should be our yardstick. Sentiments and nepotism tend to dominate our sense of reasoning in this Country than anything else. These are some of the things that are kicking us backwards as a nation.

Source: The Citizen Newspaper (thecitizen.news@yahoo.com) +233 27 314 655