Brilliant and intelligent Ghanaians have been sidelined as far as running the country is concerned, and instead, people “who know next to nothing” are calling the shots due to extreme partisanship in the country, former president of the Ghana Bar Association, Mr Sam Okudzeto, has said.

“The country is full of very brilliant, intelligent people [but] we have sidelined them, we have pushed all of them to the side and then you have people who know next to nothing wielding power, showing power, and the rest of us are suffering. I think it’s about time that Ghanaians sit up,” he noted.

Speaking to host of the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class 91.3FM, Prince Minkah, after think tank Institute of Economic Affairs launched findings of its pre-election survey, which identified unemployment, unreliable electricity, and poverty as the most important problems confronting Ghanaians ahead of the 2016 polls, Mr Okudzeto said Ghana needed an overhaul of governance structures to alleviate the suffering of the masses.

According to him, partisan politics and excessive centralisation of power had left the country with several development challenges. He said Ghanaians must sit up and challenge the wrong approach of governance, which is characterised by the abuse of power, by voting based on issues.

“…Excessive power that has been centralised, whereby one person virtually has power to dismiss everybody and appoint everybody, and we kept repeating it that it was a wrong approach to governance, but even if it is the constitution, you can still go behind it and say, ‘Let’s sit down and discuss the issue because this is national. What solutions can we provide for it?’, and then we can all put our heads together,” Mr Okudzeto added.

According to him, the amount of fuel guzzled per month by one V8 SUV used by government officials, can build a school for a village.

“Part of the problem that we are suffering from in this country now is because of the parties. They come into power, many of them you see are riding in V8 in Accra. Where are they going in V8 cars? Do you know the amount of petrol these cars consume? You will be shocked that that can provide a school block for a small village and that is one person using it for a month. The petrol one person uses for the month can provide a school block for a village”, he stated.