Exploitation, Corruption and Domination - The Bane of Bad Leadership in Ghana

Ghanaians have made a great effort for a constructive political system like any other nation, a system that aims at providing total freedom from internal condemnation and deprivation. In spite of the dynamic and probing agenda directed towards total liberation of the citizens from corruption and poverty; it is evidenced that the masses are still undergoing or witnessing various kinds of economic and socio-political crises that had come about from bad governance which upon time had seriously undermined sustainable development in the country.

Taking into consideration the history of the country's development, Politicians has relegated the very people they are to serve to the background. At the moment, the country is seen as a ‘quasi-middle level nation’ or referred to as ‘developing nation’, though; not on the basis of racial prejudice, to be more precise it is based on the structure of political, economic and technical observable fact. This thinking is based on the premise that the citizenry lacks modern day facilities such as medical and health.

In the midst of problems, that has been recognized takes account of, the laid-back attitude of government concerning the education in science and technology, inadequate funding of researches, high rate of poverty, diseases and illiteracy, political insensitiveness, bad road network, ethno-centrism advocacy that could lead to conflict, shortage of skilled personnel in certain key areas, corruption and so on.

I believe it cannot be made a mountain out of a molehill that, change is of the essence in Ghana's politics. It could be discerned in the country that, things have been getting out of hand in our economy and politics. The demand for change is such, which has to do with the deportment of those in government instead of the political programs they preach about.

Personally, political programs and policies are designed or created by the people to govern their lives, nonetheless when it turns out to be insensitive, it should be fiercely resisted by the masses through public opinions, protest marches, sit in or sit downs to attract the needed attention.

The past two decades has become a difficult and a worrying state for nearly all to think of, with reference to insignificant development in the country. The reasons are not far-fetched, as it could be recognized that the structure of Ghana politics and most political parties have given much room for those in government to have a field day over economy at the expense of those they governed.

There are many instance, where we can easily point to those who have misappropriate or stolen the country’s wealth and went away unpunished. To add to the injury is what we witnessed in the election petition - the case of electoral fraud, irregularities, malpractices, and coupled with other political upheavals.

In the midst of all the above mentioned problems, the headache of the masses borders on the economic programs and policies introduced by the government to sustain their domination and exploitation.

The mismatch between the rich and poor could be clearly seen and this is fueling the violent degradation of the Environment by illegal mining operations.

The sticking points and mind-boggling decision consequence, is one taken by governments in their economic policies such as deregulation, privatization, commercialization and others. In other words, the government sells very important key economic sectors to themselves through insensitive economic programs and policies of divestiture (capitalism).

As a matter of fact it does not mean that divestiture or capitalism does not have its own advantage, the problem with it is that, the system does not take into consideration the well being of the people.

This condition is built on the fact that the private investors pre-occupation is solely to make profit, therefore any bid to sell our economy to the investors, and it is just like sending the people into legalized slavery. The after-effects of this, is that the masses are normally not considered in nearly all government discussions or negotiations and agendas.

There is another disquiet that demands our attention. Ghanaians outside that are not well taken care of. Some Ghanaians have died in foreign countries with or without any serious offenses committed. They are punished, detained and condemned to death by foreign government without given them enough time to appeal for justice. All these crises lie in leadership.

Reports and investigations have brought to the fore that, in most occurrences many of our diplomats often condemn their citizens even without taken any serious measure to ascertain what truly happened. These diplomats refuse to come to their defense as and when appropriate.

On the contrary this is not the case with the developed societies. The developed societies usually protect the interest of their citizen whether at home or in foreign lands.

This is not the case on our continent and this creates apathy that affect the patriotic tendency in the people toward their respective countries.

Therefore, it is noteworthy to remark that, though most Ghanaians appear free, nevertheless they are in shackles. From this, it could be posited that sustainable development cannot be achieved in the midst of these despicable mess.

Nevertheless, the above remarks do not suggests that all those in government in the country are corrupt nor does it stands that they lack the required leadership qualities; rather it should be an eye opener that corruption and bad leadership could not lead to any meaningful change. Against this backdrop, we must be thoughtful in all that we do, that conscious effort must be taken to repositioning the country in its right order.

In other words, far-reaching actions should be taken by all and sundry in tackling the political turmoil which Ghana as a nation is exposed to.

Be it enough to mention that the problem of leadership is the major challenge in Ghana's politics.

The solution to the problem of bad leadership could only be resolved through conscious effort on the part of the government and the governed. All articles and clauses that give room to abuse and misuse, corruption and domination should be amended in our constitution.

In fact, the government should stop pay-offs their political loyalties with certain key positions that requires expertise, adequate skills and economic technicalities. More so, our leaders should stop paying lip-service to the problem of corruption and poverty alleviation.

In conclusion, and for lasting solution to be sustained; the constitution must not only seek to address issue of security, human rights and economic needs at home, it must also strive to acknowledge those Ghanaians outside.

Ghana needs to join the rest of the world in a bid to provide security, protection of human rights, fight against Aids and terrorism.

Most importantly, the people should support the government when it has undertaken the task to provide the enabling environment for economic and social development.