- the cause of Africa's underdevelopment and for that matter

Ghana's declining progress.

by Samuel Donkor

For many years now, since African countries became independent from their colonial masters, politically and economically, there has been nothing positive or good to write home about, in terms of socio-economic development.

Since the emergence of the so-called Third World, which Africa as a whole is part of it and sometimes identified as developing countries, including Asia,and Latin America, much progress has been made in many countries of the latter continents in socio-economic development. But Africa is still lagging behind, especially Sub Sahara Africa, compared to these continents of Asia and Latin America. No Sub-Saharan African country has up to date found its foot in socio-economic development. Africa as a whole is still marking time and even still declining in progress and has yet to achieve economic independence after fifty years of freedom from colonisation.

Look at the Tigers of Asia and the other new emerging nations in Latin America, they all started with African countries as free nations in the late fifties and early sixties and yet, look at their efforts and pace of development progress. Even though the three continents, which are endowed with much natural resources, have similar problems as socio-economically underdeveloped, the two continents are however making some positive trends and have entered the middle income group.

What at all is wrong with Africa and for that matter Ghana, which was the first to free itself from colonial rule, fifty four years ago, and endowed with so much natural and human resources which is the envy of other African countries. What about Africa's natural resources as a whole, one may ask? And yet Africans are very poor and still crawling at the mercy of the industrialised world. What has actually gone wrong with Africa and Ghana in particular in their development progress.

After very much observation and critical analysis, it has been found, without doubt that, the cause of Africa's developmental backwardness is nothing more than a moral issue, such as unpatriotic and uncommited leadership,corruption and mismanagement. It is all a matter of greed and dishonesty by African leaders, which has eaten down into the moral fiber of the people, from the political level through the public service to the classrooms like a virus infection.

With this state of epidemic moral decadence prevailing among the people as a canker spreading among politicians and the rank and file of authorities, Africa and for that matter Ghana will continue to mark time in development progress till thy Kingdom come. It is known all over, theoritically and practically that, Greed, Corruption and their associated attributes like dishonesty, indiscipline, disorder, lawlessness etc are enemies of development progress.

Under this state of affairs, government policies and programs are never achieved, if achieved, never sustained, if sustained, wrongly implemented and mismanaged and never enjoyed by the poor, who are supposed to be the benefactors. For instance, Ghana has been first to introduce many nice policies and programs, but the people have also been the last to benefit from them. They either become 9day wonder programs or high-jacked by the rich or misapplied to the disadvantage of the people.This canker is also the cause of shoddy works on projects that never last their life-span, costing the state threefold to restore.

The absence of maintainance culture and neglect is another factor setting back Ghana's development progress. Here again, state properties are neglected for long periods of time, with maintainance funds diverted or overlooked deliberately until properties are near collapse. At the end, huge sums of money has to be spent to restore them,all to the advantage of officials , who benefit from kickbacks during award of contracts

Due to greed, corruption and dishonesty, public servants in all government sectors, have become unpatriotic and non-committed to strict enforcement of rules and regulations, law and order, thereby causing disorder, public indiscipline and lawlessness, misapplication of government policies and programs, which is causing hardships to the citizenry to benefit from them.

I tell you the truth, Ghana is facing a state of moral decadence and as long as this greed and corruption canker and dishonesty continue to prevail among authorities of state and the public at large, without checking it or reduce it to the lowest level, Ghana and for that matter, Africa will continue to struggle in underdevelopment and chaos, no amount of billions of dollars would salvage them. This state of affairs is also the cause of low productivity in all sectors of the economy.

Today the nation Ghana has fallen into a state of immorality and dishonesty with both cultural and religious values lost in all sectors of society. Ghanaians today, especially the youth have no values and are ignorant of their cultural and religious values.The elderly have also become myopic to their own values for the sake of greed and get rich quick desire. The whole system is corrupt with disorder and cheating spree everywhere. What is our leaders doing to check this immoral canker to enable this nation to properly harness and manage the so much natural resources the country is endowed with to achieve progressive development for today's generation and the generation to come.

For far too long, since the first republic, Ghanaians have become a poor people living in a rich land, just because of bad leadership and their mismanagement governance. Politicians and public servants have become so much dishonest one way or the other and continue to play down on the people's intelligence, behaving as public lords instead of public servants. It is observed that governments must check corruption, greed and dishonesty in the governance system and that failure to do so would continue to undermine Ghana's democratic gains and development progress.And the country would continue to remain under-developed. It is also observed that wealthy nationals and foreign investors would not risk their money in a nation without strong leadership. They would also not invest in a nation bedded in high rate of crime, corruption, lawlessness and disorder.

Should Ghanians keep portraying themselves as helpless victims of unjust world economic order and continue to depend on loans and donations, when evidence abounds that, Ghana has not been able to break away from the poverty line, since becoming independence or since the first republic, mainly because of bad governance and unbridled corruption, coupled with greedy, dishonest and unpatriotic leadership?

African leaders have not been sincere to their people, they have failed the people and for that matter Ghanaians after DR Nkrumah of the first republic. I write you the truth, ;Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap' (Galatians 6:7)

Samuel Donkor email: samdonkies@yahoo.com mob: 0242 809352 .

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