The Harder We Pray The Poorer We Become

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We all had hope when these lot were voted in. Didn’t we ?.

Despite all the evidence of serious systemic corruption and malfeasance there are still people who want to convince us to have hope. The evidence coming out of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Ghana’s Parliament does not surprise me. What surprises me is that, you wouldn’t probably believe it, there are a few humans in Ghana who are inherently optimistic about the future of the welfare of our poor downtrodden masses who form the majority base of the population. How can it be, when the rising culture of corruption and embezzlement of public funds are crippling national development and weakening national institutions whilst our population is increasing.

We all know these things have been going on for many years and it is one of the main reasons our development has been stymied. Now is it not funny, the government’s explanation why they have not done anything about grand systemic corruption in Ghana. According to the President’s spokes person, “because we believe in zero tolerance we are making sure these things are held in an open forum for the benefit of all Ghanaians” What ?

I have never heard such incomprehensible baloney of a statement before in my life. After seven years in power when they have been in charge of a system that has witnessed the erosion of ETHICAL COMMUNAL VALUES to the benefit of MATERIALISM, improper and vulgar wealth acquisition, they want us to believe this ? In the light of all what is happening at the CEPS, our ports and other government institutions? When no one, not even ministers and their deputies are being held to account for their performance of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) under their jurisdiction ?. In a situation when allegations or evidence of improper behaviour does not lead to suspensions, investigations or prosecutions? Oh dear. God help us all if we are to build a sustainable country.

What do the powers that be not understand? So they mean when it comes to their lifestyle choices in government, they can promptly with ZEAL make decisions to spend the nations resources for their benefit, on expensive cars, mansions, garden boys, cooks and expensive hotels when they travel abroad, but when it comes to managing accountability and the institutional effectiveness of the government, they do not understand that in the realms of managerial responsibility, when an entity fails, the leadership of the unit in question carries the can and “Heads Must Roll” to serve as a deterrent ? I thought the Ministers and their Deputies, Principal Secretaries and other service heads do understand their responsibilities and obligations in terms of corruption. I also thought they have responsibilities for establishing and maintaining systems of internal control, regular checking and guarding against illegal conduct. How can it be that in the seventh year of a democratically elected government things go wrong in government departments and no one, virtually no one could be identified as being ultimately responsible?

Why are our countrymen so docile and easily deceived by these amateurs? May be J.H Mensah may be right. “It’s in our genes”. We just do not like taking responsibility for our selves. It looks like the average Ghanaians brain has been programmed to make us think it does not matter if the rules are made but not adhered to. Some one was saying “Fama Nyame” (Give it to God). I find myself questioning why the idea of Fama Nyame retains such a hold over us when we are trying to build a sustainable nation state for the benefit of all of us. Could it be because we are simply damn too religious for our own good and we perversely overlook very important issue that no other nation state ignores ? How long can we continue to pay the price for inaction on the part of appointed and elected officials? Could it be that crashing poverty and aid dependency has created a situation where a vast majority of our people who are the victims of the vicious cycle of economic penury that the lack of action on these issues creates, are unable to do a little bit, just a little bit of lateral thinking ?. If they did there would have been a build up of anger and a ground swell of indignation to take our country back from these *******.in 2008.

Human welfare just as it has been for many years is guaranteed only by mutual scrutiny and regulation and not by religion, but unfortunately it matters everywhere else apart from in our neck of the woods. Fellow countrymen this aspect of things have dangerously broken down in Ghana and if these people, the greedy few, are allowed to pursue their interests without constraints and they keep hurting other people our democracy will be in great peril. It should be clear to everyone now that the greedy elites (self centred politicians, incorrigible public servants, some corrupt traditional rulers and some men of God e.t.c) don’t care about the plight of the vast majority of our poor citizens. This is a classic example of STATE CAPTURE. They have captured the state for their own benefits. These people will continue to grab other people’s resources, will cheat, lie, steal and even kill to the detriment of all of us. And if they have power and weapons no one will be able to stop them because things are just not working right and they will always get away with murder. Did you hear the case of the poor man who stole a goat recently, probably out of desperation and hunger, and the harsh sentence he received ? How many of these greedy elites will go to jail for not only sleeping on the job but for aiding and abetting the thieves? Probably none.

I am just hoping that this time we realise that we can no longer ran our country in such unsustainable way. The current politics and governance situation in our country is no good and not benefiting anyone but the greedy few. It is outdated and consistently screws poor people over while continuously selling them a snake oil vision of paradise. So next time remember when former ministers and their deputies come asking for your votes you should think about these failures which they are responsible for, just like they are touting the discovery of Oil as one of their achievements. Is it not funny, how they wish to pick and choose which positive and negative developments to embrace and which to discard ? (Only in Ghana) eeehhh.

We need a thorough change and reform of the status quo and I am encouraged by the message of a new political party that has emerged. The Ghana National Party (GNP). Having read their manifesto and interacted with their leadership, I think they are men of integrity who will represent the yearnings of the people and articulate a different vision for our society. I am just hoping they will be given the opportunity to step up to the plate sooner than later. I am joining because I hate mediocrity and GNP abhors MEDIOCRITY.

We must replace the culture of corruption, impunity and clientelism with a culture of integrity, performance, meritocracy and transparency. That is what the Ghana National Party (GNP) stands for. It is your party.

(Redeem Ghana Now)

Long Live Ghana