The elitist-political enterprise in Ghana: Diagnosis, dangers, prevailing strategies, and the antidote to the enterprise

In Ghana, the political landscape manifests as an oligopolistic enterprise, wherein political power oscillates between two major political parties.

Political elites cleverly leverage politics to consolidate power and extract resources from the masses. Here's how it works: There are these politicians and financiers who invest a ton of cash into the parties' operations.

They do this
expecting to get back way more than they put in. Then there are the grassroots supporters doing all the groundwork to get votes.

The goal of this whole setup is pretty simple: everyone wants to make a profit. The politicians want the power to control resources, the financiers want favors and contracts, and the grassroots want jobs and other rewards.

So, while they might talk about serving the people, the real aim is to line their own pockets.

The system perpetuates corruption and resource exploitation by political elites—the overarching governance system becomes subsumed within the confines of parochial interests. Policies and projects are formulated to achieve the goals of the political enterprise, viz., to enrich the political elites, their financiers, and their clients.

This is executed through the manipulation of democratic institutions, artfully wielded to advance elite interests while detracting from the collective
aspiration for a prosperous Ghana. In this web of political manoeuvring, many Ghanaians are disempowered and marginalized. Political clientelism serves as both a hallmark of the political enterprise and a coping mechanism for certain citizens. As a coping mechanism, it is a response to the threats posed by the prevailing political landscape.

Many individuals, particularly among the youth, are drawn to politics as a
means to counteract the scarcity of employment opportunities. Consequently, they gravitate toward affiliations with student-based partisan groups, assuming roles as delegates or party loyalists colloquially referred to as "foot soldiers." These millions of individuals actively engage in defending or critiquing the prevailing political circumstances, often displaying partisan biases. This
Partisan behaviour perpetuates a cycle of political patronage between the two major parties.

The symbiotic relationship between political elites and their grassroots sustains the operational efficacy of the political enterprise, albeit at the expense of the public interest. This system, devoid of meritocracy, ultimately dictates one's leverage based on proximity to the pinnacle of power. The phenomenon of Ghanaians relocating abroad, particularly characterized by a mass exodus of highly skilled professionals across various sectors, such as healthcare professionals and tertiary graduates, represents another coping mechanism within Ghanaian society against the effects of the prevailing political system.

This relocation of human capital is indicative of disillusionment and a quest for improved opportunities abroad. A section of Ghanaians abroad adopts a strategy of critiquing the system and holding political leaders accountable by leveraging social media platforms. Notable figures such as Kevin Taylor and Twene Jonas exemplify this trend, albeit accompanied by what some might call ‘unethical’ codes inherent to their methods. On the contrary, another segment of Ghanaians simply focuses on providing remittance-based support for family networks back home while remaining silent on the deleterious impacts of the political enterprise.

In order to dismantle the entrenched political enterprise, a prevalent yet inadequately effective strategy has been non-partisan activism facilitated through media platforms and civil society initiatives. However, the effectiveness of such initiatives is undermined by different barriers. Firstly, a pervasive atmosphere of monetary inducement and intimidation permeates the
landscape, resulting in the compromise of certain activists as well as the forced silence of others. Consequently, the potency of non-partisan activism as a catalyst for change is blunted.

Furthermore, the political enterprise has evolved mechanisms to immunize itself against the potency of such activism, typically resorting to cosmetic solutions aimed at appeasing dissenting voices while perpetuating the status quo unabated.
Nevertheless, notwithstanding these challenges, a cohort of conscientious citizens, exemplified by luminaries such as Bright Simons and Kwaku Azar, among others, persists in their vociferous critique and vigilant resistance through social media and democratic channels.

Their unflinching commitment serves as a beacon of hope amidst the prevailing climate of disillusionment. This author believes some competent, concerned citizens harbouring aspirations for system reform seek to ascend the throne of power. However, those aspirations are not without hurdles. One must either go through the two main political routes or give up their visions, as the entrenched system favours the duopoly of the two major political parties. Consequently, the pursuit of reform from within remains stymied.

The major political parties know how to strategically prey on the
sentiments of Ghanaians, including the tribal sentiments of some of the masses, to win power. The anchor of the political enterprise lies in its structures, particularly the robust support base cultivated among the youthful population, ensnared within a matrix of partisan biases and promises. In response, the author posits a paradigm shift predicated upon the awakening of the Ghanaian youth to the latent perils inherent within the political enterprise. Central to this awakening is the cultivation of independent-mindedness and the imperative of holding leadership accountable, catalysed by a widespread recognition of the imperative to emancipate oneself from the shackles of partisan biases.

This call to disentanglement from partisan entrenchment underlines the recognition that the benefits of principled citizen participation transcend the
temporal allure of political benefits. By recalibrating their allegiance away from partisan biases towards a steadfast commitment to conscience and the public interest, the youth portend the impending collapse of the political enterprise. Remember, political enterprise is not the same as political parties.

A majority of independent-minded youth or the middle class would also enable the insightful scrutiny of policy outcomes through the prism of cost-benefit analysis, thereby prefiguring a departure from the prevailing culture of sycophantic adulation towards a posture of vigilant and sound critique. Citizen participation in public affairs with a focus on collective aspirations and intergenerational prosperity is therefore imperative. This is the collective consciousness conducive to system reform and sustainable development. Until the masses become cognizant of the harmful impacts of the political enterprise on societal well-being and future aspirations, the quest for transformation will
remain elusive.