Corruption in Ghana. The Solution is Neo-Africanism

Introduction

A cancerous disease is ravaging the Land of Africa. The disease is corruption and it has not spared the African State of Ghana. The disease has metastasized to afflict every fabric of the Ghanaian society. While a few politically and economically powerful elites benefit inordinately every day from the cancerous environment, millions of Ghanaians suffer agonizingly.

Ghanaians are crying for relief. But, there seems to be no solution to their plight. This is because corruption has become insurmountable. However, the disease can be conquered. There is a solution to this disease. The solution is …Neo-Africanism, the New Africanism.

What is Corruption?

Corruption is the unlawful use of public office for private gain. Examples of corruption are bribery, extortion, nepotism, influence-peddling, fraud, and embezzlement. Bribery is an economic exchange with the intent to improperly act contrary to known rules of honesty and integrity. Extortion is any acquisition by illegal threats. Nepotism is gross favoritism, especially in appointments to powerful positions. It is a means of using the powers of jurisdiction to illegally and unethically facilitate transfer of wealth and power to relatives, ethnic groups and friends. Influence-Peddling is the illegal use of power or authority that comes from wealth, social status, or position. Fraud is any acquisition by deliberate deception. Embezzlement is stealing by exploiting a relationship of trust.

It is worthy of note that gift is not a form of corruption. Gift is not bribery. Gift is given in appreciation of beneficial performance. Bribes are given to influence imminent or future decisions and to court favors. Bribes are quid pro quo transactions. Something is given in exchange for something against the laid down rules. Unlike bribes, the intent of gifts is not to violate any rules but to express heartfelt thanks without the expectation of further benefits, although cultural reciprocity may be required. Bribery is an economic activity. It is a purchase of favor. Gift is a social activity. It is the expression of appreciation.

It is an incontrovertible fact that all forms of corruption are prevalent in Ghana. Irrespective of the type of corruption the act involves subjective misuse of power, which is both bad and illegal.

Examples of Corruption Some examples of daily corruption, such as bribery and extortion, are well known to Ghanaians. It is common place in Ghana that to get things done, bribe must be offered to an official before a duty for which the official is paid, can be done. Well known corrupt activities by government officials are misappropriation of public funds such as granting of loans that obviously cannot be repaid, excessive spending on security, comfort and image enhancement, excessive, expensive foreign trips, hiring of superfluous number of highly paid Special Government Advisors, the acquisition of private property when it is blatantly obvious that past and current earnings do not support the acquisition of such property. These are examples of pillage of the national coffers by government officials. Other well known corrupt activities are over pricing of government contracts and diversion of state funds to finance political activities.

There is also private sector illegal activities such as illegal supply of goods and services to cronies, parents bribing school officials of elite schools to get academic placements for their wards, customs officers demanding bribes from traders at ports of entry, and commercial drivers instead of paying the full amount at toll booths pay half of the toll, which goes straight into the pocket of the toll teller because a receipt is not given. The result is meager amount is collected for the road fund far short of expected revenues. Also, travelers in Ghana are too familiar with frequent police barriers mounted on road side mainly to extort monies from commercial drivers

The Consequences of Corruption

The impact of corruption is destructive. There is ample evidence to conclude that the economic, political and social consequences are disturbing. Transparency International’s 2005 global report pointed out that Ghanaians pay 20% of their national per capital income in bribes. The recent findings from the Ghana Integrity Initiative and The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) indicate that widespread corruption is having destructive impact on Ghanaians. The CDD 2000 Governance and Corruption Survey shows that approximately 75% of households see corruption as a serious problem in Ghana, with a majority (66%) paying 10% of their incomes in bribes to public officials. The economic consequences of corruption are immediate while the political and the social consequences are medium and long-term.

The Economic Consequences

Corruption corrodes the economic system. It disrupts free-market by facilitating inefficient allocation of resources and inequity in the distribution of wealth. For example, when a contractor is given a state contract but must pay a percentage of the contract amount to a political party or government official, the result of such illegal transaction is shoddy work that hinders important economic activities essential to creating wealth. The nation suffers the pain of corruption while a few benefit unjustifiably.

Corruption causes waste of human and financial resources. Superfluous hiring of highly paid public officials, excessive spending on security, comfort and image enhancement of government officials, excessive, expensive foreign trips by government officials are all waste of national resources. The amount wasted could have improved education, healthcare and social amenities.

As a result of pervasive corruption, Ghana is losing millions of dollars in revenue. It is estimated that the Ghanaian economy loses $10 million a week in customer’s man-hour, waste of resources, and embezzlement, and about $5 million per day at Tema and Takoradi Harbor in bribery.

Corruption has made Ghana a high risk nation for doing business. Insurance coverage on goods to be shipped to Ghana attracts exorbitant rates. The extra cost is passed on to the Ghanaian consumer, an extra regressive tax on innocent Ghanaians due to the unethical behaviors of a few but powerful people.

Corruption substantially increases economic costs. Bribery augments the cost of capital and makes it difficult for investors to realize expected rate of return on investment. Bribery discourages genuine investors from investing in Ghana. As a result, productive beneficial investments are lost. Corruption significantly lowers investment levels and the productivity of capital. It reduces both the volume and efficiency of investment thereby adversely affecting economic growth and development.

Corruption also affects the flow of beneficial foreign aid because the nation is perceived by foreign benefactors as an abyss. The Bretton Woods institutions had considered halting grants to Ghana unless the government stamped out official corruption. Some donors are taking a hard line against corruption. The Danish International Development Agency - DANIDA has cut off aid to Malawi and Kenya as a consequence of blatant corruption. Ghana can suffer similar fate.

In 2000, according to Global Integrity, the World Bank cancelled a 100 million dollar water improvement project in Ghana. Furthermore, in 2002, the Auditor-General’s report revealed that over $20 million was paid to 2000 ghost employees. To date, there have been no prosecutions despite the grave economic consequences to the nation.

There is enough daily evidence to posit that corrupt and unethical practices are negatively impacting the economy, rapidly eroding the little gains that the country has made, and severely preventing Ghana from realizing the dream of a prosperous and self sustaining independent African State. The result of corruption is a rapid slide of millions of Ghanaians into poverty, hopelessness and despair. Although, the activities are economic, the consequences are more political than economic, since corrupt activities are egregious means of transfer of wealth from the powerless in Ghana to the powerful in Ghana. Without a doubt, the ultimate consequence of corruption is the loss of political power of the masses.

The Political Consequences

Corruption threatens Ghana’s nascent democracy. Since it is a covert tyranny of the powerful against the powerless, the ultimate consequence is revolution of the masses. Pervasive corruption may trigger coup de tat. The military may capitalize on the hardship to usurp the government.

History attests that pervasive corruption is oppressive of the masses and if left unchecked will certainly lead to anarchy. A nation that allows corruption to metastasize will certainly encounter social unrest and revolutions and its concomitant political executions, persecutions, mayhem, and vandalism. Corruption pushes the nation on a slow but sure slippery slope to national upheavals beginning first with national cynicism and then a general distrust of government and its institutions. The result of corruption is an eventual loss of civil liberties.

Corruption leads to political mistrust of the citizenry thereby destroying the integrity of professional service, the government, the courts, law enforcement, and national institutions. The result of national mistrust is loss of political legitimacy, which leads to political tensions and instability. Destabilization is the result of unbridled vicious competition by ethnic, regional, and political groups in a ferocious attempt to protect themselves from the tyranny of corruption.

As long as there is pervasive corruption, millions of Ghanaians will be condemned to agonizing poverty and as long as the masses continue to be tyrannized, the Ghanaian democracy will remain fragile. The powerful must note very well that Ghana’s democracy cannot be sustained by how well the powerful equip private armies or by how much the nation spend on security forces but by how well the masses benefit politically and economically from the new dispensation.

Due to pervasive corruption it should not be surprising that all institutions, government or private, such as the education, healthcare, financial, political, and legal institutions are all failing the people. How long can disregard of the masses keep the nation together as a solid indivisible nation? There are subterranean political tensions in Ghana today partly the result of ravaging corruption.

The Social Consequences

Today in Ghana, there is a dangerous perception of social injustice. This is partly the result of the corruption believed to be prevalent in the upper levels of government. Since lucrative high public positions are dominated by some powerful ethnic groups, social animosity and hatred has intensified in Ghana and is dangerously reaching a crescendo.

Social equality has been endangered by corruption. There are enough reasons to be concerned about the deteriorating state of social equality. Throughout history, the problem of social injustice has severely undermined social peace as various Social Groups that see themselves as victims of the tyranny of corruption have found ways to change governments by force.

In Ghana today, social injustice is believed to be perpetrated through the corruption of Ghana’s powerful ethnic groups. It is believed that corruption has become unofficial means of oppression of powerless ethnic groups who are seriously under represented in high public and private institutions. The oppressive inequities caused by corruption has destroyed otherwise good relations among Ghana’s ethnic groups. It is therefore a major threat to Ghana’s democracy.

Corruption has also adversely impacts the relationship between Economic Groups. It facilitates injustice against the poor. In a society ruled only by the sheer influence of wealth, such as Ghana today, wealthy people will always prevail since the rulers perpetuate their position and ideology solely by relying on the economic powers of the wealthy Economic Group. The result is that people in the lower Economic Groups are denied equal justice. Don’t we see this everyday in Ghana as the poor is incarcerated for committing petty crimes such as stealing a fowl while the wealthy is not even brought to the court for committing high crimes against the nation such as embezzlement of state funds?

Today in Ghana, perversion of justice is perceived to be the norm because the Police Service, the Justice Administration, and the Judiciary, major law enforcement national institutions are perceived by the citizenry to be corrupt. When such perception of corruption and perversion of justice are pervasive, social tranquility is gravely endangered.

Corruption creates widespread disrespect among all groups and degrades public service. It destroys mutual respect among people. The powerful disdain the powerless since the powerful is consumed by a dangerous erroneous belief that claims “a natural ability to succeed”. The powerless disdain the powerful because they believed that the powerful do not earn their wealth and that one day they will pay dearly for transgressions against the powerless.

The social consequences of corruption such as social injustices, social inequality, and social disrespect are fuelling social tensions in Ghana. Corruption is degrading the honor of propriety and humility, which are important elements of our African cultural values. It is destroying harmony and cooperation that underpins our culture. Undoubtedly, corruption is a major contributor to the deterioration of harmonious co-existence of ethnic groups in Ghana.

The Cause and the Solution Corruption is horrendous. Its consequences are alarming. Therefore the cause must be found and uprooted. Misdiagnoses of the cause can lead to the wrong solution. To find the right solution, the people of Ghana must look at the fundamental thinking of the political leadership. A thorough analysis of their idiosyncrasies and proclivities will reveal that the major cause of corruption in Ghana is the inappropriate ideology fervently pursued today. The irrational adherence to foreign ideologies has turned Ghana into a nation of vices – immorality, wickedness, and corruption.

Ideology - The Primary Cause

Inappropriate ideology is the primary cause of corruption. Today, Ghana has blindly embraced unbridled capitalism, the ideology of greed. Unbridled Capitalism is a defective ideology because of the inherent greed that breeds corrupt leaders, protects incompetence, and fosters mismanagement. Without the existence of solid structural and systemic checks, Laisser-faire capitalism leads to cronyism, the dictatorship of a few elitist groups, whose stranglehold on the political and economic leadership of a nation produce mass poverty. History tells us that this ideology is prone to political and economic disaster. Yet it has been imported into Ghana.

The political leadership of Ghana has imported unbridled capitalism and this has turned all politicians into greedy species. The ideology of greed has compelled leaders to seek and maintain power for their own sake and for enriching themselves. The result is that professional code of conduct, public and private, are ignored because they are antithetical to the fervor of personal wealth aggrandizements that underpins the ideology.

Fervent adherence to unbridled capitalism by the political leadership of Ghana has created leadership graft in all levels of government. This has enabled corruption to germinate, fester and proliferate. Corruption in Ghana is rising steadily and dangerously. As a result the nation is nearing a boiling point, politically and socially. Due to the embrace of the ideology of greed, political leaders in Ghana have lost the will to fight corruption because it is neither in their political nor economic interest to do so.

The ideology of greed encourages nepotism in the political leadership as means to enrich friends and family. Nepotism has become so endemic in Ghana that the Executive Branch of the Ghana Government is seen by the international community as a Family Government because it has one of the highest number of close relatives in government. Although, these government appointments may be supported by stellar professional qualifications, the cardinal rules of ethics require that such appointment must be avoided because they indicate apparent unethical behavior by the ruling elite thereby inadvertently sanctioning nepotism. It is believed, rightly or wrongly, that an overwhelming number of the close relatives in the government have proved to be incompetent but their wealth and power is protected because of the ideology of cronyism.

Crony capitalism promotes mismanagement. It encourages the leadership to disregard code of conducts in appointments to public positions. The resultant nepotism encourage mismanagement as people in all levels of employment, public or private, respond to the blatant manifestation of graft and favoritism, to amass wealth at the expense of fellow citizens. The danger of the ideology of greed and cronyism is that Ghanaian tolerance for corruption has become very high. Inappropriate ideology has made corruption a national norm thus encouraging mismanagement.

Unbridled capitalism practiced in Ghana creates the perception that any institution, traditional or modern, government or private, is a vehicle created for the accumulation of personal wealth for the sole benefit of the person. The propagation of ideological slogans such as “property owning democracy” in a nation where the opportunities are seriously non-existent, the pervasive ideology of greed inevitably fuels vices. Therefore, it is not surprising that the senseless assimilation of inappropriate foreign ideologies into our culture has triggered a wave of cultural invasion by a plethora of vices such as corruption, immorality, prostitution, and illegal trade in illegal products in addition to the invasion of social deviants such as imposters, tricksters, and charlatans.

Contrary to our African cultural values, the pervasive thinking in Ghana today is that personal industry, however great, is inadequate to own a piece of property in the “ property owning democracy” and that the easy and surest means to a personal goal is to resort to vices. Unbridled capitalism has destroyed values in Ghana and the consequence is proliferation of vices. No longer are honesty, humility and industry honored. The ideology of greed is destroying our African cultural values and this has contributed to the demise of what was once a great peaceful, decent society of Africans.

The capitalist ideology has created millions of low wage earners who are not only encouraged by official corruption but compelled by their meager income to increase their earnings through corruption. Low minimum wage in Ghana has created room for rampant corruption because it has pushed workers to find crooked means by which they can acquire supplemental income to take adequate care of their families. For this reason, it is misconstrued that low wage is the cause of corruption. Low wage is not the cause. The culprit is inappropriate ideology. Low wage is just symptomatic of egregious greed, a fundamental aspect of unbridled capitalism.

Capitalism has too many bad aspects. It is inherently exploitative because it respects money but despises people. It is disrespectful of groups who are politically and economically powerless. It is cruelly inhuman because it does not respect the sanctity of the human being. It is infested with greed because it is not a sharing ideology. It encourages immorality because survival of the fittest is innate to the ideology. It rewards vices but punishes virtues. It makes vices the easy means to wealth and power.

Undoubtedly, the infestation of our African societies with vices such as corruption is the result of blind importation of foreign ideologies such as capitalism and its underpinning corrosive cultures. Due to the many inherent harmful aspects of capitalism, it must not be imported into an African society because it is incompatible with our descent African cultural values.

Ideology - The Primary Solution

If ideology is the primary cause of corruption then ideology must be the primary solution. The solution to the corruption in Ghana is embedded in the ideology of the African - Neo-Africanism, the New African Ideology. Neo-Africanism is the New Africanism, the Modern Africanism. The salient components of Neo-Africanism are virulent antidotes to the corruption in Ghana.

By restoring the fundamental traditional African philosophy of social harmony and mutual interdependence and implementing it within modern political and economic structures and systems, Neo-Africanism provides powerful ideological tools to eliminate all political, economic and social excess that fuel corruption. The ideology disseminates salient African philosophical values and creates structural and systemic political and economic accountability mechanisms to deter the abuse of government power and it provides the proper ideological framework to enact effective legislation to prevent transgression against the people.

Honoring Ancestors

A very important philosophical value of Traditional Africa is Honoring of Ancestors and it has the capability to discourage corruption. Honoring Ancestors is one of the social features of Neo-Africanism that will be effective in preventing corruption. A national celebration of the life of people, whose life greatly benefited a society of Africans because of their probity and industry, as was in Traditional Africa, will create model citizens worthy of emulation by the youth and future leaders of Ghana. Social appreciation as a reward for selfless service to Ghana and Africa is a powerful means to inculcate a culture of honesty. Neo-Africanism advocates Honoring of Ancestors not only because it is a veritable African Identity, but also because it will be an effective check on corruption.

The Community Good

Another traditional African philosophical value that has the power to prevent corruption is the philosophy of Community Good. Neo-Africanism revives this African social value. The ideology restores the traditional African sense of the common good, the precious African social values that have been rejected for so many years. African social values matter because our values are our proactive approach to ensuring peaceful and progressive continuity of our society by constantly reinforcing the “Values of Community Good” and constantly weakening the “Vices of Community Menace”.

The ideology of Neo-Africanism will revive the tradition of selfless courage, whereby millions become patriots and are ever willing to defend the “Community Good”. A reformed education in line with the social philosophy of the African will create diligence, respect for honest achievement and disdain for the tainted. Through the dissemination of the philosophy of the common good of the nation, Neo-Africanism will instill in Ghanaians intolerance against personal aggrandizement at the expense of the nation

Reformed Education

The abandoned African cultural values have important tenets that prevent abuses and vices. Neo-Africanism will restore these values. The ideology will restore our traditional teachings of morality, respect, propriety, honesty, humility, and industry that used to be ingrained in the fabric of the traditional African society but that have been discarded with the invasion of foreign ideologies. The reformed education will provide new direction for the education system and incorporates the teaching of ethics and civic duty from the kindergarten through elementary and secondary school to the university.

The reformed education will also restore our traditional teachings of skills and introduce it into the modern education system in order to help the nation produce productive citizens who have respectable and dependable trades and professions, occupations that will sustain descent living. Just as the traditional African education system ensured that the society produced the much needed skills in order to ensure the protection, progress and pride of the society, Neo-Africanism will produce professional skillful citizens in order to maintain solid political and economic security for the nation. Neo-Africanism, through the education ideology, eradicates corruption by creating socially respectable and economically dependable professions no Ghanaian will ever be stupid enough to endanger through corruption.

The ideology recognizes that corruption is a threat to national security and the economic wellbeing of the nation and that due to the menace the nation has survival obligation to eradicate it in the most peaceful and effective way, which is by inculcating morality and values in the citizenry through formal and informal education. Continuous teaching of values will spread throughout the nation and inculcate in the youth and future leaders virtues and industry so essential to Ghana’s political, economic and social security.

Through the reformed education the nation will create model citizens of Ghana. The ideology teaches values and skills to eradicate abuses and vices in a more systematic and holistic way rather than resort to band-aid ad hoc policies. The ideology recognizes the imperative of government direct involvement in the teaching of values and skills and seeks to achieve this goal through the education system.

Corruption is a result of the invasion of Ghana by foreign ideology of greed. This ideology underpins international commerce today as it was yesterday. Ideology of greed is infectious and has the extraordinary capabilities to spread rapidly deep into the very fabric of a sacrosanct nation. The only way to stop it at the borders is ideological education.

The cancer of corruption can surgically be removed by a proper ideology disseminated through the formal and informal education system. To this end, the National Commission for Civic Education will be strengthened to develop and implement programs to teach virtues, highlight the dangers of corruption and to instill critical elements of good citizenry.

Ethics Neo-Africanism, through a reformed African educational system, will instill ethical and moral courage that will compel the citizenry to disdain corruption thereby preventing it from occurring. The belief in the immorality of corruption will encourage people who have evidence of corruption to expose it and insist on disciplinary punishment. When ideological indoctrination is complete, everyone from the President to the janitor will see the fight against corruption as a moral, sacred obligation. Through the inculcation of proper ideology, the masses will become apostles of anti-corruption crusade. Neo-Africanism will make the quest for even playing field for all citizens a communal effort not the effort of one man who happens to be the President.

Although legislation is important, no government will ever succeed to change individual’s ethical behavior through legislation. But, ideology can. Anti-corruption efforts cannot succeed only by actions of a few national government agencies. Civil society, the media, parliament, the judiciary and the private sector must be involved, fortified with ethics and ideological guidelines. The continuous dissemination of Neo-Africanism will change national mindset, empower the people, and establish favorable national environment that will bring about positive change. Neo-Africanism will prevent corruption by providing ideological guidance to all individuals. Where as a result of the public officer’s official position, personal interest is likely to conflict with the performance of official function of the office, the inculcated ideological values will be the stumbling block against the temptation to slide into corruption.

It is ideology that influences ethics the most. The belief in what is right for the nation, in what will maintain a peaceful decent society and ensure the wellbeing of the nation is the most powerful facilitator of personal ethics. Ethics are not simply about acting according to the law or in compliance with policy. They are also about acting in consideration of the nation’s values and being mindful of the national consequences of personal actions. Ethics are about doing the right thing for the “Community Good”. Being ethical is not only doing what is legal but also doing what is right. Even when alternative options are legal and procedurally correct, some choices may be better than others. Proper ideology influences good ethical behaviors that enable people to do the right thing all the time. For example, proper ideology will inculcate in the Ghanaian politician the sense of national good thereby stopping the habit of diverting state funds to private use.

When proper ideology is pervasive, members of the Public Service, irrespective of social, political and economic affiliations patriotically act ethically not only to comply with the requirements of the Public Service Rules and Code of Conducts set out in the Public Service Act but mainly as a contribution to maintaining the social and political order they so cherished. Without proper ideology Code of Conducts are wantonly transgressed. It is proper ideology that can influence individuals to voluntarily, efficiently, effectively and ethically manage their respective public life, which is their personal relationship with the people of the nation. When proper ideology is pervasive, the result is total prevention or drastic minimization of corruption thereby allowing the creation of a socio-political environment conducive to sustaining a vibrant economy. Absence of ethics always translates into inefficiency, ineffectiveness, and waste. Without deep inculcation of proper ideology in the nation, proper ethical discipline will continue to be absent in all workplaces. The proper ideology is not capitalism. The proper ideology for Ghana and Africa is Neo-Africanism.

Neo-Africanism will change the erroneous but pervasive notion that politics in Ghana is an avenue to amass wealth overnight for people who cannot succeed in private life. The ideology will liberate the masses from the cruelty of corruption that diverts to private use much of the national resources that should have been used to improve the welfare and living standards of the populace. The tenets of Neo-Africanism will root out corruption permanently and change employment attitudes in the nation’s bureaucratic system.

Neo-Africanism will have beneficial impact on Ghanaians, especially those in public employment, by instilling in their minds a national philosophy of ethic which will emphasize that a government position is not an authorization to exact personal tax on the people but a privilege of service to the people.

Leadership Neo-Africanism will create the socio-political environment that will always enable good leaders to emerge. Leadership example is very important as people of a nation, invariably, emulate the nation’s leaders. Today, the people of Ghana are hopelessly yearning for genuine leadership commitment worthy of emulation in the fight to eradicate corruption. Unfortunately, that leadership is woefully lacking.

Ghana needs selfless competent leaders to totally eradicate corruption. For reforms to succeed there must be determined political leadership, ingrained with proper ideological nourishment, leadership that is prepared to overcome pressures from elitist vested interest who are always prepared to block reforms.

Through the reformation of education, the dissemination of “Community Good”, and the indoctrination of ethics, Neo-Africanism will always create selfless leaders, role models everyone in the nation will emulate. Selfless leadership is a check on the illegal proclivities of subordinates. Without proper ideology, subordinates act with impunity and have no fear of leadership oversight powers. Neo-Africanism will make Ghanaians respect leadership again and will ensure that Ghana does not ever become deficient in selfless leadership again.

Political Accountability

In addition to the powerful philosophical underpinnings of Neo-Africanism against corruption, the ideology has powerful political mechanisms that will prevent dictatorship and corruption. The political tenets of Neo-Africanism will provide the most effective means to eliminating corruption, which is political accountability. Ghana’s defective political structure and political system and the inappropriate capitalist ideology have resulted in pervasive corruption. The structural and institutional balance of power that must be present to forestall corruption is woefully lacking. The structure, the system and the ideology do not ensure meaningful political accountability. The lack of proper accountability of politicians to the people has enabled politics in Ghana to become the easiest and quickest means to wealth. Neo-Africanism recognizes these political defects and establishes a political structure and system that are inherently political mechanisms of ensuring political accountability of all politicians to the people of Ghana.

The Political Structure

An effective political structure is an effective political mechanism of ensuring permanent political accountability. The political structure of Ghana is defective. It does not compel politicians to be accountable. It is prone to dictatorship and corruption because it is not properly decentralized. For example it does not make district political leaders accountable to the people of the district.

Local leadership is virtually unaccountable because the Central Government cannot conceivably adequately supervise about 138 or so District Executives. The lack of local supervision gives local political leadership leeway to seek favors and to siphon the nation’s wealth to private use. Also, because of the pervasive ideology of greed, local political leaders easily become targets of businesses seeking or protecting illegal economic advantage.

Meaningful decentralization, a cardinal feature of Neo-Africanism, will provide effective check on government corruption in the localities. It will provide the citizenry at the local level the political power of maximum effective supervision of the local political leadership and this will compel political accountability, improve local governance and control corruption. For example, citizen’s power of control of the priorities and the processes of the local budget will make the District Executive and the local political leadership accountable to the people of the district thereby compelling good governance. Through effective decentralization, the citizens of the nation will become involved in preventing dictatorship and corruption.

In a nation where inappropriate ideology has corrupted politicians by unleashing unbridled vicious competition of wealth aggrandizement, people are encouraged to exploit every situation to amass wealth and without effective political supervision good governance, especially at the local level, is discarded. It is well known that local government officials in Ghana are adept at opening new loopholes of corruption when existing ones closed because of the lack of adequate supervision of policy implementation. Inadequate supervision leads to corruption at the local level. There is virtually no supervision because the political structure of Ghana does not ensure adequate political supervision thereby making local leadership virtually unaccountable. How can the President effectively supervise 138 District Executives in addition to Regional and National Ministers and numerous Agencies?

The canons of democratic decentralization – rational distribution of political competencies among geopolitical entities of a nation is non-existent in Ghana. Neo-Africanism will restructure Ghana properly. It will guarantee meaningful political decentralization by giving the people of each district the political power of control over their budget priorities and processes. People’s power will prevent dictatorship and corruption.

The Political System

The political system in Ghana is also defective and therefore unaccountable to the people. An effective system of separation of powers has been seriously lacking in Ghana and the current governance system is not an exception. For example the Ministry of Justice as part of the Executive Branch makes accountability of the Executive Branch almost impossible. In the current political system, transgressors in the Executive Branch and in the ruling political party will not readily be brought to justice as to ensure proper accountability to the people.

Neo-Africanism recognizes this defective system and makes Justice Administration and Justice Adjudication separate branches of government. The ideology ensures that the Legal System is out of the control of the Executive in order to maintain proper jurisdictional independence. The independence of the Legal System is essential to preventing dictatorship and corruption. Without that, the system will continue to be ineffective and will not achieve its intended purpose. The law will, for political reasons, be ignored or subverted or enforced clandestinely. If enforced, it will be arbitrary and the timing will be dictated by politics and cronyism.

The people of Ghana continue to see perversion of justice even today because the system places the Legal System virtually under the control of the Executive. For example, the creation of such initiatives as the Serious Fraud Office, Criminal Investigation Department and Bureau of National Investigations to focus on the criminal aspects of corruption and Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to focus on human rights and administrative lapses have not produced the expected results at a time when corruption, abuses and incompetence are so glaring and blatant. Also, nearly a year since the passage of the Public Procurement Act, Financial Administration Act and Internal Audit Agency Act the public has not seen the blessings of the laws because they are virtually ignored. Proper governance requires enforcement of laws to make people accountable. In Ghana, there is no enforcement because there is no political will. The current system, like past systems, is essentially unaccountable to the people.

Due to the illegal proclivities of politicians to wantonly disregard the law or enforce it arbitrary, Neo-Africanism posit that unless the Judiciary and the Justice Administration are politically independent branches of government, appointed by ideologically super-neutral elected national chamber consisting of representatives of civil society – Farmers, Miners, Teachers, Nursing, Labor, Business, Regional House of Chiefs and Professional Associations such as Medical, Finance, Science and Technology, occupational and professional people who are politically non ideologues, there cannot be effective enforcement of political accountability of the governance system by the legal system as to stop dictatorship and corruption. Without such jurisdictional independence, as advocated by Neo-Africanism, the people of Ghana will never be protected from wanton abuse of power.

The inappropriate political system in Ghana does not provide check on the Executive Branch and therefore it does not make people in powerful positions accountable for corruption, mismanagement and ineptitude. Members of the Judicial and Justice Administration, appointed by political ideologues as it has been in Ghana, are impotent in forestalling major corruptions. It is therefore not surprising that all the judgments we see coming from our courts are mostly about poor peasants and farmers being jailed here and there for stealing fowls while blatant corruption are left un-apprehended.

One of the greatest mechanisms of ensuring political accountability is Freedom of Information, which has been seriously absent in Ghana. In recognition of this, the cardinal tenets of Neo-Africanism ensure that the proposed independence of the Judiciary and Justice Administration is fortified with Freedom of Information so as to empower the Legal System to eradicate corruption.

Unlike political party appointees, members of Judicial and Justice Administration, appointed by an elected super-neutral political chamber, will adequately protect Freedom of Information, which is so essential to good governance. To prevent dictatorship and corruption, the political system advocated by Neo-Africanism constitutionally mandates the independence of the Legal System from political control. Under such a constitutional mandate, the age-old corrupt political tactics of information secrecy will be replaced by information openness.

Additionally, the current system does not provide effective oversight of the Executive Branch by the Legislative Branch as to prevent any incipient executive dictatorship or corruption. Executive Branch shenanigans are not made public, if the branch has virtual political control over the Legislature through one party control of the Executive and the Legislative Branches. In this situation members of parliament from the Presidents Political Party are compelled to tow the party line. They make laws according to the needs of the party not the needs of the people and implement them arbitrary. They appoint ideological comrades to head Justice Administration and to the Judiciary thus extending their political control to the extent of escaping accountability to the people. Clearly, effective separation of powers is non-existent in Ghana because of the set-up of the branches of governments.

In view of the defective political system, Neo-Africanism advocates a system that ensures that government leaders are held accountable. By enhancing the political structure through meaningful decentralization and the political system through constitutionally mandated independent Justice and Judiciary Branches of government, Neo-Africanism provides the people the power to prevent diversion of development funds into private and political use. The ideology recognizes that ultimately the only real security against dictatorship and corruption is transfer of power from politicians of Ghana to the people of Ghana. Undoubtedly, Neo-Africanism is the one great effective ideology that will transfer the source of political control from the state to the citizen, reinstating the citizen as sovereign.

Principles

Neo-Africanism also recognizes that good governance can be achieved through fervent adherence to salient principles. Principles are very important to preventing corruption. The ideology compels dutiful adherence to the principles of accountability. It ensures that such legal principles as Due Process and governance principle as Transparency in governance are never ignored by the political leadership of the nation.

The Due Process

Neo-Africanism protects the Legal System against political control in order to make governance accountable and beneficial to the people. The adjudication and administration of justice are placed outside political control to ensure that the principle of Due Process of the Law, the process of protecting the people against all forms of dictatorship and corruption, will never be arbitrary or unfair to any one respective of social, political or economic status.

Neo-Africanism provides appropriate ideological guidelines to legislation in order to continuously protect the integrity of the Legal System so as to ensure that adherence to the principle of Due Process will protect freedom of the press and ensure equal political competition and equal political participation. For example good legislation and Due Process will ensure that political financing laws prevent corruption. Neo-Africanism postulates that adherence to legal principles will enforce accountability by allowing the citizens of Ghana to possess effective power over their government.

Transparency in Governance

Transparency is vital to eradicating corruption because it is effective in enforcing accountability. Legislation that reinforces transparency in government will contribute greatly to end corruption. For example, the principle of transparency requires that all companies publish what they pay to government institutions and officials. If this requirement is codified in the law and enforced, it will effectively check bribery. Also legislation that requires further disclosure in international banking is important in curbing corruption.

Neo-Africanism advocates rejection of the current secrecy in financial disclosure of high government officials as it blatantly infringes on the principle of transparency. The question is: Are the people protected from corruption if government officials are permitted by law to shield their assets and financial declaration from the public? Why then is the constitution embedded with a provision of such a protection? Neo-Africanism insists on financial disclosures of high government officials because such disclosures are so vital to eliminating corruption in Ghana.

Neo-Africanism recognizes that transparency is more effective at eradicating corruption than endless hollow slogans. Transparency will ensure that information on the incomes and assets of high level public officials are available to the public. Accordingly, the ideology insists that Legislation must require politicians to list their income and assets in a national register. This will ensure a high degree of transparency in the political and legal system.

Transparency is a cardinal principle of Neo-Africanism. The ideology recognizes that transparency in governance is a vital tool against corruption. The power of transparency protects Freedom of Information, enforces public asset disclosure by high government officials, and provides easy access to voting records of parliamentarians. Without transparency, agencies such as the Serious Fraud Office and slogans such as “Zero Tolerance for Corruption” will continue to be highly ineffective.

Neo-Africanism prevents personal enrichment at the expense of the nation and protects the people of Ghana against corruption by continuously propagating the principles of transparency. The ideology advocates fervent enforcement of transparency in governance in order to make governance effective in the prevention of corruption.

Specific Legislation

Specific Legislations are also required to eradicate corruption. To prevent corruption, Legislation must be clear and disseminated appropriately to every one. Salient elements of new Legislation must be translated into various Ghanaian languages. The translation must explicitly define what constitutes corruption, must boldly spell out the punishment, and must educate the general public both literate and illiterate on what to do when a corrupt activity is suspected.

To maintain the social appreciation inherent in some cultures, Neo-Africanism advocates specific Legislation to protect the concept of gift. To this end, specific Legislation must ensure that gift of a certain amount per person per year to anyone is protected.

Specific Legislation is needed to provide resources to fight corruption. Neo-Africanism advocates adequate resources to the Legal System. Through proper ideological guidance, the various legal establishments responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes are strongly empowered and adequately resourced to do their job effectively. For example, proper Legislation guided by appropriate ideology will ensure that anti-corruption agencies are provided enough funding to enable them create extensive databases on corruption. This will make it easier to access information about corrupt activities. Undoubtedly, the use of technology will enhance transparency of the governance processes and political activities.

Legislation in Ghana is ineffective because of exploitative ideology. Despite all the laws in the statutes, the Ghanaian has not been liberated from the exploitation by corruption. Neo-Africanism will protect the Ghanaian against corruption through specific Legislation and through constant monitoring of corrupt activities. The capacity to monitor, evaluate and detect financial malpractices in the public sector is necessary to succeed in the fight against corruption.

Corruption - A Global Menace

Corruption is a global menace. It is a means of ideological assault on innocent nations. It is a means of exploitation of the resources of richly endowed nations such as Ghana. It facilitates wealth transfer from powerless nations to powerful nations. It is a means to perpetuate foreign domination of powerless Ghana. In view of this, it requires a strong ideology to defeat it.

Neo-Africanism is a strong ideology. It has powerful ideological tools that will overcome global challenges. It will make Ghana powerful enough to conquer global menace including corruption. Through reformed education, ethical indoctrination, selfless political leadership, effective political structure, effective political system, impartial Due Process, unambiguous Transparency, and potent Specific Legislations, Neo-Africanism will strengthened the people of Ghana to fend off the global menace of corruption.

Since corruption is a means of ideological invasion, the fight against it can be successful only by embracing a strong ideology. A strong ideology will stop the transfer of wealth by means of corrupt activities, which are major obstacles to reducing poverty and inequality especially in richly endowed nations struggling to improve their economies. Such a nation as Ghana can prevent and eradicate corruption permanently if the citizenry embrace a proper ideology. The ideology is not capitalism. The proper ideology is Neo-Africanism, Africa’s own ideology.

As in other African States, corruption has facilitated foreign induced economic stagnation in Ghana. According to World Bank Institute (WBI), more than $1 trillion dollars is paid in bribes each year and these nefarious economic activities are initiated by the masters of the global financial system who are bent on political and economic domination of powerless Africa. As a result of corruption, $5 trillion dollars has been corruptly transferred from the world's poorest nations such as Ghana to the world's richest nations. Sadly, they are aided by their ideological compatriots who control the African political leadership including Ghana. They have infected the leadership of Africa with corruption. The infestation is a global ideological assault. The assault can be defeated by the virulence of Neo-Africanism.

The inherently exploitative capitalist ideology promotes corrupt financial dealings, which has now become acceptable norm of the global system. Alas, the gross exploitation of the system is aided by the global ideological comrades of political leadership in developing nations such as Ghana. The ideological comradeship between Africa’s political leadership and foreign nations facilitates massive transfer of wealth out of Africa. The proceeds of such international corruption aided by political leadership of African nations are welcomed in wealthy nations. It is believed that that about 30% of the GDP of African nations disappeared to outside Africa in the second half of the 1990s. The masters of the global system, who are ardent believers of these corrupt ideologies, have targeted the political leadership and the "high net-worth individuals" in Africa and encouraged them to clandestinely transfer Africa’s wealth out of Africa.

The brand of capitalism practiced in Ghana today is inherently corrupt because a salient element is personal aggrandizement of wealth without regard to socio-political consequence to the nation. The ideology does not respect the African philosophy of “Community Good”. The ideology encourages people to amass wealth through exploitation of loopholes in the system. When a nation such as Ghana that has not established solid structural and systemic check to prevent corruption these loopholes are exploited in the financial dealings of the nation because the political leadership, who are adherents of these corrupt ideologies, see these national financial dealings as means to exploit the situation for their personal benefits. In their bid to capitalize on the situation they foster the transfer of wealth from the nation to other foreign nations.

The acceptance of Neo-Africanism will make the global system beneficial to the African masses not only by halting the transfer of Africa’s wealth but also by halting the diversion of Africa’s foreign aid out of Africa. For example, Africa nations received an estimated $114 billion in bilateral and multilateral aid from 1995-2002. Yet African countries are consistently at the bottom of the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report. This despicable global status is due to lack of the sense of the common good. In recognition of this grave absence, Neo-Africanism will rekindle the African sense of “Community Good” and will stop the diversion of public funds to private use.

Globalization and privatization are not intrinsically corruption prone. It is the personal and/or the institutional ideology of the masters of the global system that encourages corrupt behaviors in order to facilitate the achievement of their diabolical ideological goal, which is creation and exploitation of structural and systemic loopholes to make it easy to transfer Africa’s wealth out of Africa without any regard to the economic, political and social consequences to Africa. To stop the rapacious transfer of Africa’s wealth aided by African political leadership, Africa including Ghana, needs an ideology that is inherently pure. That ideology is Neo-Africanism.

Neo-Africanism is potent and can withstand vested interests, the domestic private elite who have the power to exert undue influence against governance reforms. International investments and aid are crucial to Ghana’s development and United Nations and African Union Conventions Against Corruption are global exercises in the right direction. However, without solid inculcation of appropriate ideology deep into the fabric of the Ghanaian society, the noble intentions of external assistance will never be attainable.

It is quite evident that multinational companies determine the economies of developing countries such as Ghana. To avoid victimization by these predatory global institutions and to make external assistance beneficial, Africans must embrace a pure and potent ideology that will neutralize the power of these institutions. Neo-Africanism is the pure and potent ideology.

Neo-Africanism recognizes the intensity of foreign ideological assault and creates solid impregnable ideological shield to protect the African masses. Co-coordinated African assault against global corruption, as advocated by Neo-Africanism, will certainly strengthen and empower Ghana and Africa to defeat the menace of corruption.

Corruption - A Source of Great Concern

There is ample evidence in history to be concerned about the spate of corruption in Ghana. History tells us that the demise of many civilizations was not caused by external invasions but rather internal decay emanating from corruption and immorality. To avoid the specter of demise, the people of Ghana must reject capitalism and embrace Neo-Africanism.

Corruption, which is undoubtedly a consequence of unbridled pursuit of capitalist ideology, must be eradicated quickly else it will lead to the demise of Ghana. The people of Ghana must replace capitalism with Neo-Africanism. Neo-Africanism has inherent features that structurally, systemically, and procedurally will compel Ghana’s political leadership to be transparently accountable to the people of Ghana. Genuine accountability is imperative to preventing perpetuation of poverty and to eliminating threats to Ghana’s democracy. Neo-Africanism recognizes the menace of corruption and provides effective solutions to remove it surgically but totally. The ideology recognizes that if Ghana fails to eradicate corruption, Ghana will fail to address the problem of low development and high poverty.

It is clear that total eradication of corruption will require total change of mindset. It is also clear that total transformation of the fundamental thinking of the nation cannot succeed by mere government promises and slogans. What is required to overcome corruption permanently is inculcation of African social values, else, new legislation, policies, and slogans will continue to become “jaded horses”. Neo-Africanism has excellent African philosophies that will change mindset and totally replace the culture of tolerance and sometimes adulation for ill-gotten wealth with a culture of national scorn and social despise of corruption.

Unbridled capitalism is decimating Ghana. But, there is salvation. Africanism is Africa’s salvation against corrupt ideologies. Neo-Africanism - the New African Ideology will protect the people of Ghana and Africa against capitalism, the ideology of greed and cronyism, the major source of corruption in Ghana and Africa. The solution to the corruption in Ghana is ideology. The ideology is ……Neo-Africanism.