It is interesting these days to wake up and all you hear on our media airwaves is either embezzlement of public funds, corruption, mismanagement of public funds, sales and auction of government properties, causing financial loss to the state, judgement debts and setting up of committees among others. When will this old vicious cycle thing stop? I have tried as much as I can to go parellel with my thoughts of some of these issues (for fear of being tagged as a politician) parading their dirty wings in our political jungle but in as much as I try, my conscience haunts me for being mute and voiceless. Just as we all have the constitutional right to exercise our franchise to elect political leaders, we equally have the right to comment on any issue of national interest and criticise constructively when the need arise. I have said it time without number that it's time the youth of this country rise up and hold the bull by the horn against the corrupt leaders in this country without fear or favour. The youths must always remember that the future of this country belong to them and for how long shall we hide our emotions under the darkness of politics whiles our politicians trample upon our faiths in the rhythm of politics. I am tempted at times to consort with those calling for a military rule, for it seems to be the ONLY tool that can truncate if not expunging the perennial corruption bedeviling our country Ghana. We ought to take a firm stance and mince no words or sentence in telling our unscrupulous leaders to put the tax payers' monies into developing the country rather than their selfish interest and personal gains.
My good friends, its clear from all indications that our leaders are not poised to fighting corruption in this country and it is you and I who suffer at the end of the day as tax payers. Instead of tackling the causes of the economic woes and removing the causative agent, they jump to battle with the effects and in no time the problems resurface. Corruption is looming in almost every public office in this country and it's a spine-chilling phenomenon. It is one of the major setbacks hindering the development of Ghana since independence. People dip their long hands into government coffers for their personal interest and when they are caught in day light, the best the government of 'Nkrumah Ghana' can do is only to set up commitees and that ends it, period! The culprits are left to gloat about and saunter with shoulder high leaving the poor farmers and the tax payers in the villages in abject poverty; no portable water, no goods roads, no health care centers and the rest. At the expense of these, we are faced with the pathetic irony of the villagers lining up to hail these nabobs in the country who only come to give lip service development. Are we not dwindling the spirit of our indefatigable journalists who risk their lives to investigate some of these unwholesome practices in the system? Manessah Azure Awuni's (a journalist at Joy fm) case about GYEEDA and others are worth mentioning here.
What happened? Ghana and Malaysia are both former British colonies that gained independence the same year with similar economic conditions and Ghana was even rated as a potential fast growing economy because of its huge natural resources, but today the story is the reverse. Today Malaysia makes its own cars and boasts skyscrapers that rival anything in New York or London (BBC). It imported its first palm oil from Ghana and managed to improve its cultivation process thus turning the country into one of the largest palm oil producer in the world and developing chemicals such as bio diesel for industries and food addictives from the raw nuts. One may say Ghana was plagued by coups shortly after independence, but what were the causes?
Ghana on the other hand had a stable economy when the British handed power over to Nkrumah but he was influenced by socialist ideologies. Shortly after taking over Nkrumah started to lean more toward socialism
by calling for greater state participation in the economy. His CPP government had greater authority over the economy which eventually led to massive corruptions. Nkrumah wanted Ghana to play a commanding role in Africa's liberation from colonialism and was a strong supporter of a united African state. A mixture of economic
mismanagement, corruption and rising inflation due in part to Nkrumah being a devotee of revolutionary movements and spending a lot of Ghana's resources and money on this “Pan-African cause”. This led to a draining of the country's foreign reserve forcing him to resort to deficit financing and foreign borrowing. Over 50 years of Ghana's independence, we are still faced with similar problems which ignited the coups in Nkrumah era.
The solutions to the country's economic crises are not just imposing new taxes without sealing the holes where the monies leak in the system. Freezing salaries of public sector workers in 214, scrubbing off teacher trainees and student nurses allowances, imposing taxes on condoms and the poor farmers cutlasses will not solve the problem.
It is about removing the causative agents - the corrupt officials who are milking the country's monies and making them face the full rigours of the law to serve as a deterrent to others. Untill our leaders make full commitment by action to fighting corruption, I am afraid this country will remain as it is.
