New Anti-Graft Frontier

There is no letup to the incidence of corruption which like a contagion, has infected all strands of both public and private life. It is a development which does the country no good now and in the future.

It is a situation which has been exacerbated by the double standard approach of government to eliminate it, even as the president shouts promises about his determination to stamp out corruption.

Corruption is being talked about by almost all Ghanaians but those directly engaged in it are doing so on a large scale.

Various interventions have come and gone, none of them achieving any iota of success. The government has for the umpteenth time assured Ghanaians and the donor community about its preparedness to contain the scourge – assurances which lack merit.

With Ghanaians no longer having confidence in the government, such assurances evaporate into thin air as soon as they are made.

It is unfortunate that rather than recede, corruption is on the ascendancy, putting the country in the grouping of the most corrupt nations.

For a long time the subject has been taken lightly –  appearing mostly in street-side conversations by those unable to make ends meet as a result of rising cost of living, not very much in circles of the elite.

In recent times however, the subject has assumed a heated momentum with important dignitaries like the Chief Justice adding their voices to the call for urgent action to stem it.

Besides the financial cost to the nation, corruption is dealing telling repercussions to our image. It would not serve the interest of our future when the youth grow up not appreciating the dangers of corruption and therefore engaging in it as they see their seniors do.

Public servants demanding money for performing their statutory functions for which they are remunerated is beginning to look like a normalcy.

It is for this reason that the new approach to fighting corruption as espoused by the newly installed Citizens Movement against Corruption (CMaC) should be hailed and supported by all and sundry.

As an important milestone in the war against corruption, we enjoin the membership not to relent in their efforts to contain the cankerworm which continues to militate against the development and good governance of the country.

We wish to assure the CMaC that they would encounter varied challenges from those in whom corruption is blossoming.

Government agents and agencies would pull all tricks from their bags so the objectives of the movement are thwarted. But with perseverance and the support from the good people of this country, success shall come.

We have no doubt in our minds that the names of those behind the movement are those we can count on to counter corruption.

There is no alternative to fighting corruption. Not containing it is a subtle means of destroying Mother Ghana.