Corruptovirus Ghanensis: what does the law require of me?

The last head-scratching revelation I was pondering in Ghana was the reduction of property taxes in an affluent Accra neighborhood with the full expectation that the rising cost of services would somehow be magically covered as the residents paid less. This rebate in municipal rates had been realized after short-term oriented residents had protested the existing rates, which clearly did not cover the cost of services, including waste removal and infrastructure maintenance.

This is but one example of how all over the land, Ghanaians want the best of everything but have no sense of civic responsibility in contributing to the rising cost of services. We are living in the dark because yet again, we do not want to pay for the real cost of utilities. The plain fact is that government will never be capable of meeting the energy needs of the growing population. This means private energy providers have to be attracted to the market. The reality though is that our current tariffs are set so low that only a charitable organization would be interested. Investors are not missionaries and the missionaries of yore were something other than they appeared to be. Somehow the ordinary man always dreams of a benefactor and the government also handles borrowed funds as if they are gifts from countries and organizations who just love us. Our fiscal attitude as a nation has lacked the maturity necessary for the responsibilities entailed in managing the public purse.

Education on financial health, wealth creation and management is terribly absent in our school curricula, yet we want young people to magically become entrepreneurs because supposedly there are no jobs for them. Many are not employable because they present to prospective employers with of a paucity of skills and knowledge for the modern workplace. Successive governments have failed to appropriately align education system with our emerging human resource needs within the context of a broad development agenda. This is what is responsible for the extremely high rate of youth employment and the accompanying despair. All attempts at addressing youth unemployment have been superficial and largely politically motivated, yet this is a potentially explosive situation and could eventually derail our democracy.

This pattern of poor problem definition, poor long term planning, poor implementation and very poor or no evaluation of outcomes for all the dimensions of Ghanaian life, is at the center of our culture of business practice and management, particularly in the public sector. It is a well-practiced and enduring cultural reality which is so accepted as our way of life that, if one challenges it at any level they are thought to be psychotic. There is active resistance to innovation and self-evaluation across all systems. This leads to resource misapplication and waste of unbelievable proportions. We are living with the results.

I'm not sure what percentage of Ghanaians were truly shocked by the revelation that some judges were routinely collecting bribes and subverting the very laws they were sworn to uphold. It is startling that only a small minority did not fall to the temptation offered by the sting operation.

Many of us have been saying for years that "Corruptovirus Ghanensis" is endemic and fully embedded at all levels of Ghanaian society. I for one, was not surprised in the least. What disturbed me most was the section of the public who espoused the view that the shame from the exposure of the alleged offenses was enough punishment. Punishment for adjudicated offenses are enshrined in the law, which of course is only an afterthought for many. The failure of leaders at all levels to objectively supervise their charges and apply rules firmly and fairly is at the root of the degree of legal disorder in the land. We all know that traffic police officers collect personal tariffs because they share the booty with their bosses.

We seem to have superimposed a modern structure of governance on a people whose attitude to due process under the law is feudal at best. This raises serious questions about the ability of the state to meet its legal and fiduciary obligations towards its citizens, since a large section of our decision-makers have feudal dispositions and predilections as can be deduced from their daily utterances.

If this was not the case, why would an allegation of assault on a journalist by a presidential staffer be investigated by the presidency? This is clearly a criminal matter.

Sadly, a Ghanaian Times journalist died in an MVA while he and other journalists were being transported in a vehicle purportedly rented by the presidency they were covering. Why the government would expose itself to such a liability is puzzling. The journalists work for various press houses so this practice clearly compromises their independence. Such boundary violations indicate that feudal thinking is at the center of Ghanaian life and the receiving of "gifts" and favours in any form always opens the door to corruption. The only workers who should receive gifts are in the hospitality industry for excellent services rendered. Even in this industry, workers expect tips for poor or just satisfactory services. No person in the public or corporate sector should be offered gifts nor should they accept them. This is how professionalism is eroded across the nation. There are daily examples of individuals in positions of great responsibility who show little capacity for critical thinking in solving the problems they are charged to address.

Then there is the brouhaha about the voters register. By definition this is a dynamic document. Devoid of political interests, the voters register must have a built in audit system with quality markers, triggering periodic reviews to ensure that its accuracy cannot be contested or doubted. Maybe a consultation from the Carter Center might be in order here, for any doubt about the validity of the register will cost lives in elections as closely contested as ours. Talk by National Democratic Congress (NDC) apparatchiks that we have no money to review the register is irresponsible. The moment the pillars of democracy are abandoned for supposed lack of funds, while we continue to buy SUVs, we can kiss the peace we enjoy good-bye. There is a growing consensus in the public space that too many of the president's appointees with significant responsibilities are either incompetent or inexperienced. It would appear that political expediency is the guiding ethos of this administration. Only the electorate will decide what price there is to pay for this.

The business with the judges is an indication of how deep the cancer of ethical erosion has infected the Ghanaian body politic. The work Anas has done and is doing is clearly what the government should be doing itself. It should have undercover units all over the place, systematically exposing malfeasance in the public space and punishing culprits. That would be the beginning of worthy cultural change. It must come from the leadership.

In every endeavor, the Ghanaians at work must ask themselves "what does the law require of me?" This question should be on every blackboard in every school in the land and should be central to the learning experience because we are educated to function as law – abiding citizens in and contribute to the ethical growth of our communities.

The rush to shoot the messenger has already begun and the methodology of the Tiger Eye PI sting operation is being subjected to an emergency laparotomy. Anas is being accused of tarnishing the country’s international image by exposing these greedy thieves. Total poppycock. What about those who deny citizens their basic rights by putting justice on sale every day? Disturbingly, many of these dust- throwers are lawyers, hiding behind technicalities to protect their parochial interests. They are the only ones who cannot tell that the emperor has no clothes.

We certainly need a new order and it is hoped that Ghanaians will place greater value on their votes in the next election and consider the smaller parties more seriously because there is a sinful merger of the political elite of the two main parties and senior public servants who clearly care little about the system and less so about the citizenry. The bureaucracy is self-serving and not citizen–centered in the least. Group Think has consumed the leadership class in the country. They no longer serve the people. They only serve themselves and protect their perks and their privileges without any compassion for the ordinary folk. This is far larger than the judicial system and its related services. It is an issue of national values. We have accepted corruption as a part of life, making excuses, denying its existence, minimizing its impact on development and even sometimes embracing corrupt individuals as local folk heroes, even in churches. The value system in the country is totally upside down and someone in leadership must lead the way out of this horrible maze!

Politics is about commitment to change society for the better. It’s not what we have turned it into in Ghana.

Dr. T. P. Manus Ulzen is Professor & Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Alabama, USA. He is a native of Ghana and author of Java Hill: An African Journey – A Historiography of Ghana.

[email protected]
www.javahillelmina.com
Twitter: @ThaddeusUlzen