Opinion › Feature Article       16.02.2019

The Unnerving Political Situation In Ghana

About politics in Ghana, I will relate it to my experience when learning how to swim. I have been watching what swimmers do, therefore, I went into the swimming pool. I splashed my body into the water using my legs and arms to propel me forward. After about two minutes, I lifted up head from the water and I saw that I was at exactly the same place I started.

It was there I knew that reading and learning something practically will give one the experience to be perfect in whatever I wanted to achieve. African leaders, including Ghanaian leaders, are interested to be presidents but they lack the knowledge of leadership. Instead of focusing on solutions, the dwell on problems.

The mind tells them they are best and running state affairs in the right way but a country which citizens are struggling to make ends meet means the economy is in very bad shape. As a matter of fact, Ghana after Kwame Nkrumah has been an unnerving country to live.

The NPP and NDC are the only two political parties running the state of affairs in Ghana, yet no one wants to accept of being corrupt. NPP claims they are cleaning the mess left over by the NDC. I guess this is a big mess.

In the ranking of dishonor based on corruption, Italy occupies the sixty-ninth place, abreast with Central African Republic, Ghana, and the Balkan country, Macedonia, according to Commission's Report on Corruption Prevention.

"Corruption is stifling the Ghanaian economy," according to the British undersecretary of state for foreign affairs, James Duddridge. He thinks "the introduction of harsher measures against individuals who are guilty of corruption is paramount". The British MP also added that systematic corruption obstructs the private business sector.

Duddridge defined the problem of corruption in Ghana as "one of the main obstacles in the country, which rises from the top to the base and mainly concerns the trade sector: paying bribes to receive in exchange for facilitations seems to be the only way to do business in the Ghana and by tolerating this corrupt system, the country is killing its own economy ."

The undersecretary went on to urge the Ghanaian government to look into the problem "It has been a long time since in Ghana there has been a case of open-faced corruption, sending the guilty to prison under the eyes of the entire population, so send a clear and direct message to the country ."

That's true, elites don't go to jail. This happened under Mahama's administration and recent history repeated itself under the government of Nana Akufo Addo when a corrupt football official called Kwesi Nyantakyi also escaped punishment for a crime he wouldn't have escaped justice in any developed country.

African leaders are deeply corrupt to the extent that they find it hard to put behind bars people involved in corruption scandals. Whoever thought Ghana will be in this state? The economy is in big trouble but politicians wouldn't like to accept that fact because they don't want to lose votes in the next elections.

Many challenges still persist in eradicating poverty in Africa. Even though Ghana is not a poor country thousands of people are poor. Where are the resources going and where is the money that the government earns?

Ghanaian leaders must acknowledge the fact that they didn't take positions in the country by chance. People's votes gave them that opportunity, therefore, they must even see to it that the common Ghanaians eat first before they will sit behind their meals to enjoy.

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