Fixthecountry Movement: What To Fix? The Case Of Laws Without Sanctions

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal government control would be necessary." James Madison

The "Fixthecountry" movement has been asking the government to fix the country, but they have not been able to articulate what they want to be fixed and how to fix them in a well-thought fashion. Instead of thinking and strategizing about what they want to see done and how to do it, they have resorted to insults and insinuations, as if Ghanaian leaders care much about insults. One of the most potent weapons that can be used to fix the country is the law. I refer to workable and enforceable laws with strict consequences for everyone irrespective of their social station in society. Ghana's number one problem is general lawlessness from the ordinary person in the street to the country's president. Just enforce the law, and there will be enough resources to take care of every Ghanaian. Americans or Europeans obey the law not because they are more law-abiding people than Africans by nature, but instead, they obey the laws because the laws come with sanctions.

For example, when Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty of federal corruption charges in 2009 about the filling of President Obama's vacant Senate seat and other charges, he was impeached, convicted, and removed from office in 2009 by the Illinois General Assembly. The Illinois Senate also barred him from holding public office in the state ever again. Blagojevich was also sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. So, you can understand why the law works in the United States but does not work in Ghana. How many politicians in Ghana have ever been impeached or removed from office, or gone to jail for public corruption?

The goal of the law is to change human behaviors. The law can accomplish its goals directly through fear of sanctions or desire for rewards. It can also do so indirectly by changing attitudes about regulated behaviors. However, only the law can alter moral attitudes when enforced with sanctions. For any society to survive, it has to be guided by law that governs the behavior of the members of the society, their relations, their rights, and obligations irrespective of their social stations. The laws we promulgate must be a mandatory cause of our conduct accepted by all of us as established by the legitimate authority of our society. Our very existence depends on the quality of the law.

Many Ghanaians hope that their standard of living will improve one day. They believe one day they can access better healthcare services, drive on better roads and bridges, receive better protection from the police, better transportation, better education, and better physical and social infrastructural services. They ask, when will our standard of living improve? There is always hope for the future, but that hope seems to dim every day. We must understand that our economy will not grow past our growth in moral behavior and our growth in instituting laws and enforcing them.

Ghanaians live in dualistic societies where one group lives in opulence, while others live in abject poverty. Ancient sages' idea that immorality and evil result from lack of education and miseducation does not hold water for the educated Ghanaian elites. One has to ask: where do these politicians and bureaucrats get their money to finance the expensive buildings, cars, and foreign trips for their girlfriends? The Ghanaian elite does not know the difference between stewardship and ownership because they are never asked to account for their stewardship: they can use government resources entrusted to them in any way they want without any repercussions.

How often have the incoming governments promised to investigate the previous government and hold them accountable without fulfilling their promises? They could not because they knew they were also coming to do the same thing without consequences. Why do we expect humans to do the right thing without checks and balances, transparency, and accountability?

The idea of a state of nature or human nature was an essential component of the social contracts of English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke and the social contract theory of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Though their views sometimes diverge, they all consider human nature as the beginning place to think about law and governance. Their political and legal theories provided the theoretical bases for western democracy.

It is not only in politics and law that human nature or behavior features prominently but also in economics. While many scholars know about Adam Smith's work, "The Causes of Wealth of Nations, "only a few know that Smith's first major book was about moral sentiments. Smith, who laid the ground for capitalism, was a moral philosopher before shifting his attention to Economics. Smith believed that the free market or the capitalist economy could operate only when there are laws to address the externalities that stem from individuals pursuing their self-interest in a society.

One of the earliest political theorists, Machiavelli, also believed that people are governed by two broad categories of political motivation: their loves and fears, but primarily by fear. For Machiavelli, fear of punishment is an essential political motivator. He observed, "The prince must love his city more than his soul. Furthermore, to love his city all right, the prince must "Learn how not to be good." In other words, a leader cannot say, I love my country while allowing lawbreakers to go unpunished. Thomas Hobbes, in the Leviathan, observed that in the state of nature, people left to their own devices without a central government or the enforcement of laws would quickly descend into squatting, infighting, and intolerable bickering and seek their interests. For Hobbes, evil is the natural state of humans.

Highlighting the abuse of governments by public officials and the need for checks and balances, James Madison, in the federalist papers, wrote, "It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?" In other words, any government or leader that does not devise means to deal with human nature in pursuance of governance is bound to fail. One thing about the Holy book that even atheists do not dispute is its teaching about the sinfulness of humans. Madison continued with this famous quote, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal government control would be necessary."

As a nation, our problem is not a lack of resources or infrastructure, lack of employment, or social amenities. These perceived problems are manifestations or symptoms of the critical moral problem beneath the surface. The problems we have are not rooted in Economics or Finance, but the problems confronting us are human. Societies over the years have found that humans left to themselves often would not adhere to societal norms and order. The holy book does not just tell us about the depravity of humans but also advocates for the government to exact punishment to ensure order in societies.

In Romans 13:1-5, the apostle wrote, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. There is no authority except God, and God appoints the existing authorities. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but evil. Do you want to be unafraid of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience's sake."

My earlier articles have touched on public sector inefficiencies and corruption, which partly stem from the lack of strong leadership to enforce the laws. The issue we have discussed appears to be about lack of government leadership and irresponsibility, yet the main issue is that we do not have legal mechanisms to restrain human instincts or hold people responsible for their actions or inactions. Like all animals, humans have instincts that enhance us to cope with our environment. Nevertheless, such animistic instincts as denial, revenge, tribal loyalty, intentional negligence, and greed threaten our very co-existence as a nation if not restrained by law.

There is too much cacophony without symphony: Too much talking without substance. There is a need to do root cause analysis to determine the underlying causes of our problems? The most critical element in policy analysis is defining the problem to be solved. We cannot solve any problem if one gets the definition wrong. We have to begin with the understanding that we have all the natural resources to cater to our needs if they are well managed. The fundamental question is: How do we restrain our politicians and bureaucrats from transferring our pooled resources into their personal or family accounts? In other words, how do we make them responsible and accountable stewards?

We live in a lawless society where the rules sometimes apply to those without social connections like "Akuapem Polo." All the cacophony about "Fixthecountry," and the insults will amount to nothing if they do not affect the political prospects of the politicians and the bureaucrats or brings sanctions against them when they unlawfully abuse their positions. For Ghanaian politicians and bureaucrats, they see the "fixthecountry" cacophony as a temporary political agitation that will soon pass.

I do not care what adjectives we use to describe leaders like Lee Kuan Yew or Paul Kagame; Ghanaians need leaders like these two men. We need benevolent dictators who take some of our unnecessary rights away for the benefit of all. We need leaders who will hold people responsible and accountable. Sub-Saharan Africa needs strong, benevolent leaders because we will live in a state of nature without such leadership, as Thomas Hobbes described in his work "Leviathan." According to Hobbes, the natural condition of humankind is a state of war in which life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" because individuals are in a "war of all against all."

When laws are mere words and not deeds, those who deceive others (the voters) into signing off their rights in return for good governance will always take the citizens for granted as soon as the votes are counted. One should tell me why ministers should not take a 10% cut if they can do so without being caught or prosecuted. Without enforceable laws, we take it for granted that people will be honest and not launder the money borrowed from international financial institutions into their offshore accounts. Where do we get that optimistic hope from?

Our very existence depends on the quality of the law. We all should have an inherent interest in preserving our interests and national interests. We should understand that individual members share various behaviors, from submissiveness to delinquency. The relevancy of the law is to direct individual members of our society to behave in specific ways or face specified sanctions. Our discussions should be on what legal sanctions can we bring to bear on our leaders to dissuade them from abusing our resources? Insults and yelling will produce nothing but the change of government from one corrupt party to another corrupt party. The focus of the 2024 campaigns should be on government reforms and not projects.