Is there a principle Ghanaians will die for?

The country is still in what one principal social observer describes as a “political coma”. We are still asleep and can only be awakened by a psychic earthquake. The recent elections revealed major flaws in our political systems. Just as international observers were crowing over the early concession speech as a sign of Ghana’s growing credentials as a leader in the democratic world, there were numerous constituencies where thugs of both major parties had either killed people, caused people to be killed or made it impossible for electoral officials to complete their constitutionally mandated duties. What was most disturbing about this was that the leadership of both parties were very slow to react to these acts of violence as long as it served their short-term political needs. A culture of mediocrity has been standard for a few decades. We accept failures and redefine them as successes.

The obsession with short-term gains has destroyed this country, socially, economically and politically. It is no longer the meritocracy it started out as during the first republic. A person in service holds more importance than their job and responsibilities to the nation. Therefore, they say “do you know who I am?” instead of “how can I help you?” We never hear a Ghanaian official refer to their responsibility or their preparedness to be held accountable in their position. Every Ghanaian has a reason for going to the head of the line or by-passing laid down procedures. True democracy is the art of the ordinary.

The glorification of raw power in the service of short-term political gain is the bane of our political experience. Both major parties have created this culture and thrive on it.

The recent appointments committee session at the house of parliament was marked by disorderly conduct and a lack of decorum. The word “honorable”, so overused, even for people who have not earned it through electoral votes, died that day.

It is interesting to note that such conduct, at least to my knowledge, has never occurred at any Chief’s court anywhere in the land. We are pretending to run a country, completely bereft of our own traditional principles, and observance of customs of governance. These rules of conduct have existed for centuries and have been completely revered by our citizenry long before the arrival of Western institutions. We are now pretending to run a modern democracy and are clearly ambivalent about it. What happened in parliament at the appointments committee was a real insult to the whole nation by people we elect and pay to serve on our behalf.

It also appears that the office of the attorney general no longer exists on the constitutional principle that this office exists to represent the interests of the people. Now it appears that once a party comes into power any of its operators who may be under investigation, have their cases immediately expunged. There may well be a true legal basis for these actions but a transparent review and verifiable conclusions is the least that is due to the people. This cycle of legal impunity undermines the administration of justice.

Within days of assuming power, I heard the finance minister designate talking about meeting IMF requirements. It only confirmed to me that both major political parties are unable to escape from this brutish and enslaving financial paradigm in which we have placed ourselves. If we are unable to get out of this paradigm of perpetual indebtedness and are unable to inspire productivity at all levels from farm to table to factory, we are not going to make it. That is where the jobs are for growing and expanding the economic base. Well organized and managed co-operatives in both the agricultural and artisanal mining sectors will provide jobs and safeguard the environment.

We simply have to live within our means. Neither party campaigned on this reality. Neither was bold enough to say many decades of fiscal indiscipline has brought us to a point where we can no longer carry on the same way we have been conducting business for the last four decades or more. Neither of these two parties had the courage and sense of principle to come clean with the voters. Interestingly, the voters were largely aware of this themselves and didn’t need the NDC or the NPP to tell them. It is just that monetization of our politics has eliminated any options rooted in integrity for now but the people will awaken from the coma as they did in 1951, when Kwame Nkrumah was first elected in colonial Africa’s first election under universal franchise.

Then there is Operational Recover All Loot (ORAL), whose acronym is so psychologically primitive and symbolizes our predilection for consumption rather than production. Without full transparency in asset declarations by government officials, ORAL has no ethical basis for success. It probably should have been headed by a highly respected retired jurist or statesman, rather than someone perceived as a biased political operative. The concept of conflict of interest is merely an academic concern that means nothing to us. We do not understand it.

As a society, we have no appetite for punishment or enforcement of rules. As for the descendants of the United Party (UP), their tradition of bomb throwing and assassination attempts began in November 1955. All of Nkrumah’s electoral victories were transparent so as sore losers, they tried repeatedly to assassinate him. Along the way, they killed many innocent citizens by their murderous acts of terrorism but railed against the Preventative Detention Act (PDA), when it was enacted to punish them. Some of these criminals are on our currency notes. Go figure!

As for their latter-day cousins, the NDC, they ushered in a period of murderous violence with disappearances of ordinary citizens and public murders of others during the PNDC era, which begat them. So here we are with two traditions, rooted in indiscipline, violence, and a resistance in accepting the rule of law and order as applied to themselves. This has led to a culture of political representatives who do not remember that they are representing others.

Nkrumah’s government was overthrown in February 1966 and the first time we went to the IMF was in May 1966 and we have been there, feeding at the cursed trough 18 times since. People want to believe that we are developing or are making progress. That is not so. We remain in the neo-colonial paradigm.

A failure to enforce rules, transparently, and firmly under the law is what has cost us 60% of our surface water in a country of almost 35 million people with its implications for agriculture, health and the economy. Many countries have small-scale mining, but we have harmed ourselves for short-term profit and politics.

Ghanaians must move beyond this dreaded duopoly for better governance of this paradise we call home. We should produce more and pray less. God has done more than enough for us.

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Ghana-In-search-of-our-national-ethos-111471

https://www.modernghana.com/news/215999/1/ghana-ethical-development-as-the-path-to-national-.html

Prof. (Med) T. P. Manus Ulzen
Chairperson, Progressive Alliance for Ghana (PAG)

[email protected]

@PAG_Nkrumaists
www.tpmanusulzen.com