Ghana's Politicians don't get it

Ghanaians have always been urged by their political leaders to tighten their belts, as designed and implemented policies would take a while to yield the desired results, and consequently make any meaningful impact on our lives. That's why it's often disheartening, and sometimes embarrassing, when the belt-tightening, average Ghanaians are bombarded with news of these same politicians allocating to themselves all manner of state property – cars, lands, and soft furnishings, etc – with all impunity. Not only that! They embark on profligate spending of the taxpayers' money as well.

Since the Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration took office in January 2009, both our print and electronic media have been inundated with allegations of some former ministers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) being involved in all manner of schemes to rip the state off its coffers while the latter was in office, or prepared to leave office. For example, these former NPP ministers have been accused of taking home state vehicles purchased at reduced prices, ripping their bungalows empty of soft furnishings, allocating to themselves state lands, among others.

For these reasons the former Chief of Staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani and other top NPP functionaries who served in the then NPP administration have been hauled to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and questioned. The most recent addition to the questioning escapades of the BNI is the former Minister of Information, Mr. Asamoah Boateng, and his wife.

Amidst all these, there were recent allegations in the media of financial malfeasance against the Youth and Sports minister, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, who was asked to proceed on leave while investigations were conducted. He has since been duly replaced.

In the shadows of those allegations, the Presidential Spokesman, Mr. Mahama Ayariga and others were reported to have purchased tractors sold by the Ministry of Agriculture at cheap prices.

To all well-meaning Ghanaians, these issues are very disappointing for the reason that these NDC functionaries would indulge in something they've strongly accused their NPP counterparts of doing since they took office.

These developments are indeed troubling because it's obvious that Ghana is unfortunately being led by politicians who have demonstrated time and again that they are self-seeking and greedy, and do not have the progress and well-being of Ghanaians at heart. It's very sad that Ghana's politicians occupying office, whether as ministers of state, members of parliament, or even district chief executives do not get it that they are pursuing their political career for one and only one reason – The welfare of the People, and nothing else.

What about The People, one may ask? That The People should have: (i) good quality and affordable basic and tertiary education; (ii) well-paying jobs after graduating from school; (iii) reliable and efficient healthcare delivery system; (iv) clean environment to ensure good health (v) robust agricultural and industrial sectors for food production and processing, (vi) potable drinking water and places of convenience in their homes, et cetera.

These are what should fervently occupy the minds of our political elites at all times, even when they retire to sleep at night. Amazingly, they seem to forget (whether deliberately or not) that by choosing to pursue politics in their quest to better the lives of The People, they've become public servants whose sole responsibility is to ensure that they fulfill the promises upon which they rode to political office.

Some of us are very worried about the precedent being set for generations that come after us.

For once, our political leaders should be genuinely concerned with the plight of the suffering masses of Ghana, be very honest with themselves by acknowledging that they've lied to us for far too long, and so have fallen short of delivering to see Ghana move forward.

And most importantly they should put all their self-seeking, greedy materialistic escapades aside; stop the unnecessary persecutions of their political opponents; focus on the very important issues confronting the average Ghanaian; and spare all of us the agony of knowing that our paid taxes are being spent and shared opulently among themselves without any conscience, whatsoever.

US President Barack Obama made the following remarks on his first day in office:

“Public service is a privilege. It's not about advantaging yourself. It's not about advancing your friends or your corporate clients. It's not about advancing an ideological agenda or special interests of any organization. Public service is simply and absolutely about advancing the interest of Americans. Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington.”

It's my hope that Ghana's ruling class will learn something from this.

May be they'll get it this time.

Credit: Kow Aban
[Email: [email protected]]
The author is a concerned Ghanaian who believes Ghana has all it takes to develop more than it is doing now, but for misplaced priorities by our political elite.