Democratization of Blame

Over the last five years, I have watched with increasing unease a growing trend and tendency in Ghana. That growing trend is the tendency to apportion blame across the years, governments, and political parties.

Strict accountability must count for something to us as Ghanaians. Privileges, they say, go with responsibilities. What is a government supposed to be accountable for if every shortcoming of governance under their watch can be explained away as having pertained to all governments? Ghanaians would not excuse a disappointing performance of the current team of Black Stars because their predecessors did no better. Why should we behave any different with our elected governments?

Incumbent governments have been voted out on the basis of promises made by opposition parties to do better. This was the case, for example, in 2008 when the electorate voted for the NDC over the NPP. A lot of things were said then about what the NDC claimed was bad governance on the part of the NPP. A lot of things were also said by the NDC about what they could do or can do to improve the lives of Ghanaians. In short, the NDC assured the Ghanaian electorate that they could do more with less relative to the NPP. Has this assurance borne out over the last five years? Some will argue that given the resources that has been available to the government over the last five years, the NDC government has done much less with so much. No wonder some have said, “we prefer the bitter Ghana of Kufuor to the better Ghana of Mills and Mahama.

At the present time, the NPP or any other party in opposition for that matter does not have the power to control national resources to improve the lives of Ghanaians. Neither do they have the power to contract loans to pump into the productive sectors of the economy. That power and ability to directly impact the standards of living of Ghanaians lie with the elected government. For that reason, Ghanaians ought to subject their elected government (and not past goverments) to the highest standards of scrutiny and accountability. Only through such measures will Ghanaians be assured that their elected government will make the right decisions by them.

As Ghanaians, we should be more mindful of what can impact our lives and that of our children at the present time and in the future. What could have happened or happened in the past is important. But what must happen now and can happen in the future is even more important.

Only the government of the day and future governments can impact our lives now and in the future in any meaningful way. That is the more reason why we have to be very critical of their shortcomings and failings. That is one of the very significant ways we as citizens can help our governments do better than they otherwise would.

If every shortcoming and failure of government is always being explained away in the light of mediocre comparisons with past governments, history, religion, global events, structure of the economy, and what have you, is it any surprise that Ghanaians are lamenting so much over their standard of living?

Gilbert Adu Gyimah
[email protected]
Alberta, Canada