I Speak the People: Do We Need a Revolution in Ghana?

In the last week, I have benefited from a foreigner's assessment of the Ghanaian economy; I have observed Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia's forecast of Ghana's fiscal future; and I have heard President John Mahama display oral incontinence and give a somewhat unfocused speech on the topic of how our tomorrow will be better than our today. These instances, all three of them, portend a bad luck for our dear country. Specifically, they remind that Ghana's future requires three things: leadership, leadership and leadership!

Emphasis on leadership in African politics is a celebrated cliché. That leadership enjoys special reference in the development analysis of Africa, to me, misses an important point. And this is the very reason why we lack responsible leaders; that is why even messianic politicians like Hon. John D Mahama, the MP, could lose their popular flair on the leadership card; and that is why some people in Ghana are frustrated to boiling point: revolution! revolution! Or so they cry. Our society has metamorphosed into a case of mutual trickery of one another: it is a case of survival of the most cunning!

Why is this the case?
Simple. There is no external, and irresistible power or authority to check oppression, injustice and white-collar crimes. People have thus resorted to themselves to survive the waves. Leaders (the real citizens) are the law unto themselves, and the masses (the subjects) - confused, and with chin in palms - resort to their weak and vulnerable destiny and take each day as it comes. This sad bifurcation of Nkrumah's Ghana must cease. Untrue, the President of the republic and his family are not, and should not be the first citizen or the first family: who then is the last? Ghana builds huge edifices to house our leaders; we pay them fatty salaries and allowances, and an unending list of other per diems. The least expected of them is to serve the poor masses who have nothing but a gaze at the rising sun each morning, in a sorrowful replay of Psalm 121 verse 1: I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from?

To check ethical (or moral) human behaviour, we have two options as a people: either to rely on the law of God, or on human-made laws. Depending on the make up of nations, a country may either believe in one of these or both. Whereas some countries (mostly in Africa and Asia) still boast of being God-fearing, reflective of the strength of the Abrahamic religions, many others (mostly western democracies) have relegated God to the backseat, thereby relying on parliament and its clerks. Simply people, and by extension institutions, must be subservient to either or both of these laws in order to be just, incorrupt and responsible.

In advanced democracies, God does not really enjoy a special place in politics: this is the principle of separating church from state. But the Parliament-made laws are potent, irresistible and far-reaching. The law neither leaves the Prime minister nor the taxi driver out of its punitive reach: justice is done, and is seen to be done. In Ghana however - an able representation of Africa's reality - we still pretend to fear God, although we are mere batakari-wearing and church-going people. Our Parliament-made laws are only a combination of paper and ink. The law only succeeds in apportioning benefits to leaders, and in imprisoning political opponents. It does not check our leaders. It does not enjoin order. Neither does it prevent corruption. The police force has become a bribe-taking machine; judges have specialized only in the usage of intimidating but empty jargons. Most politicians are sophisticated liars, and they call it propaganda. And the masses are forced ascetics who spend their day praying for the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Simply, Ghana has lost the corrective effect of the law of God as well as the regulatory power of human-made laws. Hell is not real enough to prevent the corrupt politician from oppressing his poor constituents. He is also above the courts and the prison as the law becomes his wristwatch, which he sets at his whim. Ghana must either put each leader forcefully under the laws made in parliament and interpreted by the courts, or nurture leaders whose morality is sound, and who foresee accountability someday of their actions today.

Indeed, prospective occupants of presidential palaces, parliaments and district assemblies must be moral, ethical and just: and they must be seen to be so. Enough of too much talk; enough of giving bribes for votes; enough of tribalism, my church-ism, my village-ism; no more going into politics to be 'rich' instead of to serve.

In December 2016, if a politician offers you a bribe, a sweet but empty talk, or some foolish logic why he or she is the only one to fix your village road next year despite refusing to do so in the last 5; tell him or her that time has changed, we have become wiser. Political parties must respect us; their leaders must be seen to serve us. This alone is the only viable revolution we need. Our children will ask us questions, and we must answer them, honestly.

Mohammed A Sulemana: Contact me via [email protected] or
follow me on Twitter @M_Sulemana