Ghana: A Nation In Search Of Strong Institutions

In 2009, President Barack Obama visited Ghana and delivered a powerful speech to an audience made up of Parliamentarians, government officials and other important dignitaries. Obama in his speech stated that “Africa does not need strongmen but strong institutions.” Seven years down the line and most African leaders have failed to heed the call of the President of America. The story from most African countries is nothing to write home about. Bad governance, unbridled corruption, bad policy decisions and unpatriotic acts on the part of some public servants continue to hinder the development process of the continent.

Ghana’s fourth republic is about 24 years and most Ghanaians are yet to enjoy the real benefits of democracy. The country has chalked some progress in the areas of press freedom, human rights, independence of the judiciary and some developments in the various sectors of the economy, these success stories are nonetheless very insignificant when we compare it to the level of wastage, pillage and bad policy decisions made by people who have been placed in high authority.

The transition from a military government to a civilian rule in 1992 was a welcome relief to most Ghanaians who believed in the path of democratic governance. The development resulted in the liberalisation of the media space, investment in the Ghanaian economy by investors who felt the country was safe to invest in, more donor support from our donor partners and also goodwill from western democracies. The regime by then also engaged in certain acts which was a blot on the democratic path that we have chosen. Human rights abuses such as the famous identification hair cut carried out at the seat of government, the turning of a taxi by the bodyguards of the former president, sh*t bombing of press houses which were perceived to be critical to the government were some of the few challenges. Ghanaians also had the shock of their lives when a supposed investor in rice production swindled our government through the negligence of some of our ministers.

The arrest and prosecution of some of these government officials by the subsequent government made Ghanaians to develop some high hopes for the Kuffour administration, but the administration also failed Ghanaians through certain decisions and acts of corruption by some elements in his government. The controversy that surrounded the sale of Ghana Telecom and inability of the government of the day to convince Ghanaians with that decision, the hotel “waa waa” incident and the flagrant disregard of value for money on expenditures related to the Ghana at 50 celebrations are just a few of the challenges that confronted President Kuffour’s a administration.

President Mills was a good man but failed Ghanaians with his style of leadership, the inability of the old professor to ward of opportunistic characters in his government led to the cold war between him and the founder of his party. The payment of fictitious judgement debts to cronies and the failure of his government to continue certain key projects started by President Kuffour painted his government in a very bad light.

Under the leadership of President Mahama, Ghanaians have witnessed certain actions of his government which have called to question the statement made by President Obama during his historic visit to Ghana. The wrongful payments or excess payments made to some organisations, bad policy decisions of public officers and the inability of the President to sanction some of his appoints who have engaged in certain acts of corruption goes a long way to reinforce the weaknesses in our system.

Quite recently it was reported in the newspapers that a public servant and head of an institution signed a bad contract which resulted in the country losing millions of cedis. The officer in question asked Ghanaians to forgive him, as to whether the government is pursuing the case to retrieve our money is also a different story. The Brazil saga which was exposed by the good works of the Justice Dzamefe commission also revealed how weak our systems were. The failure of the President to punish the culprits also reinforces the perception of most Ghanaians who think that the President is not tackling issues of corruption with all the seriousness it deserves.

There have been occasions where government had authorised that excess payments made to certain companies be retrieved, the current rebranding case which led to the resignation of the transport minister and the authorisation of by the government for the company involved to refund the excess money to government shows a certain loose ends in our public administration. Why will institutions of state engage in acts that are tainted with fraud? Why will public officials deliberately engage in corrupts acts and apologise to Ghanaians after they have been exposed by the media? What prevents the government from applying the laws in some of these cases instead of asking these companies to come out with payment plans of excess money paid to them? Why will a government shield its appoints who have engaged in certain acts that brings the name of the government into disrepute?

Answers to these questions may be found in the way our political parties have funded most of their programmes during elections. Most of these businessmen and government appointees are major financiers or belong to the “kitchen cabinet” of the president and because of the roles they play in ensuring that their parties win elections, it becomes difficult to sanction them whenever they go astray.

What Ghanaians need under this fourth republic are institutions that will work in the interest of the citizens and not politicians. We need a vibrant media which will continuously expose the ills of our society, a nationalistic legislature which will think of the country first before their political parties and a credible judicial system that will enforce the rules and punish government and public officials who dissipate our resource on themselves and their families.

Mustapha Jimah.
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