Monday,
October 8, 2012
President John Dramani Mahama on Monday swore into office
Justice Yaw Appau, as the Sole Commissioner of Judgment debt. His main
task is “to investigate the judgment debt cases the nation has been confronted
with” (Myjoyonline, October 8, 2012).
This measure is in fulfillment of President Mahama’s pledge
to Ghanaians in his broadcast to the nation to appoint an independent sole
commissioner for this purpose.
Welcome to this onerous task, Justice Appau; but I have serious
doubts whether this is how to solve the problem. I won’t hail it as a welcome
relief because it is a mere face-saving move. It won’t end the judgement debt
spree. For how long will Justice Appau do his assignment for government to act
on his recommendations? We need action now, not any further complication of simple
cases of thievery through an empty bureaucratic move!!
The weird things that happen in
government business don’t redound to our well-being. The earlier we voice out
our indignation, the better it will be for those entrusted with the
responsibility to solve our country’s problems but are more inclined toward
compounding them to know why we don’t trust them.
A case in point sums it all up. Despite
all the public anger at the Woyome scandal particularly, and the fact that this
payment of judgement debt is a subtle means by some unscrupulous government
officials and their collaborators in business to fleece the national coffers,
little is being done to solve the problem.
The prosecution of Woyome is
moving at a snail’s pace because of the weaknesses of the judicial system that
encourage lethargy (whether on the part of the government itself, the officials
at the Ministry of Justice/Attorney-General’s Department, or the court system
itself).
Someone must be pulling some
strings to stall this case. Otherwise, why the painful delay and more salt being
rubbed into our wounds? Ghanaians are anxious to know how the huge amount of
money paid to Woyome can be retrieved and measures put in place to prevent
anything of the sort in the future.
As if mindless of the negative
fallouts, the government isn’t doing anything reassuring. Appointing a sole
commissioner to investigate all these judgement debt payments won’t solve the
problem any sooner than expected.
Neither will the revelations
being made by Martin Amidu be pursued because doing so will take food out of
the mouths of those perpetrating the fraud in the corridors of power. It is an
age-old case of people using their political connections to reap where they
haven’t sown anything but rely on their mischief and stealing habits to fleece
the national coffers.
They know the loopholes in the
system and how to tap into them. It is not a new thing happening under this
government. It has been with us all these years and will continue to be so for
as long as those in authority who are to plug those loopholes rather widen
them.
Here is how they do so. It is the
“Ghanaian thing” for those well positioned to detect loopholes in the system
itself (the institutional weaknesses) for exploitation by the appointing
authorities who fill positions with their cronies to work hard for mutual
benefits.
Do we not know how appointments
are made, especially in this 4th Republican era when politics has
become the inexhaustible goldmine for those who have political connections?
The loopholes are all over the
place for such cronies to exploit. If you doubt my claim, just do your own
homework at the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (including the security
setups too). As is often heard said by some people who know of such holes,
“Everybody eats from his work place.” In other words, wherever a goat is
tethered, there it gets its food.
And those who know how to
overwork themselves in exploiting those loopholes to share the proceeds
equitably last at their posts. Only those who are mindlessly greedy enough to grab
the lion’s share or run away with everything under their armpit get kicked out
to be replaced with malleable ones.
Why aren’t these loopholes being
plugged, you may be tempted to ask. It’s impossible to do so because that is
the lifeline of those who find their ways into politics or other departments of
national life. They can’t take action to plug those loopholes because it will
amount to economic suicide. And they fear to even think of choking themselves
that way.
From the lackadaisical manner in
which this all-too-terrifying Woyome fraud case is being handled—and the fact
that many other sordid ones yet to be known fully (the Construction Pioneer and
Balkan ones, particularly)—there is only one explanation: some people in
authority are doing things for obvious reasons!! Their desire to protect their
interests is really strong.
Again, it may be that the problem
is endemic, meaning that intricate networks of thieves parading as government
officials or heads of institutions where the economic crimes occur are in
operation to the blind side of Ghanaians. I will go for this aspect because
what we have heard so far in the Woyome scandal points me to this conclusion.
We are reminded that those who
manage to walk the corridors of power to be close to these loopholes know how
painful it is to be poor; and once they have access to the “goldmines,” why do
anything to impoverish themselves? They will not do anything to plug those
loopholes but will be the first to mount rooftops to condemn bribery and
corruption, moral decadence, and economic stagnation!!
From what has happened so far, I
have no doubt that our country is in the hands of the wrong people. This is not
to say that I consider any of those at the sidelines making frantic efforts to
return to power as any better. They aren’t because in their own words, “being
in the opposition is like being in hell.”
Give them the chance and they
will widen the loopholes too. That is our plight. Our country isn’t developing
as fast as we expect it to—nor will our democracy mature—because those in
charge of affairs aren’t committed in any way to solve the systemic problems to
serve the wider national interests. Their main focus is on the self. If you
doubt it, monitor their activities carefully. Cronyism does it all for them.
The real issue is that all these
people are the same in every guise but use different strategies to achieve
their pernicious objectives. That is why we have the differences in political
parties, names, and manifestoes but no expectation that anything will change to
promote the interests and wellbeing of the citizens down the line who have no
means to exploit those loopholes. In effect, though, none of them really has
the interests of the country and its 25 million people at heart. I am waiting
to be proved wrong.
The inordinate desire on the part
of the politicians to grab every public property they come across should be
curbed for good. But how can we do so when the institutions to use are
themselves so heavily implicated or politicized as to render them ineffective
right from scratch?
Don’t even mention any civil
society grouping because there is none credible enough to depend on for
anything.
One may be talking about using “citizen
advocacy” (as Martin Amidu claims to be doing); but it will fizzle out as soon
as started because it has no foundation. Individuals on their own can’t effect
any change. They need institutions to back them up. Our problem is that we
don’t have any institution capable of doing so. How far, then, can an
individual’s advocacy go to rid our country of the vices that have taken over
public life?
Justice Appau may expend public
resources investigating all these judgement debt payments but what will become
of his efforts if his recommendations end up in files to be left on office
shelves to gather dust? Ghanaian politicians lack what it takes to solve
problems of this sort. That’s why they cannot and must not be trusted to plug
all those loopholes that facilitate corruption. They are the problem
confronting us.
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