Thursday,
August 23, 2012
The weird things that happen in
government business (lumping together the Executive, Legislature, and
Judiciary) can’t be tackled with this kind of self-glorification. We have
continued to voice out our indignation to no avail.
Sadly, those entrusted with the
responsibility to solve our country’s problems are more interested in
compounding them. And they care less about the anger seething in the citizens.
Despite all the indignation being
expressed at the Woyome scandal 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. 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.
The revelations being made by
Martin Amidu will not 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 their mischief and stealing habits.
They know the loopholes in the
system and how to tap into them to advantage. It is not a new thing happening today.
It has been with us all these years and will continue to be for as long as
those in authority who are to plug those loopholes rather widen them to exploit.
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.
Detecting these loopholes is no
problem at all because it is the “Ghanaian thing”—the weaknesses in the system
itself as a result of inadequate laws or institutional framework are known to
those well positioned in the system. Once such loopholes are identified, the
appointing authorities fill positions with their cronies who work hard to
exploit them 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?
And those who know how to
overwork themselves in exploiting those loopholes to share the proceeds
equitably last at their posts. Only those who always fight to take the lion’s
share or run away with everything under their armpit suffer the pain of being
kicked out. Eureka!!
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.
Corruption is endemic in Ghana,
meaning that intricate networks of thieves parading as government officials or
heads of institutions where the economic crimes occur are in operation. 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—as Akufo-Addo is leading
the NPP to do!!
From what has happened so far, I
have no doubt that our country will continue to be in the hands of the wrong
people, especially those blowing needless hot air. 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 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, then, none of these self-righteous
politicians 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
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?
These are the troubling issues
that one expects a serious-minded person seeking the highest office of the land
to make pronouncements on and to reassure the citizens that he has foolproof
measures in hand to tackle. This recourse to self-adulation is a surfeit. It
can’t help us fight corruption head-on.
It is only those full of their
own self-importance who will portray themselves as incorruptible and all others
are corrupt. Yet, they have no means to make their so-called uprightness rub
off on the system. As they tout their own virtues, they lack the acumen with
which to rid the society of the vices that they are quick to identify. Ghana
deserves better. Enough of this Akufo-Addo’s sickening self-glorification!
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