Young and Politically Angry in Ghana…

I must make a confession before I embark on this journey. I don’t know what I’m going to end up writing but I know I’m viscerally angry at the state of affairs on this land of my birth. So forgive me if you spot any hints of anger in the write-up for that is my state of being now.

A couple of week’s ago, the subject of the testament of the late chief executive officer of Ghana’s forestry commission became a raging subject of public discourse. Justifiable outrage were expressed by a large section of the public at the contents of the will and how the public official came by such wealth within a short span of time.

Subsequent investigation by the online news website, The Fourth Estate, revealed that quite a number of ministers serving under the current administration have not fully complied with the asset declaration laws of Ghana.

Indeed, it was revealed by the media organisation that 18 ministers never declared their assets at all.

Article 286 (1) of the 1992 Constitution enjoins all ministers of states and deputy ministers to submit to the Auditor-General, a written declaration of all property or assets owned by, or liabilities owed by, him/her whether directly or indirectly before taking office and at the end of his term of office. Section 1(4)(c) of the Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) act enjoins the appointee to fulfill this requirement within six months of taking office and not later than six months after exiting office.

The law on asset declaration in Ghana is opaque and weak. We have no effective laws on campaign financing and this breeds the political corruption that have saddled this nation since independence, reaching endemic levels under the current fourth republican dispensation.

Money is increasingly becoming the major factor in deciding who becomes a member of parliament in Ghana, without recourse to competence. Due to the absence of effective campaign financing laws, all manner of people with questionable sources of wealth are gaining access to political power without us, pausing to ask how such people intend to recoup their financial investment once in public office.

The Political Parties Act, ACT 574 needs to be revisited to bring it into conformity with modern democratic standards.

The transactional mindset that has pervaded our politics must give away to ethical public service anchored on the principle of honesty and accountability. The influence of money in our politics must be curtailed if we are going to make any headway in the fight against political corruption.

Political parties in Ghana are required by law to declare to the public their revenues and assets and the sources of those revenues and assets. They are also in addition to that required to publish their annual audited accounts to the public. The electoral commission is required to ensure compliance with this constitutional provision, however, it is a known fact that this is a function that the electoral commission has failed to perform. The electoral commission almost appears incapable of performing its duty. This level of official ineptitude cannot be allowed to go on.

The question of campaign financing cannot be left unattended to any longer for it is at the root of our public corruption menace, which is increasingly getting out of hands. In a recent research conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), it was revealed that the cost of vying for parliamentary seat in Ghana was now about GH¢ 4 million ($693,000). This latest figure represent a 59 per cent increment from the GH¢ 389,803 or $85,000 that was revealed in the 2018 report on a study by CDD-Ghana and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). The cost for running for presidential elections according to the report, would now cost a candidate $100million. This is simply staggering for a country where the annual minimum wage is less than $1000.

One wonders what is it that would motivate anyone to spend such insane amount of monies to seek a political office? Could it be the desire to serve? I very much doubt that. This portends a scenario where men who see politics as nothing but a means for amassing wealth unethical gaining an upper hand in our body-politic.

It is unfathomable that lifestyle audit is almost non-existent in Ghana. Lifestyle audit is a very effective tool for curbing the crime of bribery and corruption. Our democracy faces an existential crisis if individuals keep using political power to impoverish the masses whilst amassing wealth for their personal fortunes. This era of looking for power in order to enrich oneself must be overthrown. The relentless onslaught on our democracy by vested financial interests must worry us.

We must vigorously question politicians on the sources of their campaign finances. A law on unexplained wealth together with an effective asset declaration regime will go a long way in curbing this menace.

Despite the determined resolve of such vested interests to give our democracy a bad reputation, I stand in hope that one day the true meaning of a democratic government will become a reality to Ghanaians.

I was in a conversation with a friend a few days ago when the issue of our country’s next likely president came up. I was intrigued to learn from my young friend that the next President of Ghana is most likely to be at least sixty years of age. This is for a country where 73.5% of the population is below 35 years of age. The current President is 78 years old. The average age within the house of parliament is 49 years. Only 42 of the 275 members of parliament are below the age of 40. That is incredible.

Despite our country’s relatively young population, our electoral system keeps churning out politicians who are mostly old and predominantly men. Why is our fourth republican politics not able to produce a young President who is representative of the changing population dynamic of the country?

A President who understands the aspirations and fears of the majority of the population and willing to take the decisions to secure the future of this country. A President willing to dismantle the current state of our pork-barrel system built on patronage and clientelism to give way to a truly functional, meritocratic state.

It is disheartening watching how recruitment into the security services of our country, particularly, has been reduced as a token of appreciation by politicians to reward loyal party activists. It is no longer done in the dark, political figures now publicly trumpet such ‘facilitation’ as proof of their ‘hard work’, to much applause from a docile constituents, who do not understand how such actions are sowing the seeds for the destruction of the State.

Yet the sad situation with regards to partisan recruitment into the security services is just one of sectors reflective of our collective degradation in governance standards. We have the spectre of public servants holding positions in political parties in contravention of the law. It is time to have a more robust conduct of public officers act in Ghana in order to check this growing politicisation of all facets of our national life.

It is inconceivable that young people of this country have to pay monies ostensibly to buy forms for recruitment into the public service of the country. Why can’t the public services commission have a functional website for receiving such applications throughout the year without any payment of monies? Such a system can then assign random numbers to applicants to move on in the process without identifying them by names to undertake an aptitude test. This would eliminate the scourge of cronyism that has pervaded public sector recruitment in this country. We need to build a meritocratic system in which a person’s ability rather than political connections will determine where they end up in life.

We don’t need anyone’s validation to be angry at the state of affairs in our country, we must therefore look at our leaders in the face and tell them; ‘enough is enough’ and ‘it is time to fix the country’. Today’s anger vented in words, tomorrow a justified rebellion that those in authority would seek to crush.