My primary title is an intertext – I draw from Chinua Achebe’s book The trouble with Nigeria published in 1983. In it, Achebe laments profusely about the unpleasant political, social, and economic disorder in Nigeria.

Much of what Achebe discusses about Nigeria in this book, nearly 40 years ago, resonates so well with current happenings in Ghana. But this is Ghana, not Nigeria, and we have our own nuanced and peculiar challenges.

I write this article as a Ghanaian who is insatiably concerned with the progress of Ghana, a naturally beautiful and wealthy nation. I see it not just as a personal duty to write, but also as a somewhat spiritually motivated task (I have been, over a long period of time, restless over the issues I discuss here, with an invisible force constantly drumming into my ear: ‘share it!’). I am a language scientist by training, and I do not pretend to be an expert discussing a topic that clearly falls outside of my specialty: politics and governance.

However, my lay views on politics and governance are largely driven by my convictions and by the fact that I am political. I am political to the extent that political decisions, taken by those who govern in any given society, affect everyone else in the society in diverse ways.

In fact, that we are all involved in the electoral process of choosing our leaders exemplifies one way that we are political. The decisions political leaders make have far-reaching influence on the rest of the people, which can either inure to their benefit and successes or add to their problems and failures.

In this commentary, I wish to make a strong case for a dramatic change in the governance structure of this country. While I believe the proposals that I will be sharing here are feasible, I am also clear in my mind that they will receive strong opposition and resistance, especially from those who benefit from the weaknesses of the present governance structure.

Whatever it is, I think there is now an overwhelming consensus that we cannot continue along the path we have been journeying in the last 30 years or so, following the implementation of the fourth Republican Constitution of 1992.

During this fourth Republic, at least, our democratic practice has recorded a few positives, including, most notably, the considerable maturity we have exhibited (and continue to exhibit) in our electoral process, which has seen successful transfers of power between the two main political parties – the NDC and the NPP.

We have received huge international praise for this effort. Another area of success that Ghanaians have continued to enjoy has been the freedoms of expression, association, movement, and to own property. This also represents an important aspect of a democratic nation, and in our case, freedoms of expression have been visible and particularly encouraged.

The proliferation of both the print and electronic mainstream media, as well as the increasing use of and access to new, social media platforms, is a manifestation of this success. Socioeconomically, perhaps we can be grateful to all the leaders and governments we have had during this fourth Republic, starting from Jerry Rawlings to John Kufour, through to John Mills, to John Mahama, and to, currently, Nana Akuffo Addo.

Without singling out any one of them for special praise, we can agree that each of them has contributed something to the socioeconomic development of the nation, so that it cannot be denied that in the last 30 years we have seen some visible progress. This may come under either infrastructural development, economic incentives, social support services, or human capacity development.

However, within these last 30 years, in my most sincere view, we should have been miles ahead of our current situation. I look at our current national challenges, and they lead me to one stark conclusion – that our achievement during this period is piecemeal, inadequate, unimpressive, and substandard. We could be doing far more with the right political and economic institutions in place.

I argue that we have been following and working with weak political institutions that have automatically created weak economic institutions whose incentives for the public are not encouraging and properly defined. Ours is a country of enormous wealth and resources, and most of the people should not be suffering hardships, poverty, and deprivation.

The only reason these economic problems persist is a failure of leadership. Our leaders over the years have been making too many self-serving and unpopular political and economic decisions. The outcome is that, today in Ghana, there are no real economic incentives and opportunities.

With a few exceptions, nearly everything comes down to ‘political’ connection (at various levels), and the slogans of ‘whom you know’ and ‘who knows you’ reign supreme. This, in my view, is the broadest definition of a corrupt and disorderly nation. And this has everything to do with the very foundation of our society and how children are socialised into adulthood.  

In this fourth republic alone, we have created a democratic system and a set of political institutions that benefit only politicians and a few elites in their circles, but that give no hope to the citizens. That is why those outside of the elite class, those in the middle or at the bottom of the social stratification, also engage in many acts of corruption.

Why should, for instance, a member of parliament (MP), who serves for only 4 years (with all the incentives that come with the position), take home a gratuity of Gh600, 000 when a secondary school teacher or a nurse, after working for decades, cannot get a third of this amount as end of service gratuity?

And why would the CEO of a state agency earn a monthly (net) salary of over Gh40, 000 when a university professor’s monthly (net) is under Gh10, 000? These are just two examples that foreground the kinds of disparity and inequality the current system throws at us.

It surprises me greatly that, from 1992 till date, we have continued to tolerate (and even encourage) this non progressive political system. Perhaps the most important attribute of this system is that it has handed unrestrained power to leaders who make choices that impoverish the citizens and leave them to their fate. This explains why everything in Ghana seems not to be working, and the evidence lies in all the issues we have been grappling with as a nation, including but not limited to:

• a flawed constitution
• a weak justice system
• weak state institutions
• institutional corruption
• political corruption
• bad roads
• illegal mining (‘galamsay’)
• power shortage
• water crisis
• unemployment
• poor health care
• poor salaries/wages
• poor social security and pensions
• poor education system
• housing deficit and challenges
• high cost of living
• high cost of fuel
• high import duties
• high international trade deficit
• polluted environment
• sanitation problems
• insecurity, and
• unfair distribution of the wealth of the nation.

Even the real efforts by a few individuals in leadership and public office cannot be felt because such efforts are invariably overshadowed by greater ills and rots from many more who take advantage of the weak systems. State-owned institutions have virtually normalised corruption and wastage, and even when glaring evidence is brought against officials who engage in acts of corruption or cause financial losses to the state, they often either go unpunished or receive lesser sanctions than they deserve.

If we sincerely want to give a more positive narrative of our country in the next few decades to come, we have no other choice than to begin now to solve the basic political problems – a political revolution of a sort is a necessary first step. Good political institutions allow good economic policies and incentives to thrive. And this seems to be true for all the nations that have achieved remarkable transformation over a period, such as South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and India.

On our own continent, Rwanda, a country that was virtually shuttered after the genocide of 1994, has in the last two decades transformed so much under the leadership of President Paul Kagame, and is now, in many respects, the benchmark for how developing countries can aspire to greatness.

Ghana, with all its human and material resources, ought to be doing far better than it is now. I have a couple of recommendations, most of which are not new and have been shown to be the path underdeveloped countries are expected to follow.

We must begin to prioritise national progress over political party loyalty. This is what can make you criticise, and call for the cancellation of, a bad policy or system even if it is your favourite political party implementing it. In this regard, I believe the time is now to call for a dismantling of the current constitution and any by-laws that narrow citizens’ political rights and power and that give unrestrained powers to the executive president and the rest of the political class.

This is exactly what Chile, in South America, has recently started. The citizens must be in control and take charge of their country. There will be a strong opposition in this effort, particularly from political authority, but the people must insist to have a new constitution.

It must be a new constitution that is carefully crafted with the citizens in mind as a priority. In fact, it must be the people’s constitution, not a constitution for the politician in leadership who has already been put in a privileged position. It must, therefore, distribute political rights and power more broadly, and restrain executive power considerably, so that the judiciary, the legislature, the security agencies, human rights institutions, etc. can all be truly independent.

This new constitution should not allow the executive president to be the one to appoint heads and personnel of these institutions. Also, the new constitution should not allow the executive president to pick any of his/her ministers from parliament. In other words, no MP can also be a minister of state at the same time. CEO positions for state-owned companies and agencies must be competitively applied for and must be open to all Ghanaians who feel they are competent enough to lead these agencies.

It ought not to be political jobs for the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ as usual. And there must be mechanisms and systems to check productivity, efficiency, and accountability. For all public offices, job evaluation and market premium assessments must be undertaken to fairly reward public sector workers in all institutions. Systems must regularly review these assessments and rewards in line with levels of productivity and the nation’s wealth. Importantly, zero tolerance for corruption policies must be put in place to check officials at all levels, especially starting from the top.  

The whole point is to strengthen and empower political institutions and to make people work efficiently. The flip side of it is that, because such a constitution will ensure equality before the law, aggrieved (ordinary) citizens – pursuing any legal or judicial matter, even if it involves political heavyweights – can feel confident to receive justice from independent-minded institutions that will be willing to discharge their duties professionally and without any interference from a perceived higher office.

All of this should also ensure that citizens, regardless of any level of influence, respect laws, and allow the law to run its full course in the event of people falling foul to it. The principle of ‘no one is above the law’ must apply fully. We must learn to become a disciplined society where there is law and order and a high sense of patriotism – this ought to be a culture.

But the crucial question that needs to be asked and answered is: how and at what point can we get all these proposals underway? It is an important question because there are many pessimists who believe that we cannot easily displace the current political establishment in which the two political parties, the NPP and the NDC, have entrenched their positions as the only options for governance in Ghana, and yet are simply unwilling to pursue the dramatic governance reforms outlined and being called for in this article.

These pessimists would argue, therefore, that these proposals may be ideal but cannot see the light of day due to our resistance to change. I choose to be an optimist, believing that a political revolution of the sort envisioned here is not far from taking off. We must all collectively agree, regardless of our partisan affiliations, that the time is now to build a Ghana we can all be proud of; a Ghana that takes care of the needs of all its citizens; a Ghana that is a welfare state; a Ghana with a desire to get rid of hardships and deprivation, here targeting especially Ghanaians at the lowest levels of the socioeconomic tier.

To succeed, we must believe in our abilities and strengths, we must depend on ourselves, while encouraging international support from individuals, institutions, and countries genuinely desirous of offering help along the lines of our vision and goals.

If the NPP and the NDC are not ready to lead in this transformation agenda, we must be bold to get them off the scene and look towards a new political force with the vision and orientation discussed here. It must be a new political force with a young, selfless, intelligent, visionary, energetic, and enthusiastic leader who has a transformational mentality.

And they must have the leadership skills required to carry everyone along in that transformational journey. Besides, they must be a person of detail and real action who desires brainpower advice from people who can bring their expertise, knowledge, and track record to formulate great policies for implementation in the various sectors. We do not just need a president, we need a leader.

In my view, when a country wants to begin the journey of a long, developmental process, the age of the person who leads matters. There is ample scientific evidence that suggests that old age comes with a weakening of brain cell membranes, and this can easily lead to memory loss, slow and weak thinking capacity, as well as less physical energy and enthusiasm. This is not really a problem as all humans go through this stage of life, but it becomes an issue when you ask someone of age 70 or above to lead an economically struggling nation, with weak and corrupt institutions.

To conclude, my key message is that the current political institutions in Ghana cannot support real economic prosperity. Achieving economic prosperity thus depends on solving the basic political problems. And a general tendency is that when a country is doing well in its political, social and economic affairs, its citizens hold the country in high regard in different ways: the citizens increasingly develop a patriotic attitude; they grow in their love for their country and its achievements; they respect and cherish the leaders who made things happen for them to enjoy enhanced standards of living; and the thought of leaving their country to make a life elsewhere rarely arises.

Sadly however, when things are in a mess, all these positive evaluations naturally reflect the exact opposite (becoming negative) and can even have serious security implications for a country. Citizens begin to lose confidence in their country, and they also begin to desperately look for a way to escape the hardships of life. I think Ghana’s narrative, now, reflects this latter scenario. For Ghana to transform and be put on a path of prosperity will not happen by sheer chance. It will require a deliberate and a conscious transformational effort by a leader, with the support and determination of the citizenry, to force such dramatic changes to take off. The process can initially prove daunting, but a determined, collective mindset will always succeed. We must do this with a strong desire to achieve the collective good of building a prosperous nation that eliminates, or at least minimizes, poverty, deprivation, and social and economic inequality.

As Chinua Achebe said of Nigeria in the 80s, Ghana too, today, can boast of an impressive list of thoughtful and talented men and women of conscience. We need the inspirational voice, the brainpower, and the conscious activism of these men and women of conscience to set in motion Ghana’s transformational agenda. Men and women of conscience, you cannot continue sit on the fence. And you are no longer permitted not to be actively involved. Plato’s admonishing to you is that if you do not take interest in the affairs of your country, then you are doomed to live under the rule of your inferiors.

Author

Dr. Richmond Ngula

Department of English

University of Cape Coast

Cape Coast, Ghana

Email: rngula@ucc.edu.gh

Tel. +233(0)243374647