Governments target opposition parties in corruption fight – Prof. Kwasi Prempeh

Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, Prof. Kwasi Prempeh has cautioned against the current trend in fighting corruption in the country by politicians which in his view is but a catalyst for an economic break down of the country.

According to Prof. Kwasi Prempeh, the ‘NIMBY’ phenomenon, better translated as the ‘not in my back yard’ trend by politicians in addressing the rising spate of corrupt activities in the country is rather fueling the ‘mess’.

“The fight against corruption has come face to face with the phenomenon known elsewhere as ‘NIMBY’, not in my backyard. Apparently, it’s okay to take the fight against corruption to one’s rivals but not quite okay in one’s backyard,” he noted.

Speaking at the STAR Ghana anti-corruption learning event, Prof. Kwasi Prempeh posited that monetization of politics by Ghanaian politicians is almost becoming institutionalized, a trend which he says fuels corrupt acts.

“We also see the monetization of politics is becoming almost institutionalized as we see the institutionalized use of patronage as payback for campaign financiers.”

In a further interaction with GhanaWeb, he noted that due to monetization of politics, politicians find it hard to pay back their sponsors or recoup their investments without resorting to one corrupt activity or the other.

Let’s adopt Lifestyle Audits - Prof. Kwasi Prempeh

Prof. Kwasi Prempeh in his address admonished that in order to fight corruption to an appreciable extent, Ghana needs to adopt the lifestyle audits, which is essentially to probe the lifestyles of government officials whether it commensurates with their known income stream.



He noted that this phenomenon is not new because it is widely practiced and upheld in most countries in Africa.

Prof. Kwasi Prempeh was speaking on the back of issues relating to successes and emerging practices in the fight against corruption at STAR Ghana’s anti-corruption learning event held at the La Palm Royal beach hotel under the theme, “Civil Society and the fight against corruption; successes, emerging lessons and good practices”.

Panelists at the event included, SRO lead for STAAC, Vivek Misra; Governing council chair at STAR Ghana Foundation, Dr. Esther Ofei-Aboagye; Ag. CEO, STAR-Ghana, Ibrahim-Tanko; Executive Director of CDD, Prof. Kwasi Prempeh and Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Linda Ofori-Kwafo.