An Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, has maintained that politicians are not enthused by democracy but rather focused on enriching themselves at the expense of the ordinary citizen.
According to Prof Gyampo, upon a keen observation and analysis since Ghana commenced the 4th republican democratic practice, one characteristic hurting the system is the ‘winner takes all politics’.
He indicated that this practice is what makes it easier for politicians to take advantage of power to amass wealth for themselves instead of using the power conferred on them to serve the populace.
“Democracy is supposed to confer power on political leaders and the reciprocity of the power is the ordinary (Ghanaian) and so once power is conferred on anybody be it the president or his appointees, they are required to use the power conferred on them to serve the interest of the ordinary people,” Prof. Gyampo asserted.
He added that the ‘winner takes all politics’ is the “practice of state capture and partisans scramble as well monopolization of state resources as well as power and all opportunities by ruling elites to the exclusion not only of those who lost the elections but to the exclusion of all other Ghanaians”.
The Academician was speaking on Wednesday’s edition of Citi TV’s ‘The Point of View’ which focused a statement he had made earlier made that Ghana’s democracy is currently in the ‘My time to ‘chop’ democracy’ state.
According to Prof Gyampo, this state of democracy is being enabled by the ‘winner takes all politics’ because politicians see their time in office as “the time to chop… the time to amass wealth for oneself, the time to amass resources for oneself”.
He reiterated that most people who are elected into office only seek to find ways and means to amass wealth because they know that they would not be in power.
He noted that such greed is what leads to various scandalous activities by state officials.
He said the opposition parties are no different as they try to validate their credibility through deliberate criticisms of the ruling government in order to present themselves as the ‘saviour’ of the people.
“The one who is not in power will want to bid his time. He would want to criticize all manner of things and sometimes would even want to create the impression that he is giving hope to Ghanaians that he is credible.”
Asked by the host if there are exceptions, he answered in the affirmative stating that there are individuals who mean well but noted that governance is not about only one person.
Buttressing his point, the Political Science Lecturer said the issue is not about being a moralist, nor incorruptible because being principled means nothing especially in the fight against corruption.
“During Prof Mills’ time, he goes on air and says I don’t want people insulting. He says that in the morning and the evening, people will be insulting. You may have an Akufo-Addo who says I am incorruptible but I am saying that he doesn’t govern alone.”
He added, “The psyche of the people who have been elected into power is not really to serve the people but to try ways and means to make themselves comfortable and since there is no limit to what satisfies and what makes one comfortable, they amass and amass and if they are not careful, become scandalous”.
