Politics has become an insurance against accountability for criminal politicians – Kwaku Azar

Respected professor and lawyer, Stephen Kwaku Asare, known widely as Kwaku Azar, has lamented the impunity with which politicians commit vices, stressing that even though the impunity can be addressed, it will depend on the readiness of enough people to reject the actions of the politicians.

Commenting on assertions by Sam Okudzeto that Parliament has become an avenue for making money, Prof Azar noted that it is not only Parliament that has so degenerated buy party politics as a whole, with the perpetrators able to get away with their vices.

“It is not just parliament. Party politics, which is supposed to be a vehicle for ideas and programs for GOGO, has now become an avenue for making money. Alas, there are too many people who are in politics primarily, if not solely, for their stomach and wallets.

Further, party politics makes permissible many vices that are otherwise impermissible. For instance, while one cannot discriminate, at least openly, on the basis of gender or tribe, one can not only do so on the basis of party politics but also openly boast about it,” he argued in a post sighted by MyNewsGh.com.

Prof Azar decried the inability of politicians to adequately address the problems of society while creating millionaires who stash money in foreign Banks and engage in pointless flaunting of their wealth.

“My uncle, Sam Okudzeto, is right that parliament has now become a place for making money. But I am afraid he does not go far enough.

It is not just parliament. Party politics, which is supposed to be a vehicle for ideas and programs for GOGO, has now become an avenue for making money.

Alas, there are too many people who are in politics primarily, if not solely, for their stomach and wallets.

Further, party politics makes permissible many vices that are otherwise impermissible. For instance, while one cannot discriminate, at least openly, on the basis of gender or tribe, one can not only do so on the basis of party politics but also openly boast about it.

“… our political parties have become less able to provide solutions to our social problems while creating millionaires whose understanding of investment is parking their ill-gotten wealth in some foreign banks or engaging in some other glamorous non-consequential enterprise,” he lamented.

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My uncle, Sam Okudzeto, is right that parliament has now become a place for making money. But I am afraid he does not go far enough.

It is not just parliament. Party politics, which is supposed to be a vehicle for ideas and programs for GOGO, has now become an avenue for making money.

Alas, there are too many people who are in politics primarily, if not solely, for their stomach and wallets.

Further, party politics makes permissible many vices that are otherwise impermissible. For instance, while one cannot discriminate, at least openly, on the basis of gender or tribe, one can not only do so on the basis of party politics but also openly boast about it.

While competence and meritocracy are virtues everywhere else, party politics allows one to get away with incompetence and nepotism.

Ballot snatching, bribery, false witness, logic abandonment, etc. are all acceptable when given a party politics gloss.

Worse still, these people seem to demand silence or acquiescence from others in the party as a condition precedent for recognizing or maintaining their party bona fides.

As a result, our political parties have become less able to provide solutions to our social problems while creating millionaires whose understanding of investment is parking their ill-gotten wealth in some foreign banks or engaging in some other glamorous non-consequential enterprise.

Equally disturbing is the skill with which these party politicians have coopted our institutions to facilitate or otherwise not stand in the way of their financial shenanigans. The idealism that characterized NUGS, GBA, APB, TUC, UTAG, CC etc. seem to have completely faded.

It is not yet a hopeless situation because there are ways to solve the problem. The question is whether enough people can reject this system and call for GOGO.

#SALL could not happen in the good old days.

Da Yie!