The Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Josephine Nkrumah says it is tough for politicians who are well disciplined to make it in Ghana.
She was amazed at how those who really want to serve are ignored since they uphold principles and the wellbeing of the people rather than share money as most people expect them to.
“The real people who want to serve, they won’t borrow, they go with no money, they go with principles, they go thinking of the well-being and well fair which is the mark of a politician,” she said.
Speaking on Citi TVs ‘The Point of View’ with Bernard Avle on Wednesday, she said Ghanaians’ mentality on politics make people mock politicians who come out of office in the same financial state they entered.
“The principled politicians in this country cannot survive… you have politicians who went into the office and came back the way they entered office and people insult them. It’s our psyche that when you go into politics you must make money.”
Ms Nkrumah added that the average politicians enters office already tainted because money needs to exchange hands before they get the votes.
“Delegates accept money before they endorse a parliamentary candidate, so the parliamentary candidate who you see, most likely has already smeared his hands or her hands, because you had to pay money to a delegate to get to that position, so if you don’t pay money, chances are that you are going nowhere… so the average politician coming into the sphere of politics in Ghana today is already tainted,” she said
This, she says, has contributed to the emergence of what she terms ‘politicasters’ in Ghana.
“There is a semblance of serving the wellbeing and looking out for the welfare of the people but in reality, you are looking at your own selfish interest,” she described them.
Josephine Nkrumah urged delegates to look out for the interest of their constituents by voting for the person who has something to offer to better the lives of the people and not the highest bidder.
