Ghana And Stomach Politics.

Friends, countrymen lend me your ears. This is no Mark Anthony’s speech just a humble soul of our dear motherland, concerned with the norms of our politics. I’m relatively young and know not much but I’m grown enough to differentiate good from wrong. The word “politics” to most Africans is synonymous to corruption. This notion shared by the vast majority of Africans should be of a grave concern to us all. Why have most Ghanaians come to accept mediocrity as excellence? Why do we always measure the performance of the current leaders with the failures of the past leaders? I am not here to advocate for any party or proclaim who is better; posterity will answer that. What I know is we have leaders whom we should hold accountable. We were fortunate enough have a former government hence we should have learnt lessons from their mistakes but ooops!

The practice of ethnocentric politics has real and important implications on how we can join the vehicle of nation development. Political relationships are not rooted in western conception of official representation where elected officials act to institutionalize laws for the benefit of their people. Instead politics in Africa are filtered through a complicated set of donor-recipient relationships. Therefore the legitimacy of the so called political leaders depends on their capabilities to quench the greedy thirst of their donors. Now the case for Ghana.

Honorable Ghanaians (yes you all deserve such an honor), the politics in Ghana is nothing more than the simple manifestation of what I call politics of the stomach. The current government of Ghana presented themselves as entrepreneurs, noble, without wants but upon assuming power we saw cases of kickbacks, expensive renovations of personal properties amongst others. They were just waiting for their turn to gain administrative access to the country’s coffers. Business as usual. This offers them the chance for the accumulation of economic and political capital and this is done so cleverly through socially sanctioned projects that we tend to support it. See how these leaders ostentatiously display their wealth which reassures their donors that their investments will bear fruit. The hegemonic struggle of the NPP finally paid off in 2000 and the citizenry is now paying through the teeth. Widespread social practices referred to as embezzlement are publicly accepted by some Ghanaians. The non existences of checks and balances play a significant role here. I took on a lot of heat when I criticize this current administration especially from folks who see things only from an ethnic angle. The fact that k4 and his cronies made a couple of cities in Ghana appealing to the eye do not give him the passport to misuse what is ours. I saw Ghana @ 50 for the first time and was amazed at the extent we will go to show the world what we think we have. 20 million dollars? For what? Come on people. Unnecessary display of wealth we don’t have. How this showmanship does translates into the pockets of poor Ghanaians. How about millions of Ghanaian youth roaming about the mean streets of Kumasi and Accra. How do we expect our youth to be motivated, discipline and patriotic when their chances to achieving their dreams are hanging around the necks of their leaders? Our leaders have made us a complete joke to the outside world. We are seen as just a space outside the global interaction caused by the rapid development of economic and political integration of the globe.

Nana Akuffo Addo is selling the promise of free education to Ghanaians but I say once bitten twice shy. A brain child of this administration; causing financial loss to the state sounded laudable but the road to justice got steered off. This was the perfect vehicle in the pursuit of their agenda. Victor Selormy, Dan Agbordzapki and Tsatsu Tsikata fell victims to this great innovation. My question is, how many Victor Selormys, Tsatsus and Agbodakpis are in this K4 government ? Who defines financial loss to the state?. Would we describe a minister who on the nations sponsorship go around sleeping with women financial loss to the state? WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS GOOD FOR THE GANDER. I am no prophet of doom but we might be heading towards a state of perpetual penury. Most Ghanaians barely eke out a living whilst their money is funding picture-perfect shows.

We are faced with a million problems, new ones mushrooming on daily basis. From guinea worm disease to HIV/AIDS, unemployment to ethnic violence. These problems become markers of injustice , discrimination and lack of human rights. We need to hold our leaders responsible and accountable rather than turning a blind eye because of our ethnic affiliations. There should be a groundswell of opposition to these corrupt leaders who care less about the plight of the electorate. We have seen the deliberate ignorance by some journalists who we once thought as descent. To Kwasi Pratt I say your award is greater than this qua si national awards. We should not be fooled by these political masquerades. Ashantis, Ewes, Gas, Dagombas and we all should remember we Ghanaians first before our individual ethnicities. Kuffour will not turn Kumasi into New York just as Rawlings did not turn Ho into Paris but we can make them turn Ghana into the land we were once proud of; the Gold Coast. May God bless us all.

By : E.K. Oduro (ekoduro1@hotmail.com) university @albany new York.

Friends, countrymen lend me your ears. This is no Mark Anthony’s speech just a humble soul of our dear motherland, concerned with the norms of our politics. I’m relatively young and know not much but I’m grown enough to differentiate good from wrong. The word “politics” to most Africans is synonymous to corruption. This notion shared by the vast majority of Africans should be of a grave concern to us all. Why have most Ghanaians come to accept mediocrity as excellence? Why do we always measure the performance of the current leaders with the failures of the past leaders? I am not here to advocate for any party or proclaim who is better; posterity will answer that. What I know is we have leaders whom we should hold accountable. We were fortunate enough have a former government hence we should have learnt lessons from their mistakes but ooops!

The practice of ethnocentric politics has real and important implications on how we can join the vehicle of nation development. Political relationships are not rooted in western conception of official representation where elected officials act to institutionalize laws for the benefit of their people. Instead politics in Africa are filtered through a complicated set of donor-recipient relationships. Therefore the legitimacy of the so called political leaders depends on their capabilities to quench the greedy thirst of their donors. Now the case for Ghana.

Honorable Ghanaians (yes you all deserve such an honor), the politics in Ghana is nothing more than the simple manifestation of what I call politics of the stomach. The current government of Ghana presented themselves as entrepreneurs, noble, without wants but upon assuming power we saw cases of kickbacks, expensive renovations of personal properties amongst others. They were just waiting for their turn to gain administrative access to the country’s coffers. Business as usual. This offers them the chance for the accumulation of economic and political capital and this is done so cleverly through socially sanctioned projects that we tend to support it. See how these leaders ostentatiously display their wealth which reassures their donors that their investments will bear fruit. The hegemonic struggle of the NPP finally paid off in 2000 and the citizenry is now paying through the teeth. Widespread social practices referred to as embezzlement are publicly accepted by some Ghanaians. The non existences of checks and balances play a significant role here. I took on a lot of heat when I criticize this current administration especially from folks who see things only from an ethnic angle. The fact that k4 and his cronies made a couple of cities in Ghana appealing to the eye do not give him the passport to misuse what is ours. I saw Ghana @ 50 for the first time and was amazed at the extent we will go to show the world what we think we have. 20 million dollars? For what? Come on people. Unnecessary display of wealth we don’t have. How this showmanship does translates into the pockets of poor Ghanaians. How about millions of Ghanaian youth roaming about the mean streets of Kumasi and Accra. How do we expect our youth to be motivated, discipline and patriotic when their chances to achieving their dreams are hanging around the necks of their leaders? Our leaders have made us a complete joke to the outside world. We are seen as just a space outside the global interaction caused by the rapid development of economic and political integration of the globe.

Nana Akuffo Addo is selling the promise of free education to Ghanaians but I say once bitten twice shy. A brain child of this administration; causing financial loss to the state sounded laudable but the road to justice got steered off. This was the perfect vehicle in the pursuit of their agenda. Victor Selormy, Dan Agbordzapki and Tsatsu Tsikata fell victims to this great innovation. My question is, how many Victor Selormys, Tsatsus and Agbodakpis are in this K4 government ? Who defines financial loss to the state?. Would we describe a minister who on the nations sponsorship go around sleeping with women financial loss to the state? WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS GOOD FOR THE GANDER. I am no prophet of doom but we might be heading towards a state of perpetual penury. Most Ghanaians barely eke out a living whilst their money is funding picture-perfect shows.

We are faced with a million problems, new ones mushrooming on daily basis. From guinea worm disease to HIV/AIDS, unemployment to ethnic violence. These problems become markers of injustice , discrimination and lack of human rights. We need to hold our leaders responsible and accountable rather than turning a blind eye because of our ethnic affiliations. There should be a groundswell of opposition to these corrupt leaders who care less about the plight of the electorate. We have seen the deliberate ignorance by some journalists who we once thought as descent. To Kwasi Pratt I say your award is greater than this qua si national awards. We should not be fooled by these political masquerades. Ashantis, Ewes, Gas, Dagombas and we all should remember we Ghanaians first before our individual ethnicities. Kuffour will not turn Kumasi into New York just as Rawlings did not turn Ho into Paris but we can make them turn Ghana into the land we were once proud of; the Gold Coast. May God bless us all.

By : E.K. Oduro (ekoduro1@hotmail.com) university @albany new York.