`It’s time to clean the murky waters of Ghana’s democracy

For many Ghanaians, the image is now painfully familiar: rivers once clear and life-giving now murky, stained the color of diluted Milo, our unofficial national beverage. These polluted waters are the most visible consequence of galamsey, which has tainted 60 percent of Ghana’s major water bodies. But the environmental catastrophe runs deeper than the poisoned rivers—it is a symptom of a broken political system, one where the financiers of galamsey wield unchecked influence over our country’s governance.

With national elections just days away, it doesn’t take much imagination to connect the dots between galamsey profits and campaign coffers. A 2022 report by the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) named illegal mining as one of the primary sources of illicit funding for political parties in Ghana. The implication is clear: galamsey is not just an environmental crisis but also a symptom of a deeper rot in Ghana’s democracy.

Like Kwaku Ananse, the cunning spider of Akan folklore, these financiers spin webs of influence that ensnare Ghana’s institutions, leaving the state powerless to act.

How do we break free from this web? It starts with following the money—specifically, how it flows through Ghanaian politics. The Political Parties Act mandates that all political parties submit annual financial statements, disclose their assets and liabilities 21 days before elections, and report campaign expenditures six months after elections. Yet enforcement has been virtually nonexistent.

In 2017, I filed a case alongside the Citizen Ghana Movement to compel the Electoral Commission (EC) to publish parties’ compliance records. Both major parties were found to have repeatedly ignored these legal obligations. Once the EC receives political parties’ financial statements, it should promptly audit them to ensure they are complying with the law. Today, less than three weeks from the 2024 elections, the EC has not even directed political parties to submit their accounts, much less audited them.

This inaction is no accident. It reflects a broader failure to regulate campaign finance, leaving loopholes wide enough for shadowy financiers to operate with impunity. Any meaningful solution to Ghana’s campaign finance crisis must begin with a comprehensive reform of the Political Parties Act.

As it stands, the law is riddled with ambiguities and loopholes that politicians exploit with impunity. For instance, there are no caps on how much a candidate or party can raise or spend during an election. Nor are parties required to disclose the identities of their financiers, leaving the public in the dark about who is funding Ghana’s political machinery.

Even more troubling is the absence of regulations governing the financing of individual candidates. This loophole allows powerful financiers to bypass scrutiny by funneling money directly to presidential and parliamentary candidates rather than their parties as the former is tracked while the latter is not. In one high-profile example, it was alleged that Nigerian businessman and former Senator Jimoh Ibrahim provided substantial support to Ghana’s late President Atta Mills during his 2012 campaign—a direct violation of the law barring foreign entities from funding political campaigns.

Legal scholars have identified numerous other gaps in the system and proposed solutions to close them, but these reforms will remain theoretical unless citizens rise to demand change. Ghana’s political elite has little incentive to close the loopholes that benefit them. The Ghana Compact for Political and Economic Transformation (the Ghana Compact), a coalition of think tanks and activists that I advise, has been working to mobilize public pressure for transformative reforms, including campaign finance transparency. In June, we convened more than 500 citizens in Accra to deliberate on Ghana’s future. Their resounding message: the nation’s trajectory must change. Among their priorities were calls to “enhance transparency in government spending” and “implement and enforce policies that protect natural resources.”

This momentum must continue. With national elections just a few days away, Ghanaians have a unique opportunity to reflect not only on the leaders we choose but also on the systems that enable our representatives to continuously disregard our interests. It is not enough to vote. Citizens must commit to sustained advocacy for reforms that ensure governance works for all—not just for the politicians and the figures bankrolling their campaigns.

We can signal this commitment by advocating for the newly elected President to convene a National Convention within the first 100 days of taking office. The National Convention would mobilize broad consensus on Ghana’s long-term national vision and endorse the Citizens’ Declaration of a Social Contract that was proclaimed by the over 500 citizens in June 2024.

political party and campaign finance reform cannot be effective without wholesale changes to our governance infrastructure. As Dr. K.Y. Amoako, convenor of the Ghana Compact has written, the objectives of any National Convention must include achieving consensus on mechanisms to ensure fiscal discipline, alignment on policy regardless of the party in power, decentralization of our governance, amongst other urgent challenges.

The alternative is grim. Without action, the unchecked flow of dirty money, and Ghana’s broader governance challenges will continue to compromise Ghana’s democracy, condemning ourselves and future generations to drinking poisoned water for years to come. The time to act is now. Ghana’s democracy—and its future—depends on it.