Opinions

News

Sports

Business

Entertainment

GhanaWeb TV

Africa

Country

The lack of Ghana’s development in politics

Kwamenkrumahadas Dr Osagyafo Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's First President

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 Source: Maxwell Nkansah

Over the years Ghana's democracy has been tested on solid ground on many occasions, from the year 1992 -2021. As the African adage goes a stubborn housefly who fails to listen to advice always follows the corpse to the grave.

Whiles other countries are finding ways and means to develop, Ghana as a country is down fighting over a compilation of voter's register. Posterity stands to judge the leaders.

Dr Osagyafo Kwame Nkrumah once said; “Change when it is denied or to long-delayed, violence will break out here and there, not that men planned or willed it, but their accumulated grievances of the past will erupt with volcanic fury.”

A time surely shall come, when the youth of Ghana will rise and demand a revolution. The country has had enough, they aren't trying to incite violence however they need to sit and plan well as a country.64 years after Ghana gained independence and we're still living in abject mediocrity.

Ghana needs to bounce back to its glory days; the country sees to achieve its success only if citizens come together and do away with partisan politics, selfishness, nepotism etc.

Leaders always take decisions for their own paraxial and selfish interest without involving the citizens. The country needs a national policy, not promises and policies and its empty manifestos. We’re trying to provoke the discussion and influence public opinion; we are directing our agitations to the Martyrs of our democracy and those at the corridors of our country's leadership.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah never bought a car, he never built a house, however, he restructured mother Ghana and made it a conducive haven for us all, he fought for the independence of Ghana alongside our forefathers, he developed Ghana by introducing good national policies which really helped mother Ghana in the past, since the death of Dr Kwame Nkrumah Ghana has hit rock bottom Government come and go, however, we are still at the same place.

We need a change in our country; our leaders are the cause of our woes. Furthermore, over the year's Ghana development has slid down contributing factors has to do with bad leadership, manifestos from political parties, corruption and embezzlement of state funds.

The 6th of March will always be a memorable year in Ghana’s political history, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah in the company of his freedom fighters stood at the Old Polo Grounds in Accra to declare Ghana as an independent country, in his accord, he said " At long last, the battle has ended and Ghana our beloved country is free forever", that speech alone broke the grounds like dynamite, it also changed the Political landscape and broke the foundations just like an Earth tremor.

That message alone was just like an intercontinental ballistic missile that travelled and echoed across the corridors of Africa, the world and the diaspora calling on all Africans to forge and fight for what was rightfully theirs.

In the field of education, he was the first president to kick start the free education policy, the introduction of colleges of education were part of his numerous developmental projects, however, some Ghanaians were of the view that Kwame Nkrumah was an autocratic leader due to the polarization of Ghana politics by the Convention People's Party (CPP) back then, he was overthrown in 1966 in a military Coup d’états which sadly led to his death.

Since his demise, governments have come and gone, however, they have not been able to march his record development wised, what they always think about is to work assiduously just to fill their fat pockets with the nation's purse, embezzling state funds in their own paraxial interest rather than in the interest of the ordinary Ghanaian citizen.

Elaborating on this subject matter, manifestos have been one of the major problems that have backslidden Ghana's development, since time immemorial government after government have promised to develop the country via the written down road map known as the manifesto, however, this coded Manifesto's have failed to guide Political parties to deliver per their mandate, they always turn out to fulfil some and leave some in the dark.

Our education sector has been affected badly as a country we still have some students in remote areas still studying under trees making it difficult for the country to achieve its developmental goal by 2030. Some of the school buildings are dilapidated and in a bad state, students had to scale and swim through a river just to attend school in neighbouring villages.

Our economy is in a bad state, His Excellency Nana AddoDankwahAkuffoAddoin his nation address said his government has created jobs for the youth, however, these sugar-coated lies aren't the reality on the grounds, I know tertiary students who always sojourn day in and day out in search of a white colour job, as a concerned citizen I think the country deserves better and the need being to Chanel its resources into productive ventures such as agriculture, technical and vocational skills in order for us to yield the fruits of our own labour just as other foreign countries have done over the years.

Finally, to end it all corruption and embezzlement of the state purse have been the order of the day, public officials turning to always loot and share, appoint families and friends to high positions in order to acquire wealth before the end of their term in office.

The current president His Excellency Nana AddoDankwahAkuffoAddo was caught in this bracket as he was accused of appointing families and cronies into high positions. In order for Ghana to bounce back to its glory days, the government needs to have a national policy that would be streamlined to help meet the needs of the ordinary Ghanaian.

Since 1992-2021 in Ghana’s democracy in parliamentary elections, this has been the first time the country has recorded hang lawmakers in the house of the chamber (Parliament).

Last year’s election has dramatically changed its narratives as the citizens have the view that some of their representative’s needs to be changed due to the lack of development in their rural areas. Hang parliament means there will be a difficult task for the president to perform efficiently, due to the opposition members’ rejection of the budget which will be laid in the house for approval.

2020 elections have brought breaking records in election history in electing the speaker of parliament. For the first time, Ghana has elected its speaker of parliament from an opposition party. Ghanaians have the view that it shows a significant change in approval of unwanted loans and budget which will cost the country in the house.

Despite NPP's victory in the just-ended 202 elections, the opposition NDC accused the Electoral Commission of rigging the elections in favour of the ruling party.

Since the NDC smelled foul play and felt cheated, they decided to contest the election results in court for the second time in Ghana’s history of the 4th republic to devoid of any form of violence, chaos and anarchy which had the tendency of throwing the country into chaos.

The opposition leader and the former president of the Republic of Ghana say “I don’t believe in the results due to mistakes made by the electoral commission in declaring the presidential election result”. This made former president John DramaniMahama and his party files a petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the 2020 December election.

The former president said, he believes the rule of law must word and so the rightful way of dealing with issues is by heading to court than causing violence with supporters on the street. In the 2020 December elections, a lot of members of parliament are facing court petition to challenge the others to win, which makes this year’s election very interesting indeed as democracy is a concern.

The people of Ghana believe that the second term of the President in the office should be better than his first four years. Despite Ghana being one of the least corrupt countries in Africa, Ghana is annually losing billions to graft - a menace that keeps people poor and shatters their dreams.

Ghana’s anti-graft body, GhanaIntegrityInitiative (GII), which is Transparency International’s Local Chapter, warned that the country “loses close to US$3 billion to corruption annually.

Governments have attempted to minimize corruption through moral crusades to uphold high ethics; the confiscation of properties found to have been acquired through corruption or public reforms, but that there is still a long way ahead to fight the problem.

While most of the countries of the continent are awash with corruption, Ghana is among the least corrupt countries of the continent. A recent corruption scandal serves as an example of acts that leave citizens in poverty, joblessness, in their broken homes and with shattered dreams!!

Columnist: Maxwell Nkansah
Related Articles: