The thing about political power in Ghana

Power,the ability and capacity to do something is good,Power is nice.I do notwant to dabble in the intellectual distinction between power and authority. As a young chap growin gup,we heard and read a lot of stories about the use and abuse of political power in this country dating as far back as the colonial times.

With the advent of the 4th republican constitution, the country ‘seemed’ to be charting a worthy path.This path has no tbeen without some challenges. One such

humongous challenge is misuse or abuse of power.We cite the abuse of power by

the police, cityguards, the military, employers, property owners etc. My attention is however on the misuse and abuse of power by the political class.

This phenomenon keeps playing out time and again between the dominant political

traditions - the NDC and the NPP.Political apparatchiks talk and act ‘byheart’ when their party is in power. They misuse the police and all available might’s to their individual and political advantage.Is that what political power is all about?

The gross irresponsibility of our political class is so damning and has succeeded in pushing away well meaning people from active political participation.Those clothed with legal, traditional and religious authority who ought to be leading and showing the way have all been super compromised. Do we really know where we are going as acountry?

It is needless to mention that we need some amendments i nour constitution that

has vested so much power in th epresident and consequently his party in the

administration of the affairs of the state.

If the president is clothed with so much appointing powers,what do we expect? I dare say that the citizenry must arise to push for this change because these political parties are beneficiaries of this arrangement and would do absolutely ‘disturb’ it.

ACP Benjamin Agordzo has been palpably clear on the maladministration of the

police service for example that needs serious reform sstarting from taking the

appointing power away from the president.The police is an extremely powerful

institution that must be apolitical in everysense of the word .Its an institution that needs to be trusted absolutely. Then, the question of the recruitment process intothe police service rears its ugly head. OhGhana!!.

The legal system is not lef tout. I really do not get the drift on appointment of supreme court judges by the president. Can’t the legal system be permitted by law to get its own system running independently? I know some may quickly reference practices in advance democracies on judicial appointments, but I ask the question ‘Can we for a second think outside the box and contextualise certain practices andalso serve as reference to others? I believe it is possible.

Religious leadership is to say the least indescribable. Any human being faced with a choice between two things wouldd efinitely go for one or the other.This is what makes us human.

The thing about leadership is not just about heading. Our religious leaders have allowed the political class to co-opt them and you now wonder which cloth our religious leadership are in now. Ama Ghana!!Nokofiooo..

The least said about our traditional leadership ,the better. Our traditional system is as monitised as our political system. People pay their way through to become traditional leaders. Our traditional system is also so badly inbed with governments because of nokofioooo .This is all because of political power manipulations which the system has allowed.