Election 2020: Electing the lesser of two evils?

The manifestos are done and the name calling has reached a crescendo. As the campaigning kicks into high gear, and while both parties engage in a vigorous debate over infrastructure accomplishments, the one issue of importance to Ghanaians seem to have been lost in translation. And that issue is that of corruption which features prominently in the manifestos of both parties. However, as I follow the actions of both flagbearers, on the issue of corruption, I am left to ask whether we are poised to elect the lesser of two evils.

Although has an anti-corruption plank, it is notably absent in the NDC’s big push agenda. As my mother always says to me; never believe a man’s word, believe his actions or deeds. John Mahama is still surrounded by the same camogie of characters who were deemed as corrupt in his last administration. People like Kwame Awuah Darko have taken on prominence at NDC events to the horrow of those who know him as a conniving corrupt character. Oh, and on TV the other day, Kwame Awuah Darko claim his absolution from corruption by claiming no one has arrested him. An assertion I couldn’t believe I was hearing. Then two days later, Charles Bissue proclaims that if he had to do things all over again, he was do exactly the same things Anas caught him doing. But I digress.

The anti-corruption plank in the parties manifestos is weak on specifically how each party is going to do to combat corruption. With the airbus scandal, the pds scandal, the agyapa scandal and other still swirling around with no apparent end in sight, it is still amazing at the lack of specificity or the lack of candor from the two parties on their specific plans. The malignancy of this canker is subjugated to the abundance of supplicants and acolytes whose sole existence is to do the bidding of their corrupt masters to continue their corrupt ways to the detriment of the country. We saw this in Mahama’s first administration and are seeing this to the extreme with the current sakawa administration.

The question therefore is whether Akuffo Addo can commit to do away with the sakawa ways of his cabal? Can he commit that his brother and nephew will stop interfering in the performance of ministers and heads of state organizations? Will Mahama pledge not to have people like Kwame Awauh Darko and others known for the duplicitous and deceitfulness in his administration or have his brother Ibrahim act as a prime minister as he did in the last administration. Or is what both parties appear to present to the country on their respective anti-corruption planks just smokes and mirrors.

Will Mahama pledge not to surround himself with the same sycophants he surrounded himself with in his last administration? These are all relevant questions that these two men need to unequivocally answer. Or, come December 7th 2020, we will be electing the lesser of two evils and corruption will continue unabated notwithstanding what their respective manifesto say and it will not bode well for the future of our country. Which one of the two will it be?