Politicians have deepened inequality gap – Governance expert

Local Governance Expert at the Institute of Local Government, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, has called for the awakening of the masses to hold politicians responsible and make them account for every little resource entrusted into their hands.

“We need to hold our politicians accountable for the management of the resources and vote them out if they fail,” he stressed.

Thus, governments are not the owners of our resources but trustees and we as people must benefit immensely from the trusteeship.

Government’s inability to do so has widened the poverty and inequality gap further.

And despite some progress in economic growth over the past two decades, recent trends suggest that the rich are capturing a greater share of benefits of growth per statistics available.

The politician, he mentioned has taken the Ghanaian people for a ride simply because we have as a people, been too relaxed in our demands. Hence we should ask questions about the budget at the national and district level.

And that every Ghanaian ought to benefit from the policies successive governments have implemented, rather we only see the few rich and poor majority beneath the poverty ladder.

Speaking at a panel discussion at the launch of Inequality Research report by OXFAM, SEND-GHANA, and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition in collaboration with UNICEF, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae questioned how leaders have not managed the abundant resources bestowed on us to our benefit.

For instance, the report by OXFAM, SEND-GHANA, and Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition in collaboration with UNICEF reveals that Ghana’s Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality) grew by 3.3% points between 1992 and 20013.

It further stated that 60% of Ghanaians had a 35% share of total national income in 1998, but this has declined to 30% in 2012.

And that the wealthiest 10% 0f Ghanaians now share 32% of Ghana’s total consumption – more than is consumed by the bottom 60% of the population combined while the very poorest 10% of the population consumed only 2%.

However, Special Adviser to the President on the SDGs, Dr. Eugene Owusu, commended the research work and added that the government will quickly collaborate with CSOs to carry out the recommendations.