Politics is destroying Ghana – Deputy Minister

The Deputy Minister for Works and Housing, Eugene Boakye Antwi, believes the political environment in Ghana over the past years has become the bane of development and innovation in the country.

While contributing to a panel discussion on Good Morning Ghana, on the back of recent inventions by Ghanaian scientists to fight the novel coronavirus, the minister argued that political gimmicks have stifled the potentials and innovative tendencies of several Ghanaians in the past.

Mr Boakye Antwi argued that “The potential is there but how to properly utilize that potential or how to properly unlock is the problem because politics in this country is destroying Ghana. That is it. The bane of development in this country is politics."

"...Yes, we all want to assume power but what do you do with power after that. If you look at all the manifestos from 1992 to 2006, we all know the problem. That’s why I’m of the view that we must be honest with the electorates about certain key things we must do regardless of which political party is in power.”

He said not only political office holders are to blame but also political party communicators who carry out party information to the average Ghanaian.

Mr Boakye Antwi believes the days of propaganda and political point-scoring should be done and over within this period of coronavirus, thus when coronavirus eventually passes, Ghanaians should be ready to “make a giant leap towards the new order.”

“…Sometimes communicators too, the kind of people we send out there and the noise. There’s political scoring on every single matter…I think the face of politics ought to change, we have to change it, all of us politicians have to change it…”

Citing the recent controversy about abandoned health projects by the Akufo-Addo government, he argued that the issue should not have been raised in the first place considering the fact that the continuity of projects by governments has been fully stated in the constitution.

In his view, social interventions by government and the recent string of inventions to battle the spread of the coronavirus must not in any way be politicized as Ghanaians have seen in the past.