Overcoming Corruption in Ghana - Part 3

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• Kojo Essuman 11 years ago

  Thanks for your thought-provoking articles on CORRUPTION.I share some of your views.However,in my own study of CORRUPTION in post-independence African nations,I have observed that it is rather the egocentric MINDSET of Black ...
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  Thanks for your thought-provoking articles on CORRUPTION.I share some of your views.However,in my own study of CORRUPTION in post-independence African nations,I have observed that it is rather the egocentric MINDSET of Black Africans and not lack of EDUCATION which has made corruption too deeply-rooted,and therefore very difficult to overcome.21st Century Ghanaians for example,are highly qualified to manage their own affairs.I tell you,we can send all Ghanaian office holders to study Public Adminstration at Harvard to familiarize themselves with principles of good governance and bring them back the situation will be the same.The million dollar question is how can we change the minsdet of Black Government officials? The MINDSET of property acquisition,embezzlement of public funds,naked robbery of Governmemt chest like the WOYOME SCANDAL, and bribery IN HIGH PLACES instead of seeking the interest of the masses who they serve.

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• Kwesi Atta Sakyi 11 years ago

  Thank you brother Essuman for your warm insight and kind rejoinder. I perceive you are well read and a Ghanaian patriotic Zealot. I always cherish your feedback to my articles because we are on the same wavelength. I think I ...
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  Thank you brother Essuman for your warm insight and kind rejoinder. I perceive you are well read and a Ghanaian patriotic Zealot. I always cherish your feedback to my articles because we are on the same wavelength. I think I recall you are in SA or Botswana or Namibia doing your Ph D. Let us network to go back home to change things for the better instead of staying abroad and pontificating on what to do in our dear Ghana. Well done and thanks.

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• Bomfaboy 11 years ago

  In all the scenarios the writer made reference to one cardinal point is the abuse of the Laws and Regulations. If a person follows the law, and make gains, then there would be no corruption. Law makers are partly at fault as ...
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  In all the scenarios the writer made reference to one cardinal point is the abuse of the Laws and Regulations. If a person follows the law, and make gains, then there would be no corruption. Law makers are partly at fault as the persistently make laws with so many loopholes to be exploited. The will of the people to make our institutions work for all, and the will of the Judiciary to help with proper sanctions are also to blame.
  A case in point is the recent elections when laws and rules are said to be flagrantly abused tonfavor one party. Capitalism per say is not the cause of corruption. It is the naked abuse of our laws, by public officers and the conivance of the government of the day, that encourages unscrupulous persons to abuse others. Definitely socialism or communism is the very worst, and should not even be mentioned.

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• Kokroko 11 years ago

  Prez Mahama should lead by example. He should select a team of sincere Ministers and he should deal drastically with corrupt elements. Or else he will not have a second chance in 2016. We shall be watching him closely how the ...
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  Prez Mahama should lead by example. He should select a team of sincere Ministers and he should deal drastically with corrupt elements. Or else he will not have a second chance in 2016. We shall be watching him closely how they husband our scarce resources. NDC this is your chance to show the world what you can do for mother Ghana. No more gargantuan guzzling of taxpayers money.

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• Paa Kwesi Mintah 11 years ago

  Cousin Atta,
  
  Happy New Year and a big salute from forehead to the waist, whaaaaaam! May your articles in 2013 be concise, factual and devoid of economic theorists.
  
  I wish you'd entitled your article "A Parade of Dead Ec ...
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  Cousin Atta,
  
  Happy New Year and a big salute from forehead to the waist, whaaaaaam! May your articles in 2013 be concise, factual and devoid of economic theorists.
  
  I wish you'd entitled your article "A Parade of Dead Economic Theorists". I see them all in a parade and will line them up here for you and your readers who may care:
  
  Leading the Aboakyir parade in the front row, from 1st Paragraph, all wearing the yellow and red colors of Dentsifo are:
  
  Adam Smith, holding his book "Wealth of Nations; John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, who plays sidedrum left handed.
  
  Behind them from your 2nd Paragraph are: Vilfredo Pareto and J. J. Rousseau. Vifredo's act is throwing pizza in the air, 10ft high and catching it with his thumb in sync with Rouseau's base drum beat.
  
  In the fourth row is a lone person, from your 4th Paragraph by the name of Machiavelli, who is shouts a chorus line that goes "The end justifies the means".
  
  The 5th row is occupied by another solitary figure who claims to hail from the forest of Sherwood, and he holds a bow and arrow, threatening to redistribute all the wealth of Winneba contractors. His name is Robin Hood, from your 5th Paragraph.
  
  In the 6th row can be found six Puritans who are also Protestants sitting at the apex of a triangular moving cart called MNC.
  
  The 7th row is also called the philosophers row and are found Socrates and Plato from the 7th paragraph. They're arguing about this statement: "I eat Simpa banku, therefore I am". Socrates is wearing the Black and White colors of the Tuafo Asafo and Plato the Dentsifo Red and Yellow. Infact Plato just slapped a passerby who interfered, claiming to be the nephew of Tuafohene.
  
  On the 8th Row are Shakespeare, Shylock and Proudhon. Shakespeare seems to be reciting poems that sounds like the one you've published on Ghanaweb.
  
  At the ninth row, from your ninth paragraph are: Bank Depositors carrying a sign that reads-Commercial Cannibalism and Mercantile Elephantiasis-A New Disease Discovered by Simpa Native Son Kofi Atta. Puzzled onlookers are beaming with smiles after they read about your discovery.
  
  The tenth row is occupied by two short dogs, with bow ties inscribed with the words VAT & PAYE. They claim to have origins in your tenth paragraph.
  
  There's no one in the 11th Row but the 12th Row has Karl Max and Fredrich Engels discussing loudly, passages from Das Kapital
  
  There are no humans on the 13th and 14th rows, however, following them at the 15th, 16th and 17th rows are kids bearing acronyms from the store Acronyms R Us. Here are the acronyms in order of appearance, all in glittery red color and white background:
  
  MNC, MEDCs,
  
  OECD, EU, LSE, UK USA,
  
  They claim to be sponsored by the folowing banks:
  
  Northern Rock Bank, Enron, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers, BCCI, Meridian BIAO
  
  The concluding acronyms at the rear are: OECD, EU, WEF, UN and NGO
  
  After the procession, I asked all the parade participants if any of them have anything to do with "OCG", they said no.
  
  I asked if again if they had anything to do with "Overcoming", they said no.
  
  I asked about their involvement with "Corruption", again they said no.
  
  I asked again if they have anything to do with "Ghana", and the response was the same - a big chorus of "NO".
  
  Socrates, being a philosopher, raised his had and asked me why I'm pestering them with all the questions.
  
  I told Socrates about your article entitled "Overcoming Corruption in Ghana - Part 3 of a Series of Scholarly Articles.
  
  Upon staring at me intently, he said,
  
  "Aha, that Kwesi Atta Sakyi, too much schooling has ruined his education"
  
  and Plato concurred. Your article is a sitting duck with no wings to fly.
  
  2013 is deja vu all over again.

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• Kwesi Atta Sakyi 11 years ago

  Welcome back Cousin. I lost you on my radar. Happy New Year and blessings all year round. I heard you won a drinking binge competition at Sylvia's Restaurant in NY by guzzling a full biottle of Jack Daniel whisky in a gulp. ...
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  Welcome back Cousin. I lost you on my radar. Happy New Year and blessings all year round. I heard you won a drinking binge competition at Sylvia's Restaurant in NY by guzzling a full biottle of Jack Daniel whisky in a gulp. Oh my! I DONT BLAME YOU. It's got to do with the freak biting cold winter out there. I m sure Cousin formed a solid concrete foundation with Yoo k3 Gari and kaakro b4 his dawwling feat to the consternation of onlookers. I throway big salute for doing your homework. Cha

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• Kwesi Atta Sakyi 11 years ago

  Welcome back Cousin. I lost you on my radar. Happy New Year and blessings all year round. I heard you won a drinking binge competition at Sylvia's Restaurant in NY by guzzling a full biottle of Jack Daniel whisky in a gulp. ...
  read full comment

  Welcome back Cousin. I lost you on my radar. Happy New Year and blessings all year round. I heard you won a drinking binge competition at Sylvia's Restaurant in NY by guzzling a full biottle of Jack Daniel whisky in a gulp. Oh my! I DONT BLAME YOU. It's got to do with the freak biting cold winter out there. I m sure Cousin formed a solid concrete foundation with Yoo k3 Gari and kaakro b4 his dawwling feat to the consternation of onlookers. I throway big salute for doing your homework. Cha

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• KWABENA DANSOMAN 11 years ago

  Integrity is the hallmark for developmental agenda but putting in measures to elliminate human manipulation is the root to the ellimination of corrupt practices.

  Integrity is the hallmark for developmental agenda but putting in measures to elliminate human manipulation is the root to the ellimination of corrupt practices.

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• Vuvuzela 11 years ago

  “This is my bone of contention with Adam Smith, whose proposal was that of a free market reign, whereby individuals should pursue their businesses by maximizing profit in order to benefit the larger public…”
  
  Should y ...
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  “This is my bone of contention with Adam Smith, whose proposal was that of a free market reign, whereby individuals should pursue their businesses by maximizing profit in order to benefit the larger public…”
  
  Should you have a “bone of contention” with Adam Smith? Your viewpoint is comprehensive, but not an inclusive economic thought. Adam Smith was an economist and facts are, economists don’t have morality and ethics in their lexicon! So they don’t care about bank robbery that went wrong or a bishop bolting with the money of his diocese. What they care about is the usefulness of the booty to these two groups of people.
  
  In my submission/ contribution to your previous post, when I volunteered that the future didn’t look good for the country, I had reasons. I am not a pessimist, far from it, but as I have always maintained, optimism must be built on substance.
  
  It was Somerset Vaughan who fondly said, “In its fight against the individual the state disposes of three arms: the law, public opinion and conscience.” Inferring from this little but accurately crafted sentence that always meant the world to me, you could see why nothing works in Ghana: i. There is virtually no laws, ii. The everlasting cleavage in public opinion selfishly and pitifully tends toward personal interests as collective objectivity of the country is trodden upon with ease of scheme. The recent elections would aptly edify you, iii. What do you say of individual or collective conscience? How many people have clear conscience in Ghana?
  
  Now, starting from 0, as in ZERO, how does a human (I mean carbon-base life-forms as we know) civilization evolve into a prosperous and civilized society capable of sustaining a healthy culture, good will, freedom, equality etc.? Since we know every human has his own streaks of character, mentality, attitudes, we suppose that there ought to be a regulation – rules that define how each individual comports him/herself so as to uphold the inherent idea of intelligence and wisdom as distinct from animals, without which the very strong of the emerging civilization would take everything for themselves alone leaving the weak to fend for themselves miserably. So the key word here too is RULE, meaning LAWS.
  
  Finally, to end this, I will recall what I have put here on this website, for the umpteenth time.
  
  It is the LAW that changes people, and it is people who must enforce them. This said, WHY do we pass laws if they can’t be enforced? Hypocrisy, lethargy, lack of will…?
  
  Take it like this: A pilot takes off in his airplane into emptiness. Every day is another day. Now, flight statistics show that the probability of arriving at his destination is nearly unity, meaning he has almost all the chances of arriving safely.
  But no matter how very reliable navigational instruments could be, his utmost vigilance is required. So he applies all the rules and regulations very stringently as apply during all the phases of the flight. It is a matter of discipline, passion, challenge, the urge to be successful, the desire to mark a passage! If he made any mistake he would not live to correct them. He would go down, with everybody. What is his top challenge therefore? Many pilots make daily successful flights, so why not him, taking that all other pilots are products of this earth?
  
  With this in mind, what is our challenge before lawlessness? People often argue that corruption does not really affect economies and though it could be understood from certain perspectives the corruption in China, the USA or Britain is different and laws are better enforced.
  People of other continents respect their laws, but if it comes to Africa especially Ghana, we give every reason not to comply with or be responsive to laws.
  
  So, are we reasonable humans?

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• Dixy 11 years ago

  Couldn't agree with you more, Vuvuzela.

  Couldn't agree with you more, Vuvuzela.

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• Dixy 11 years ago

  Kwesi, your article is pretty much an intellectual indulgence looking at the range of philosophical thinkers you've espoused in your article. I'm not sure how many of us can really contextualise within our Ghanaian political ...
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  Kwesi, your article is pretty much an intellectual indulgence looking at the range of philosophical thinkers you've espoused in your article. I'm not sure how many of us can really contextualise within our Ghanaian political landscape the rich philosophical thoughts of the thinkers you've highlighted here. Despite this, I must admit that it's much better than the welter of partisan articles on Ghanaweb which do nothing to move Ghana forward. You wrote: "Office-holders in government have to study public administration in order to familiarize themselves with principles of good governance, and to have insight into comparative public administration". While I'm tempted to concede that this is a good suggestion as any search for knowledge is a worthwhile enterprise, you got to make a compelling case for your choice of public administration considering there are a diversity of disciplines that could equally shape leaders' understanding of public office. In this respect, I say that your concluding remark which recommends a particular intellectual discipline to promote good governance and consequently lessen corruption in Ghana is over-simplistic or even takes too much for granted as regards the nature of human behaviour. You and I know that studying an academic discipline, not least public administration doesn't and won't necessarily lead to virtuous behaviour. Unless you really take the view that knowledge is virtue then perhaps you've got a point. But the reality is that corruption persists in any society so long as the citizenry tolerate it. But more crucially, corruption endures where there is no political will to fight it.

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• Kwesi Atta Sakyi 11 years ago

  We need political will to fight corruption as well as a change of our mindset and attitudes to material things. We need heavy doses of good moral values and ethics. I ve covered all these in the preceding 3 articles. Thank yo ...
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  We need political will to fight corruption as well as a change of our mindset and attitudes to material things. We need heavy doses of good moral values and ethics. I ve covered all these in the preceding 3 articles. Thank you for your warm and insightful rejoinder.

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• Vuvuzela 11 years ago

  Exactly.

  Exactly.

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