Lawyer Appiah Menkah, a politician and one of Ghana’s foremost businessmen, on Wednesday noted that Ghana over the past 16 years had been shamefully overtaken by the evils of massive corruption.

He said the country has also been overtaken by tribalism and conscienceless political party polarization of all national issues and concerns.

“Unless the nation takes the bold step to address them, very soon we shall all behave like the animals in George Owells Animal Farm.”

Lawyer Menkah was speaking at the Second Edition of the Freedom Lectures- 2012 on the topic “Political Patronage of the private sector in Ghana: Realities and Illusions” organized by the Center for Freedom and Accuracy (CFA) in Accra.

He said the direction of Ghana was all the time politics without seriously looking at the economic and development aspects of the country’s future which was important.

Mr. Andrew Awuni, Executive Director of CFA, said the lecture will give Ghanaians the opportunity to make fruitful decisions in this year’s electioneering campaigns, adding, “Through this lectures, the 2012 elections will be more issues-based.”

He said activities of the private sector was to generate revenue and create jobs and appealed to Government to promote the private sector, since government is the biggest market holder in every economy.

Mr. Awuni noted that the appointment of politicians to some state institutions such as the Free Zones Board, the Food and Drugs Board and other state enterprises was dangerous to the economy.

“Some corporate institutions have started losing their revenue and cannot speak on issues that affect them.”

He acknowledged the role of some NGOs for coming up with findings that are related to the electioneering process, adding that, the CFA was also doing its part.

Mr. Kwame Pianim, an Economist and Chairman for the occasion, said Mr. Menkah’s presentation was well researched and were facts that needed to be tackled to strengthen the private sector in the country.

He called on Government to promote private businessmen in order to expand the country’s economy and appealed to businessmen not to use their business capitals to buy political power for politicians.