The Socio-economic Cost of Immoral Politics: Lack of Morality and Common Good in Ghanaian Politics.

In 1996, Ghana formulated a long-term vision to become a middle-income country with a level of development close to the level of Singapore at 1996. The goal was to raise the average capita income from the 1996 of about $430 to about $4,000 by the year 2020. Seven more years to the targeted date and we are not even a fraction close to our vision. Energy, transport and communications facilities that should serve as catalysts in actualizing the above goal are still inadequate and unreliable-- that's if they are even available in the first place. The political establishment claims Ghana lacks funds for the required infrastructural investment but this doesn't stop them from investing millions of dollars to win elections and buy political supports. In this write up, I will argue that the economically irrational developments apparent wherever one turns in Ghana is due to immorality in our political structures and that when those who control political power become accountable and responsive to their citizens (social morality), the great mass of Ghanaians would be able to take advantage of economic opportunities.

It is generally taken for granted that political and social philosophy goes hand in hand with ethics or moral philosophy. The lack thereof means political activities are reduced to well funded politicians whose roles become limited to how to obtain and hold on to political office with little or no formalized ideas of what to do next once the desired office is obtained. Because our national politics is entirely conducted by politicians without the assistance of political philosophers, our nation is run without political thinkers to satisfy certain fundamental requirements of morality. In other words, the absence of political philosophers means that we lack political thinkers to articulate ideologies necessary to give directions to how our dear nation ought to be governed.

For the purpose of this writing, let political philosophy suffice as a system of thought guided by the question of the best regime. The assumption is that we live in a chaotic community characterized by unnecessary underdevelopment and poverty: a chaotic society that is in need of thinkers and statesmen to help us define the problems that that must be addressed in order to construct an improved civil society that serves the common good. In assessing what the goals of our potential decent society would be, we would have to look beyond the set of formal structures and institutions, which constitute our government. The way of life, the habits, customs, and sentiments of the citizens have a tremendous influence on outcome of the political structures that seek to provide answers to the defined problems. And this is where the moral aspect of my writing comes into place. In a politically moral society, if the particular interests of elites conflict with the common interest-- and this is bound to happen, the moral code dictates that the common interest takes priority over the individualized interests of those in government. As mentioned, since the common good is the goal of civil society, if in a given society the interests of those in government supersede the interests of the governed, that society in question is said to have become immoral. And this, I believe is the position of Ghana. This immoral tone of Mama Ghana, I argue is the reason for our socio-economic backwardness.

Now with the destiny of Mama Ghana left in the hands of mere politicians, the political life of Ghana has become chaotic for quite some time now. The future of Ghana is being constructed through a fog with little idea of what lies ahead and where we actually want to be. In Ghanaian politics, even though the importance of objective policies are universally recognized, it appears the stomachs of the policy makers are entirely in charge. Theirs is all about maintaining power and when the time comes to choose leaders, they find the means to buy uncritical loyal supporters who are yet to learn how to punish politicians for their ineptness. With our political activities reduced to this condition, competence and public welfare have been eliminated from our political discourse.

To counter our politicians from further taking advantage of the political ignorance and prejudices of the multitude, we need to assess what I mean by the collaboration between political philosophy and moral philosophy. We live in national community where individual citizens must depend on their fellow citizens and on the society as a whole for their welfare. Given this basic condition, some sort of social morality is a fundamental requirement for any society to thrive and become sustainable. Recognition of this interdependence is essential to any sane social and political activities to be carried out humanely and this what I define as political wisdom and justice.

Instances of political wisdom and justice (i.e. social morality) require that leadership is not interested in mere power and money but characterized by honesty, insight, consideration and genuine concern for the people they seek to lead (the governed). Hume is his political treatises posits that the primary reason for instituting government is to control the self-interest of individuals and to prevent it from destroying society. But in tabloidizing political life in Ghana, the interests of our political leaders have substituted the shared interests of the Ghanaian masses. If we, however, approached politics from an ethical perspective, we'd come to the approval that what's good for our leaders is equally good for the entire society.

Social morality is the foundation on which the dreams of our future motherland must be built. Human love and grief, pity and genuine human feeling of compassion must become ingredients of our national politics if our nation is to become functional once again. We have lost sight of and concern for our average citizens for far too long. Without these emotions, politicians cannot identify their interest with the public welfare and as a result become narcissistic leaders with little idea of who the people they seek to lead are nor how they live. These values approve what are agreeable or beneficial to Ghanaians, if not mankind in general. Genuine humanness has fled from our political leaders and that's why political economy has become a meaninglessly hopeless enterprise in Ghana.

Despite the apparent meaningless of our situation, there's still hope. We possess a great hope for the future of Ghana but we must, first of all, be be willing to articulate a new vision of change for our Motherland. This project-hope, however, will have to be a long-term project. It will require a generation or more of painstaking work to recapture the ethical spirit that has evaporated from our political activities. Let’s hope there enough caring young women and men who still have a sense of the common good. Altruism may have died in hearts of our current political and economic elites, but it’s latently still alive in the hearts of our younger, if not the next generation, and all we need to do is to socialize and educate them to embrace and share a passion for social justice. I believe only this ethical approach will help us stand against the nihilism and apathy which have for so many years have taken root in Ghanaian politics.

As long as the common good is not sought in Ghana, we have little reasons to be hopeful of the future of Ghana. Anyone who has developed his own research knows we cannot trust the government's claims (lies) about working for the people of Ghana. Until we find a way to take or keep power away from those who will exploit it, a collective solutions to our problems will continue to escape us. But then, unless the political and societal structures in Ghana change, sustainable development will continue to escape us--and it matters very little who's in the seat of government. And this means again, unless the consciousness of the average Ghanaian becomes transformed in order to bring about a transformation of our social, political and economic structures, the system will continue to work in favor of the few well connected individuals and those who are willing to pay to uphold the corrupt foundations of Mama Ghana. Without dedication and commitment to name, understand, change and bring the system under control in order to serve the common good (i.e. social morality), there can be no hope of stopping the forces that have brought the enforced poverty and artificial backwardness/underdevelopment evident wherever we turn. But then, which political elite is willing to form and lead the moral army needed to confront our well-established immoral politics?

Dominic Mensah.