Towards Ghana’s Development:

By Isaac Karikari (bkkarikari@yahoo.com)

This is not an attempt to open up a can of worms or fling open somebody’s cupboard of skeletons. The Muntaka saga may no longer be considered news and may be of interest to few. However, I believe a careful look at the “issues” resulting in the saga is still relevant. The Muntaka saga, somehow, revealed the key role civil servants play in the administration of the nation and in national development

I took particular interest in the saga because I could clearly see parallels between what was unfolding and a novel I read sometime ago. The main reason for this interest being the fact that the novel, Money Galore, was a satire on politics in Ghana by Amu Djoleto.

In the novel, Money Galore, Amu Djoleto tells of an encounter between Kafu, the teacher turned politician whose party wins national elections and is made a minister and the permanent secretary at Kafu’s ministry. (By the way, Hon. Muntaka once served as a “studies teacher” to children in some parts of Kumasi). Kafu takes advantage of his position and authority to abuse Mr. Vuga and gets him to carry out his malevolent plots, notable among them is his axing of those whom he believes didn’t support, but rather “stifled” his political ambitions. In Muntaka’s case just like Amu Djoleto writes about Kafu, there is a deliberate ignoring of laid down procedure. At a certain point, Mr. Vuga is made to regret when he decides to point out to Kafu that things are not done the way he (Kafu) demands that they should be done. Kafu, a complete novice so far as the rules and procedures are concerned, “indirectly” threaten’s Mr. Vuga, the veteran, with early retirement. With that particular encounter, Mr. Vuga is left with “perspiration guttering like tears down his face”.

As callous as Kafu may have been, Mr. Vuga, a man who spends money meant for the entertainment of staff for socks for himself and underwear for his children, and takes delight in seeing his staff grumble, proves to be a witty and cunning match.

He finds a way of getting even with Kafu:

Mr Nutor Vuga knew how Kafu’s administration could be undermined by a show of obedience and diligence when in fact there was nothing but carefully concealed passive resistance...suppression of new ideas from senior staff to the minister; playing one senior staff against another so that there was no esprit de corps among the staff, and lying to senior staff if any of them mustered courage to complain about their promotions. Above all he loaded the minister with a lot of clerical work so that all decisions that should have been disposed of by the permanent secretary or his deputy were passed on to him. The minister even had to write down whether or not a senior officer should go on leave. The result was that the minister was nothing more than a permanent secretary himself and many crucial programmes were either stillborn or not pursued in the field for lack of time. Everybody was holed up in the ministry offices, talking, writing-about nothing.

When Kafu sensed something was wrong and complained Mr. Vuga had a cause to rejoice and said under the shower one morning, ‘whoever wants me to retire prematurely will quit first!’

I am in no way staking a claim that I was privy to all that transpired regarding the Muntaka saga, neither am I making a point that the whole Muntaka saga was a direct replication of the relationship between the characters, Kofi Kafu and Nutor Vuga in Amu Djoleto’s Money Galore.

In Muntaka’s case there was however a replay of some the incidents presented by Amu Djoleto. Notable among them, besides the huge sums of money involved (GH¢1000 for the services of a Mallam, GH¢15,000 to buy meat for his household among others) and the subject of a love affair, is the relationship between Kafu, the minister and Nutor Vuga, the civil servant (Muntaka and the Chief Director and the Principal Accountant).

I believe Muntaka’s issue is just one out of many. I believe there are, and there have been many other cases of ministers and civil servants giving each other a rough time that never became news.

The motive of the civil servants in this particular case still remains unclear to me. Were they spurred on by the desire for a corruption free Ghana or it was just to settle personal scores?

I am in no way trying to hold a brief for the ex minister. As established by the body that conducted the (not so convincing) investigations, Hon. Muntaka did not act appropriately in all situations. For this, the role of the chief director and the principal accountant in helping arrest the situation is commendable. But this case makes me believe some of the losses suffered by governments and government appointees, and even the nation as a whole over the years can be attributed to the actions and inactions of disgruntled civil servants who sought to get their pound of flesh. As Muntaka would have us believe, that is what happened to him-he was intentionally led into committing some grave mistakes. This same case also makes me believe, without any shred of doubt, that there are those civil servants who have furthered the causes of governments and government appointees but to the disadvantage of the nation because of favours they received.

There may have being a “money galore” alright, but there is reasonable cause to believe that the whole Muntaka saga involved a certain degree of “Kafu-ism” and “Nutor Vuga-ism” too.

Amongst whatever lessons the incident may have taught us, I believe one worth noting is the effects of the actions of civil servants and the implications on nation building. Towards the efficient administration of the nation and the achievement of development goals we need to look beyond the activities of politicians. Talking of stewardship and accountability, I believe there is the need for us to look beyond political appointees. Checks ought to be made into activities of the civil servants at the various ministries and government agencies. I believe there are many civil servants who by their actions have become saboteurs, not necessarily of government appointees and governments but of the nation’s drive towards development.