Opinions of Thursday, 9 March 2023

Columnist: Eric Murphy Asare

The political paranoid

The writer The writer

I spoke to Iris on our first date about my intentions of getting into mainstream politics. The angry looks in her eyes and her first question, why politics was alarming?

Being a fanatic, why would she get entangled with a politician who has been tagged as paranoid? How can the narrative of being corrupt, schizophrenic, and dishonest change?

The increase in individual dishonesty about local government corruption seems to be particularly concentrated among taxpayers.

The effect is not due to changes in material incentives to misbehave or changes in social norms but to an emotional response to corruption.

The exposure to a corruption scandal lowers the cost associated with breaking a self-imposed moral cost, thus increasing the probability of stealing from the public purse.

In other words, the dishonest behaviour of leaders lowers the individual's sense of guilt when facing the possibility of stealing from public offices.

Our forebears' hope for the black man managing his affairs has been encompassed by breeding corruption and neo-colonialism manipulation, still living under the white man's slavery mentality.

Oh, generation yet unborn, you would be told the story of nature's wonderful warning to carve out a new path toward socio-economic development but for the nepotism, insensitivity, and greedy nature of the state men and political leaders, Mother Ghana cries at 66.