Apart from institutionalised corruption, there is nationalised corruption, where all through every sector, private and public, in fact from the top of the social ladder down to the “insignificant” member of society, corruption is shamelessly engaged into, by some.
At the moment, the two major political parties, New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are all set and ready for Elections 2024, having internally elected their flagbearers and parliamentary candidates.
By this time, most people out there are harbouring great hope that this year will be another “cocoa season,” moreover it is a crucial year for these two big parties, one intending to Break the Eight and the other determined to come back to power.Surely, something must give in, to their favour.
The stakes are high and to get elected, the politician must “Give, Give and Give”and the people or electorate must “Receive, Receive and Receive.”
Our Christian God, who is omniscient and knows the future, is blasphemously brought into this.
While some so-called men and women of God will come and say that after spending weekend in Heaven, God told them the particular candidates who will win the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Then some will claim that after the Annual General Meeting they attended in Heaven, God chose those to win the presidential and parliamentary elections. The names of the anointed candidates do not match.
The message to the vulnerable candidate will always be, “Your Star has been raised higher than all others. God has named you as the winner.”
The mallams and traditional priests will not be left out. Each with a different list from God. The question is, do we have a confused God? No, we don’t! God’s Name should not be held in vain that is why priests of the main line churches, especially the Catholic Church, will never come out to say who will win elections.
So, why are these religious trading conflicting messages? It is all about money. The politician will be mandated to give huge sums of money to be able to tap favours from the Throne of God.The politician must find the money. Corruption in the “House of God!”
The next aresome traditional leaders who make demands from the politicians before they go to pray in thanksgiving to the gods who have chosen the candidates, already.The traditional leaders will need some form of assistance to perform rituals to the gods and curse anyone in the community who does not vote for them.
Everybody will come making demands and the politicians must satisfy them.
The politician will always have to load his campaign vehicles with drinks, flat screen televisions, gas cookers and cylinders, electric cookers, deep freezers and refrigerators, android phones among others, aside from cash. Every night the gifts will all be distributed and every morning the vehicles will be restocked. This is what goes on until Elections Day.
For the period of campaigning the politician would certainly spend millions of cedis. An American research center placed the cost of campaigning at an average GH¢ 8 million.
On average there are 60,000 electorates per constituency. If the candidate provides ten bottled-water each, for fifty thousand of the electorates over the campaign period, at the cost of GH¢2.00 per bottle, water alone will cost him GH¢ 1 million.
Some people including some members of his campaign team will also come with demands for money to pay rent advance, meet hospital bills, invest in trading, etc.A politician will go to a community to meet the inhabitants and the people will walk not more than thirty steps to the rally ground. At the end of the meeting, they will demand “TnT.”
At the end of the vote count, one candidate will win and the losers will be told they did not follow the directives given by God and the gods that was why they lost. The losers will go out wondering why this happened to them. Waste of time, waste of money and waste of resources. But did this same God not say that they have been chosen by Him to win? So, what happened? What just happened was a nationalised corruption.
By the way, in just a month after elections, the same people will approach the losing candidates and assure them, that the next elections, as ordained, will be theirs to be taken.
The electedcandidate will enter the seat of government or parliament with a huge bill to settle. He must find any way possible to settle this indebtedness. Let us not discuss the ones who lost the elections.
There are two ways to get that money back and build a war chest for the administration of his office and for the next election, because, as MP, his responsibilities will now grow, with more demands made on him.
One way is through fair and just means with no speck of corruption and the other is through all corrupt means, available.
The honest ways include being a broker and bringing investments into the country and getting a handsome broker’s fee. This is very legal and the more investments the political office holder brings into the country the more he will build up a sound financial foundation.
The problem is the corrupt means and how this affects the economy of this nation.
In matters affecting the House of Parliament, in 2003, a publication in the Ghanaian Times, under the headline, “Confirmed: MPs take bribe,” was taken from a statement by the then National Convention Party (NCP) MP. Hon Mary Ankomah who said MPs do take bribes and that bribery occurred at committee levels.
Ghanaian Times, was hauled before the Privileges Committee of Parliament, headed by the then First Deputy Speaker, Mr Freddie Blay.After threats, the paper was made to retract the story and apologise to the House.
In 2008, Hon. P.C. Appiah-Ofori, MP for AsikumaOdobenBrakwa, made headline news when, he condemned some of his colleagues for accepting $5,000.00 each in the transfer of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone.
In 2014, the current Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament, then Hon Alban Bagbin, MP of Nadowli/Kaleo,stated that there was evidence that some MPs take bribes and come to the floor and try to articulate the views of their sponsors.
He added that governments on both sides of the political divide could grease the palms of MPs to ensure that controversial policies were accepted by the House.
The House was not pleased and promised to haul the MP to the Privileges Committee, but that never saw the light of day.
It is alleged that MPs make lots of money at sub-committee levels where business proposals which are brought for consideration, attract unofficial fees.
Before anybody will start condemning the MPs of corruption, they should first come out with solutionsto the problem of moneyocracy in our politics. The people out there, demand and collect huge sums of money from aspirants before electing them into office. How do they expect the politicians to get the money back and build their war chest for the next elections?
This form of corruption has been nationalised and the source is the electorates who are the people of Ghana, who are supposed to, with clear mind and honesty, elect the right people to take up political offices, but instead they always demand cash and kind before they vote for the highest-giver.
On the government level, while some civil and public servants do acts of corruption, some occupants of political offices dry cassava while the sun shines. Major projects are targeted and could be over priced so that something small can be shared which will make up for amounts spent during campaigning.
In 2009, STX-Korea got into a controversial contract with Government of Ghana, where a construction firm whose official line of duties did not include construction of houses was signed on to build residential estates.When Ghana abrogated the contract in 2012, the state lost millions of dollars.
It was alleged that STX-Korea was asked to refund some $3 million, but when it announced that, that amount was given to some members of the government team which included ministers, deputy ministers and MPs, it was allowed to walk away freely.
The cost of construction of Terminal 3 raises doubt on the sincerity of the then Government of Ghana. The building cost Ghana over $250 million, while an airport constructed from scratch in Ethiopia with terminals as big as our Terminal 3 cost about $27 million?
The cost of constructing the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, in 2016 was $260 million, while the total cost of constructing four other interchanges later, including the largest in West Africa, the Pokuase Interchange, cost $289 million.
There are many more examples but one thing is certain, these over-priced costs of construction were meant to be so, so that some people would get refund of money spent from primaries to General Elections.
From the Executive to the Legislative, the requirements to get refunds for money spent during campaigning, could affect our economy because government must pay more than should be the case.
This requires more taxes and who suffers most?It is that electorate who collected a chicken change from that presidential or parliamentary candidate. When times get rough, politicians are condemned as corrupt.
The real corrupt people are those who nationalised corruption by demanding gifts of cash and kind from politicians. How do they expect the politician to get the money spent, back?
I hope nobody will make demands on politicians this Campaign Season of Election 2024.
Hon. Daniel Dugan
