Take practical steps to fight corruption - Prof. Ayee urges govt
The Vice President of the Arts of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor Joseph Atsu Ayee, has called on the government and the public to take practical steps to fight corruption to enhance the global reputation of the country and make it more resilient to shocks.
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He said it was a serious indictment on the country for the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2023 report to portray Ghana as having stagnated in the fight against corruption for three years.
Per the CPI which was released by Transparency International on January 30, 2024, Ghana scored zero for the fourth consecutive year in the fight against corruption.
The report stated that Ghana scored 43 out of a clean score of 100 and ranked 70th out of 180 countries and territories.
Prof. Ayee said such a score was a serious indictment on the government and Ghanaians.
“Ghana has stagnated three years in the same position even though corruption will destroy our capacity to be resilient.
Are we serious?” Prof. Ayee said when he delivered a keynote address at the 3rd colloquium of the Political Science Department of the University of Education, Winneba, on Wednesday.
Monetisation in politics
In a speech on the theme: “Politics amid global uncertainties: Options for building a resilient society”, Prof. Ayee said he felt “scandalous” since corruption destroyed a resilient society.
He expressed concern that in Ghanaian politics, certain things were acceptable but politicians knew that those “acceptable things are not right.”
He cited how politicians often gave delegates money for transportation yet claimed such an act was not bribery.
“The man (delegate) has come to take money to vote for you but you come and claim in politics it is acceptable,” he said.
Alarming nepotism
The former lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, also took a swipe at those in power for appointing their wives and close family members as members of government because those appointments were based on their qualifications.
The practice, he said amounted to a conflict of interest because, within the same party, others could be more qualified than the person “you have appointed”.
The participants in the 3rd colloquium of the Political Science Department, University of Education, Winneba
“I do not buy the idea that the person is my nephew and I have appointed him on merit,” he said citing how many people complained of being “rejected or turned aside by the President because one is not as close as possible.”
“The country will continue to recede and will not make enough progress as we have expected if we have office holders who lack the qualities that will enable weak institutions to work.
“We should also not allow our democracy to be compromised by lack of meritocracy and other values which are inimical to the development of a viable democratic culture,” he said.
No need to re-write Constitution
Expressing worry over the persistent calls by some Ghanaians for the Constitution to be re-written since it was “bogus”, Prof. Ayee disagreed strongly.
He said the longevity of the Fourth Republic was due to the Constitution which had served the nation for 31 years.
In his view, most of the problems plaguing the country were a result of various political leaders abiding by the values of the Constitution.
“I do not get it and do not believe in re-writing the Constitution; the Constitution is run by men and when we have a lot of bad men, demons, wizards and systems failures, then of course you have problems.
“When you have wizards who have the data, the sense, good politicians and citizens, we should be able to deal with the issues arising out of the Constitution,” he asserted.
Agreeing that there was no perfect Constitution anywhere in the world, Prof. Ayee said those running the Constitution must have certain “values of going according to the Constitution.”
“We can amend, revise a few portions but I disagree with those who say we should re-write the Constitution after 31 years,” he said expressing his readiness to debate any protagonist of such a debate.
“Let us all play according to rules and regulations and the uncertainties will be minimised.
“I am not saying that when we play by the rules and regulations, there will not be uncertainties.
You can have uncertainties because you have the natural ones also, but you can minimise them if you play according to the rules and if you collaborate,” he added.
Policy discontinuity
On the practice of various governments discontinuing or reversing policies, programmes and projects of previous governments, Prof. Ayee described such practice as “wrong”.
He said the Constitution was clear that as far as practicable, all governments must try as much as possible to continue the policies of previous governments.
“But we have seen policies’ discontinuity which is not good for healthy politics.
We must remember that policy discontinuity is part of bad governance and we need to move away from it,” he said.
On good governance, he said there were certain values or virtues that enhanced good governance, naming them as accountability, transparency, diversity, promoting equality, equality before the law, and electoral legitimacy to find solutions to most national problems.
He, therefore, called for conscious efforts to be made to promote good governance.
