With Ghana’s economy spiralling downward — higher budget deficits, high inflation, increased unemployment — our country’s voters’ should reject the attempt by politicians, especially current presidential aspirants, to place too much emphasis on culture wars and identity politics in their political campaigns.
An over-reliance on identity topics, religion, ethnicity, which politicians and their supporters have been known to frequently address as the main qualification for the presidency, divert and distract attention away from the crucial economic policies Ghanaians need to create prosperity for all citizens.
Indeed, God blessed this country to be great. We messed it up because of incompetent leaders and bad economic choices.
Surprisingly, we refuse to learn from our history and the amount of damage incompetent and corrupt leadership has caused this country. History is such a fascinating thing, and a very useful tool in wise, moderate, and moral hands.
Presently, large parts of this country can be defined by neglect, disillusion and a sense of helplessness. Sadly, while we are richly endowed, our people remain among the poorest in the world. Several years after independence, we still blame the colonialists and imperialism for our poverty and under-development. If the colonialists’ economic policies were to exploit the riches of this country, at least, they knew who they were and where they were going and had the confidence and ability to serve their empire with honest dedication under the rule of law.
We made the wrong economic decisions at independence by keeping the same institutions and governance tools they used in their exploitation but, in our case, bastardised the rule of law, and chose corrupt, incompetent leaders who made politics the avenue to make riches, not
entrepreneurship.
—
By: Kwadwo Afari
