“There comes a time in life when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right” – Martin Luther King Jnr.
The ragging bribery scandal against some members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament calls for leaders of our land to take a stand to deal with the incessant allegations from within and without the Legislature that it is a thoroughly corrupt institution, once and for all.
For many people, there is now no longer an iota of doubt in their hearts, bones and marrow that leadership is cause, everything else is the effect. And I am completely sold to the saying that – the fish rots from the head, which also leads me to the firm conclusion that the escalation of the problems of the world, our dear continent Africa and adorable little nation state, Ghana, is a reflection of leadership that has lost its moral compass.
What will make the United States of America vote for a non-presidential character like President Donald Trump? Simple, the presidential materials like Mrs. Clinton had failed the people of America over and over again. Americans do not trust their conventional leaders anymore and have settled for an overly unconventional one to send the message loud and clear. They may be wrong but that is their conviction and the result is the price nations pay for failed leadership.
Ghana has had its fair share of “Trumpism” – emergence of disruptive leaders in response to the people’s immediate needs for sanity. In our case people poured out in the streets to support military takeovers of constitutional regimes because they had lost confidence in the operation of the constitutions. They did not feel the democratic dividends in those regimes. So they gave their support for the excesses and atrocities of the military, chanting “let the blood flow … let the blood flow.”
We have come a long way since into the era of the 4th Republican dispensation in a little over the last two decades. And what is crystalising about this dispensation is the silent slide back to the high degree of loss of confidence in leadership on all fronts.
Last year some Judges were caught on camera, taking bribes in cash and in kind to turn their faces away from doing justice according to the oath they had sworn. In the same year, the President was investigated for allegedly receiving a Ford car as bribe to act in favour of a contractor who made the gift. The President was cleared by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) but the noise around that incident left a scar around the presidency, which is believed to have contributed significantly to his rejection at the 2016 polls because the public was not convinced that he was innocent.
Many, including sitting MPs, have alleged corruption in the legislature. Former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof. Stephen Adei, is on record to have alleged that MPs collect bribes and are influenced by it. Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, has made similar allegations with some specifics that fit the taste and flavour of the current allegations against the Appointments Committee. It is therefore absolutely necessary to inquire into the current allegation.
But will an ad hoc committee set up by the Speaker of Parliament do justice to the matter? The Chairman of the five-member ad hoc committee, Joe Ghartey, is scheduled to appear before the Appointments Committee he has been charged to investigate. Is there not a real likelihood of bias taking place in the scheme of things to arrive at the truth or otherwise of the allegation?
And what is this blind “copy copy and follow follow” craze about Parliament being a master of its own rules in a democracy where everyone is subject to the constitution? Are MPs not subject to the constitution of Ghana? Parliament must know that bribery is a crime that must be investigated by the police and prosecuted by the Attorney-General. Parliament’s powers cannot be absolute because “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Enron, WorldCom, Anderson are few examples of global giants of enterprises that collapsed because they assumed absolute powers and got absolutely corrupted. No one believed they could inflate their financial performance. They projected themselves as masters of good corporate governance to the world, while they lied, reporting huge profits when they were actually making huge losses. Eventually the truth came out, but too late as they had caused irreparable damage to shareholders, employees and their economy at large.
If these world class companies could engage in such fraud in their environment where regulators are strict and uncompromising, what can we expect in an environment where regulators do not seem to know the value of their jobs? Why have we created conditions for public officials in our country to offer “help” outside the scheme of things so we can thank them for the help in advance? Which is the other name for bribery?
Media, civil society and the church that should serve as the conscience of our society in the face of these challenges, are failing massively. Instead of leading the charge by helping and motivating people to rediscover the moral compass, they have developed the self-preservation scheme of operating two scales. A lower scale, that is soft on themselves and their benefactors and a higher scale that is hard on others, particularly those they do not benefit from.
I have just stumbled on timely news about an Action Chapel International initiative on Good Corporate Governance launched in Accra yesterday. Good to know Action Chapel has taken a stand. The church everywhere must take a stand and not only take a stand against corruption, but must support their members in particular and the Ghanaian citizen in general to discover and uphold the moral compass. While they are at it, they must remember that leadership is cause, everything else is the effect. Using the same scale for everyone is the best place to begin. I have taken my stand!
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