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| Inauguration of President Mahama, President of Ghana |
By Honourable Saka
Here
in Ghana, if the Supreme Court can sit for several hours a day and several months
in a year to determine which candidate(s) won the general elections, but NO
court in the country finds it useful to hold these same politicians accountable
for their failure to fulfill their campaign promises despite having all their
annual budgets expenditure approved by the parliament to enable them fulfill
their campaign promises, then I think we have an illusion of justice in the
country as long as accountability is concerned.
The
last time I checked, the Coat of Arms which is the official seal of the
government of Ghana, suggested that the motto of the Republic of Ghana still remains
“Freedom and Justice”.
Yet
I am yet to see the day for which politicians will be brought to justice for
woefully failing to deliver on their campaign promises to the electorate. If a
contractor can be arrested for failing to deliver certain goods and services
for which he has been paid, why can’t our politicians face the same fate when
they fail to deliver after receiving all the loans in our name? Are the
politicians above the laws of the land? Where is justice?
Why Ghana's Democracy is a Failure
It
is a common ritual to see our finance ministers presenting annual budget
statements to parliament at the beginning of every year, seeking approval for
such huge moneys to be approved for the fulfilment of their campaign promises
to the people of Ghana. Yet at the end of the year when they fail to fulfil the
said promises, nobody holds the politicians accountable for the failure of the
government to fulfil the promises for which such huge moneys were approved. What
is even annoying is that at the beginning of the next year, the same minister
will have the audacity to present a much bigger budget before the parliament
house seeking approval.
When
are the courts ever going to hold these politicians accountable for their
failure to on their promises?
Recent
Unfulfilled Promises, the Budget Statements
·
In
the 2012 Budget Statement, the
following promises were made to the people of Ghana:
A. Energy
Sector:
“120.
The construction of LPG satellite storage depots at Kumasi, Savelugu and Mami
Water will commence while the storage capacity for LPG at Tema and Takoradi
will be expanded.
121.
For the implementation of these
programmes and activities, the ministry
of energy has been allocated an amount of GH¢657,132,393.00” (Paragraph 120
-121).
As
I type this piece, only God knows where the said money went, since no single
one of the above-mentioned projects to show for. People in the Kumasi
Metropolis have been struggling with water shortage and unreliable electricity
for months. So where is the money? Why is the media not asking questions?
B. Transport,
Roads & Highways (2012 Budget Statement cont’d)
Paragraph
126 – 129, as presented by the minister of finance reads:
“Madam
Speaker,
126.
The Accra-Nsawam and Kumasi-Ejisu railway lines will be rehabilitated to
increase sub-urban rail service. In addition, the reconstruction of the Western
Corridor Railway Line will commence under the China Development Bank (CDB) Facility.
127.
The Takoradi Port Expansion Project and the Multi-Modal Transport Project that
links the Tema Port by rail to the Volta Lake and coastal fishing harbours and
landing sites will be undertaken.
128.
A total of 54,084km of routine and periodic maintenance works will be undertaken
while 250km of spot improvement works will be done.
129.
Madam Speaker, in fulfilment of its pledge to complete key road infrastructure
around the country, Government will in 2012 complete the construction of the
following major highways commonly referred to as the “Gang of Six”: Achimota-Ofankor,
Dansoman highway, La-Teshie expansion project, Tetteh-Quarshie-Pantang and Nsawam
By-pass (Accra bound). Construction works on Sunyani Road (Komfo-Anokye to
Abuakwa) and Kwafokrom to Apedwa Roads will continue”.
Therefore
where are those railway projects in Kumasi? Has the existing, appalling Accra-Nsawam
and Kumasi-Ejisu railway lines ever seen any renovation or expansion in recent
years? Are there any railways under-construction in Kumasi for that matter? Having
voted a huge amount of money for the said Kumasi-Ejisu railway lines, I am
still not aware of any projects recently commissioned in Kumasi to that effect.
The continues failure on the part of our
politicians to deliver on their promises to the people, should provide a reasonable
justification on the urgent need to criminalized unfulfilled promises especially
the ones for which government moneys have duly been allocated.
·
A
Look at 2011 Budget Statement
Transport:
(Paragraph 170-172)
Madam Speaker…
170.
“Ghana’s existing rail network is confined mostly to the southern part of the
country which is economically more advanced and has a higher population density.
Nonetheless, the current rail network is characterized by old tracks and rotten
coaches, and inadequate railway terminals,
stations and platforms.
171.
Madam Speaker, Government will source
funds to rehabilitate and/or totally re-build and modernize the rail sector.
172. Madam Speaker, the recently
commissioned Accra-Tema railway line will
be extended from the Tema harbour area
to Tema Community 1 to improve the suburban railway system”.
After
3 year (year 2010) of presenting the status of the railways to parliament, only
God knows the level of “modernization” and or “re-building” that has taken
place in our railway infrastructure especially in Kumasi and Nsawam.
It
is very sad that while those in Germany, China, Japan and Britain can modernize
and re-build their railway infrastructure within a period of 1 year, here in
Ghana, the process is taking a whole generation to materialize, despite having
all the gold, diamond, cocoa, oil & gas and being the ‘model’ of African ‘democracy’.
After
all, our media is obsessed with ‘democracy’ and political ‘elections’ to the extent
that we have no time to scrutinize the promises of infrastructural project that
never came to pass.
Unfortunately,
nobody ever goes to court to hold politicians accountable on failed political
promises. What a shame.
Conclusion
I
am appealing to the President of Ghana, to introduce a bill to parliament to
criminalize the act of failing to fulfill campaign promises to the people of
Ghana. At least if the MPs fail to pass such a bill, the president will be on
record as the only president who showed some commitment to the fight against
corruption, making effort to criminalize the fake promises made by government
officials and prospective MPs.
I am also urging the true Honourable Members of Parliament to put a bill before the house, to criminalize the act of failing to fulfill campaign promises. This will be seen as their own small way of helping the country curb corruption and incompetence.
Finally, I am appealing to Chief Justice her Lordship, Georgina Wood and the Constitutional Review Commission to consider including a clause in our constitution to criminalize political incompetence and the failure to fulfill campaign promises in the country.
If this is done, I believe the people of Ghana will begin to receive real benefits from the vast resources which are often mismanaged by unscrupulous politicians and heads of the civil service.
The
rest of African can thus have something good to learn from Ghana as a true
model of African democracy and good governance.
Honourable Saka (honourablesaka@yahoo.co.uk)
The writer is a Pan-African Analyst.
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