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Talk of Corruption is
all there is
E. Ablorh-Odjidja,
Ghanadot
November 17, 2014
Much has been written on
corruption in Ghana. But the worse
statements are those that seek to mitigate
the blight with the claim that corruption is
universal and that the focus on Africa alone
is a sign of racial bias on the part of the
western media.
Recently, one such writer
wrote, " when one looks at corruption that
has gripped the West such as the collapse of
Barings Bank in 1995, ENRON, WorldCom, The
Ralph Madoff scandal, Lehman Brothers and
Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae these have all
involved White/European people and therefore
dispels the myth that Afrikan people are
somewhat innately corrupt. "
It is indisputable that there
has always been a perception problem about
Africa in the western media and that the
West also has corruption problem. But what
is not being observed is that corruption
crimes in the West, like those cited above,
are always prosecuted. And the criminals,
when caught, do receive their just
desserts.
In the US, Enron, WorldCom,
Lehman Brothers are companies that went
under because of legal processes and many of
their executives went to jail.
Bernard Maddoff (referred to
as Ralph by the writer) received a jail
sentence of 150 years; his sons and
accomplices in his ponzi scheme went to
jail. One son committed suicide as a
result.
In Ghana and most African
countries, the official response to
corruption cases has been weak for the most
part.
As serious as corruption
crimes in the US are, they happen mostly in
the private sector, affecting mostly
individuals who are gullible enough to
choose these companies as investment
vehicles. The type found in Africa,
however, has a distinction in that it is the
national treasury that suffers the hit, thus
the most egregious kind of corruption.
In the face of huge national
needs, officials in power divert monies from
the national treasury into private pockets.
We elect and appoint these
guys to offices. We pay for the office and
provide all the perks. Then they use the
power of the office to rob us with
impunity. Bernie Madoff never got it so
good.
The attempt to conflate the
Bernie Madoffs in the US with our brand of
corrupt officials in Ghana misses another
point: the size of the economies of the two
countries and the context within which the
corruption cases happen.
On the size of the American
economy, we are talking about a $16 trillion
plus GDP in 2013, a 1000 multiple of 16
billion, versus that of Ghana’s at a mere
$47.93 billion for the same year.
Understandably, the America
economy is humongous and Ghana’s is puny.
Picture a man with $48 in his pocket and
another with $16,000 in his and you should
understand the difference.
In addition to the wealth
advantage, America has the willingness and
the superior institutional capability to
quickly bring wrongdoers to justice. In
Ghana, we have just demonstrated how lame
we are when it comes to going after default
judgment fraudsters.
There is no need to worry
about corruption in America in my view.
Should America be crippled by the vice
today, it would still take decades for Ghana
to catch up with her, even if Ghana did
everything right by the book; never mind the
question of whether we will allow ourselves
the chance to read that book right.
Funny enough, in the present
heat of our talks on corruption, there is a
historical version that blames Nkrumah for
the start of corruption in government.
Even if we were to accept
that premise, we will still be left with
explanation for the continuance and the
occurrences of the worse corruption cases we
have today.
Does our culture encourage
corruption, one ought to ask. And could
the notion advanced by PLO Lumumba about
Kenya and the syndrome of the corrupt
homeboy who “may be a thief but is our hero”
be also true for Ghana?
Truth be told, homeboy
worship is present and litters across our
land and in every nation.
But, in spite of the
universality of the syndrome, some nations
still thrive under it. Malaysia and South
Korea and others of Nkrumah's time are
advanced countries today. Nkrumah was up to
what could be done some fifty years ago;
that to develop, we needed to grow faster,
in comparison with the same time frame that
the advanced countries of the world took to
grow.
Confident that history was on
his side, and corrupted or not, Nkrumah sped
on. But he was overthrown on February 24,
1966. The major reason for the coup was
corruption, they said. Really?
Then came the declassified
CIA documents on Ghana after the coup and
you should ask, did America care that much
about corruption to do a regime change in
Ghana?
Paul Lee wrote,
"Declassified National Security Council and
Central Intelligence Agency documents
provide compelling, new evidence of United
States government involvement in the 1966
overthrow of Ghanaian President Kwame
Nkrumah."
We must thank the CIA for the
revealing records on the historic event.
But how do we forgive the self-delusion that
runs among us; the excuse that the coup was
a “glorious revolution” against corruption
and dictatorship - brought about by heroic
army officers rather than instigated
quislings of the CIA?
To forget the betrayal by
these quislings while remitting only the lie
of a “glorious revolution” to succeeding
generations is delusionary and a serious
flaw. And when a serious flaw like
self-delusion is overlooked in the national
character, tragedy results – the many coups,
the breakdown in discipline, the economic
tailspin and the collapse of national
prestige happen.
The 1966 coup got rid of
Nkrumah the person. He would have been dead
six years later anyway. But we threw away
the good with the wash and quashed
prematurely most of his development ideas
that could have been continued.
Ironically, we are left with
one monument to our folly - Kotoka
International Airport, the sub conscious
self still standing. Now we can ask
ourselves what it stands for. Others
already know it as the monumental butt of a
mental joke!
Now, on to the current state
of our affairs and the corrupted mindset of
some of our citizens to ask how best we have
been fighting corruption.
Default judgments were
brought against the state that were not
defended by an Attorney General whose duty
it was to do so. Plaintiffs won on false
grounds - very clever way of robbery without
arms. It took a freelance lawyer, Martin Amidu, in another trial to get the court to
reverse the decisions.
We are yet to collect the
default payments from the fraudsters.
Then there was the case of
the furnishing of Parliament. How did a
whole Parliament find the chutzpah or gall
to overlook the fact of our national pride -
that it was not necessary to refurbish that
august, national hall with cheap chairs and
upholsteries imported from China?
And what was the rationale,
of the same Parliament body, that led to the
approval of a loan for a desalination plant
for a country that has no shortage of clean
water resources and then to source the
contract to a foreign company?
In America, when corruption
occurs, the ill-gotten gains mostly stay to
build America. With Ghana and Africa, the
loot drifts outside. No need to defend
America here when Ghana is hanging on the
corruption hook to the slaughterhouse.
Hence, insistence on the
universality of corruption is useless.
That universality argument
does rob us of our resolve to fight
corruption. And when we react to the
western media complaints with accusations of
racial bias, we end up defending the
homeboys who deplete our financial reserves
and thus cripple our development.
That said, it is still an
amazing political feat when in the face of
all the "gargantuan” corruption vices of
today we drag the sleaze to the door of the
Nkrumah regime.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publsiher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC,
November 16, 2014
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Related article:
Documents
Expose U.S. Role in Nkrumah Overthrow |
