Much of the corruption related activities are seemingly affiliated to politics with politicians getting the biggest of backlash in the distribution of blames. Corruption is only corruption when it involves a politician, the more reason why the citizenry don’t have the penchant to pursue ‘corrupt’ civil servants the way they do at the mention of a politician.
My views in this piece maybe unpopular but I’ll state them regardless. Have you ever wondered the possibility of corruption in academic institutions, their procurement processes and certain ‘questionable’ elements on fees items. What even happens at school fees negotiations? Anyway, this isn’t the subject today so let’s leave that for another day.
The POLITICIANS are not the problem. Yes, I said it! The politicians are not the problem but rather the people are. The biggest problem here is the entitlement mentality. Some people feel it is their birth right to live what the Bible proffers in Matthew 7:7 the very moment they come into contact with a politician. The Member of Parliament or government appointee automatically becomes the ultimate bread winner of his constituents. Some openly make declarations to the effect that you must ‘do visible things’ that are indicative of the fact that you were once in power.
Take a walk to a government agency or ministry and you’ll get the picture pretty clear. Many are those waiting in queues just to ‘greet’ and subtly demand transportation back home. If an appointee gets fifty of such visits in a month throughout the year, how will they be able take care of their other responsibilities and where are they supposed to get the money to sustain this???
Juxtapose the salaries of a member of parliament for 4 years to the average of GH₵ 400,000 she/he is likely to spend on just the primaries (not forgetting the expenditure on social events, school fees, health bills etc) and you’ll know who the real agents of corruption are.
Until the entitlement mentality of the people change, the politicians will be politicians and I bet your guess is as good as mine.
By George Sarpong
The writer is an author, blogger and a former student leader
Email: nkgs888@gmail.com