There is one thing about President Akuffo Addo; like the seasoned politician that he is, he loves to make promises. During the campaign, he made a bunch of them, the famous one being “One district One Factory.” We are yet to see this particular promise materialize.
Five months into his young administration, Mr. Addo is still at it — he hasn’t let up by any measure. This time, he is promising to name and shame public officials who engage in corruption.
And in furtherance of this idea, he said he will create an office — a Business Reporting Bureau —- at the presidency that will be charged with the collection of complains from business people on corrupt officials.
I commend the president for initiating such a bold move; but from past experiences with fighting corruption among public officials, Mr. Addo is clearly embarking on a futile journey. At the end, there won’t be any tangible results to show Ghanaians except of course, token cases of prosecuted public officials sacrificed on the altar of anti-corruption.
Mr. Addo will not be the first chief executive to initiate a fight against corruption.. His predecessors tried, and despite their efforts, corruption is still, sadly pervasive and deeply entrenched in our society.
In fact, Transparency International, the global corruption watchdog two years ago, rated Ghana 70th out of 176 nations on its corruption index. This is not a pretty picture and something we should be thoroughly ashamed of.
As we are all painfully aware, corruption has been the bane of development in Ghana since independence. The nation continues to wallow in abject and grinding poverty primarily because of the massive failure of public officials to put the nation before their own interests.
When public officials line their pockets with monies that are earmarked for a hospital, a school or a road in a district, it is the citizens of that district who suffer from the lack of facilities.
Don’t get me wrong, listeners; I am not insinuating that the president will woefully fail at fighting corruption. He, of course, means well and wants to send a powerful message to corrupt public officials that this time around, they will be watched with an eagle eye by the government.
And, any misstep or financial malfeasance on their part will be countered with naming and shaming them in the media, electronic and print, all of which will be followed by incarceration in one of our notorious prisons.
Mr. Addo has a big hill to climb; he is surely going to meet a wall of resistance albeit on the quiet side by public officials who will fight any attempt to take away the opportunity to supplement their meager salaries with monies earned the “wrong way.”
Let us all wish Mr. Addo good luck in his battle.