Africa as an afterthought in Obama’s last State of the Union Address.

On January 12 2016, I rushed from school to my little apartment. Barack Obama, the first African-American president in the history of the United States was due to deliver his final State of the Union (SOTU) address and I was eager to hear what he has to say and how he will sum up his historical presidency and his legacy. I know Obama to have a way with words, his amazing oratory skills and his ability to connect with and charm his audience was one of the things I admired most about him. Africa’s half-son is a role model; an inspiration to the many dreamers of the world and I felt blessed to have lived to see history made. I was seated in my couch at 8:30pm even though I knew the address was set for 9pm Eastern Time. I had a cup of orange juice and some sugar-free biscuits next to me, I was not getting up for anything. Even if it is 1% of his genetic makeup, Barack Obama is a son of the African continent. He was born to a Black Kenyan man and a white American lady. He knew his roots to the African continent, he had visited there as an adult and written about in his books. He had also demonstrated a love for the continent and its people. As a Ghanaian, I felt specially loved by the gentleman; my country Ghana was the first African country he visited as president and, as usual, he delivered a memorable speech during that visit. Africa is important to him and his government, he may not have mentioned Africa much in his previous SOTU addresses but surely he will in his last one, and it will be  positive and pleasant too. Surely he will tell the world how much Africa is changing for the better and how bright the future of the continent is, right? For the next hour or so, I was moved very close to tears; Africa was relegated to the backburner- AGAIN!!

I understand the SOTU, in name, is supposed to focus on domestic interests and the president’s decisions on and reactions to them. However, to make an hour long speech on the state of America today and not make enough time to comment on America’s role in the world is frankly, short of applause and praise. President Obama referred to the entire continent and the many undertakings America is and was involved in on the continent in about four or so sentences and even that was limited to how America is helping combat disease and starvation. The deepening democracy in Ghana, Botswana and Tanzania and the restoration of democratic rule in Burkina Faso were all ignored. I expected the president to sum up everything that has been done under his tenure but I feel like he focused the speech on begging Americans to vote another Democrat into the White House to protect the Affordable Care Act and the rest of his policies which, in fact, embody his legacy. I expected more from Obama in his tenure, unfortunately, the threat of terrorism to the United States and a "hostile" congress compelled him to focus on protecting his homeland- as any president must do as a primary duty- and constantly wrestling with the Republican Party to reach workable compromises. However, although I find this action valid and relevant, It still hurts to ponder and recollect how little Africa has featured in SOTU address under President Obama. Recently, the United States has been sending a number of former Guantanamo Bay detainees to African countries as part of efforts to shut down the facility, does Obama not know this or did he simply forget? Are these African countries, with their less advanced technological capacity and porous security and widespread illiteracy and poverty not make for a fertile ground for radicalization and extremism? How is America keeping tabs of these former detainees?  Isn’t this worth mentioning in the SOTU address? But hey, Obama did not even touch on the 10 American sailors detained in Iran, how much more Africa, right? The question is, will Africa continue to be at the backburner of America’s foreign policy or will things change? Only time will tell.

 

 

               

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN GHANA: THE CRIPPLING PROBLEM WITHIN.

          For well over 50 years Ghana has been battling with the issue of development. Nearly six decades after independence the West African country is still wallowing in the widespread poverty, limited human capital development, low GDP and fluctuating economic growth rates that characterize many developing countries. Admittedly, some laudable progress has been made; economic growth has been generally slow but steady and our current democratic dispensation is one of the best in the developing world. So how come Ghana is not achieving the rapid economic growth and development that we think it deserves? Well, for starters we may not “deserve” it. Sad…? Yes, but true; Ghana has not achieved the rapid development it desires because we have not yet done all of what it necessary to generate and sustain that. Question Ghanaians about what they think is being done wrong in our bid to develop and will be maniacally bewildered by the blame game you will be confronted with. Supernatural beings, destiny, corruption and incompetence in the government, the president…Ghanaians blame it on everything and everyone but themselves. In an effort to subdue my biases and access the problem with objective lenses, I looked beyond the “human” face of the problem and delved deeper down to find out what the root cause(s) of our development woes might be and I believe I have a clue. Ghana’s shortcomings with development is not a curse or even a human problem; it is an institution problem. Yes, institutions; the backbone of a prosperous society, the lifeblood of social, political and economic advancement. Institutions, the systems of social regulation without which human interactions are random, irregular and unreliable and development is nothing but a byproduct of interactions rather than a goal that is set, pursued and achieved. Without institutions human actions are erratic and purposeful planning and action is drowned in a whirlpool of conflicting interests, contradictory aims and clashing principles. The case of Ghana is an interesting but not unique one in that our development is stifled not by our lack of institutions but by their presence. This may sound ironic and contradictory but before you jump to a hasty conclusion, please close your ears and let your mind listen. 

               I attribute Ghana’s underdevelopment to the existence (and persistence) of institutions which, despite proving to be ineffective, porous and open to abuse, have been allowed to remain broken as they are and are being sheltered and shielded by the corrupt personnel who work on, with, through and under them. Take our judicial system for instance. The slow pace of arraignment, adjudication and sentencing has left many people on unnecessarily long periods of remand and created a lengthy backlog of pending cases. It has become a “custom” to pay (A bribe) for an early hearing to avoid a lengthy stay on remand. To have the case ruled in your favor, you have to follow the “tradition” and pay more, sometimes even when your party is innocent because a bribe from your opponents could have the blame shifted and dropped on your unsuspecting head. In recent times Ghana’s judicial system has been exposed for the rotten, corruption riddled institution it is. First it was the commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) being exposed for living in an expensive hotel for about 3 years at the states expense while her official residence was supposedly being renovated. Then the ace investigator, the omnipresent Anas Aremeyaw Anas, exposed a number of judges for taking bribes to tamper with justice. In both cases, no sentences have been passed as I write, yet the general public seems to be only minimally interested in holding the alleged lawbreakers accountable.  With regards to the "judgesgate" incident , some form of punishment has been meted out but as to whether it is enough deterrence remains debatable. As one may guess, ministers and other government officials are not left out of the “wonky3 ndi” (loot and share) phenomena. Ghana’s history is full of ministers and government appointees who have misappropriated or embezzled funds as well as a handful who have successfully absconded with wads of the Ghanaian taxpayer’s money of which very few are ever prosecuted and or sentenced. Of the top of my head I can only recollect the names of a few people who were sentenced for any of these charges in our current republic. Many politicians, political appointees, and public officials have been exposed for the rot they engage in and/or condone but the actual charging, prosecution and sentencing have been pitifully scarce.  It has now become a trend that once you are exposed for anything from conspiracy to commit, willfully committing or aiding and abetting any form of unacceptable financial loss, all you have to do is  pay the money back and/or resign from your post and all is forgotten and presumed forgiven. Evidence of this abound in cases like “Woyogate” and its connected cases as well as the very recent bus branding brouhaha. From long before the fabled Cotton Wood saga to date, Ghana has failed to block the holes in its national institutions which serve as siphoning avenues for unscrupulous persons, thus allowing for the rape of the system.

A look at our tax system brings me close to tears. Millions in tax revenue is lost annually to dubious, unregulated under-dealings in our wide, shadowy black market and yet we see little to no attempt to rectify this. Countless businesses evade tax, and many more people evade levies like property taxes and various license costs. Our governments appear to rely on the integrity of we the people when it comes to revenue mobilization and, rather sadly, the average Ghanaian has zero concern for where the government gets revenue as long as it is not from his or her pocket…or wallet…or purse…or bank account…or…you know what I mean. Quite recently, Ghanaians were up in arms against TV license fees with some threatening death if anyone attempts to collect them. Many cited the poor quality of TV programs (mainly on state-owned GTV) for their anger and the truth is the broadcast is poor and it is the result of inefficiencies resulting from the lack of effective and efficient institutions. The laws we have made and continue to make in the country only work when the occasionally law-abiding citizens choose to obey them. There is a weak system of law enforcement and many people tend to turn a blind eye to inappropriate behavior for various reasons. The legal and law enforcement institutions themselves are weakly institutionalized, poorly equipped, overburdened with cases (some of which are needlessly rescheduled) and generally discouraged and demoralized from being diligent and law-abiding. In a system where integrity is less revered and blatant lies are tolerated as propaganda and “politics”, and rewards seem to flow to the loudest speaker irrespective of the veracity and how civil and decorous their utterances are, our institutions have been corrupted and the incorruptible are slowly squeezed out of place. Cliché as it may sound, Ghana has “institutionalized corruption”, the kind that is undesired by the people but tolerated all the same because it “speeds things up” and because the institutions do not work (well) even the attempts to combat the corruption menace get frustrated.

The underlying reason for Ghana’s lack of well-structured, functioning institutions is itself tied to our lack of well-structure functioning institutions; it is a cycle of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. The very laws on which our country was and is being built were and are not suitable for development. Our constitution gives the executive arm of government extensive powers with very little limitations and systems of holding it accountable. The powers of the president are generalized rather than specific and detailed and the process of exercising them are largely left to the discretion of the president. Successive constitutions of our dear country have failed to clearly outline what our goals as a nation are and how we can pursue and achieve them and we keep making the same mistakes in our everyday decisions as a sovereign nation. The present 1992 Constitution does not set any binding political or economic goals that governments  must endeavor to achieve neither does is establish, mandate or otherwise empower any institution to validly do so. Ghana needs a detailed development plan based on a careful study of our economy and its strengths and weaknesses and governments must be held accountable if they fail to achieve them. This system of accountability should go beyond periodic elections to include impeachment, prosecution and the powers of recall and imperative mandate over elected officials. By “recall” I mean voters should have the power to strip any elected official (excluding the president) off his or her position if need be while “imperative mandate” will empower the people to transmit their preferences and grievances to parliament through their elected representatives.

There are a multiplicity of national agencies and organizations with overlapping and sometimes conflicting functions and powers which need managing. The duplicity of government agencies is wasteful and counterproductive given on many levels; rather than pooling expertise for proper planning and implementation, it dismembers the planning process since expertise is dispersed across many poorly coordinated agencies. We make up solutions as we go and we never seem to either learn from our past mistakes or rectify them because doing both will require reforms in the institutional structures of which we, as a nation, appear to be averse. Having a single state agency performing a specific function allows for better supervision and effective coordination with other agencies which in turn promotes efficiency. State institutions would be more efficient if specific functions were given to specific agencies with no duplicates so that workers are actually paid for their work and agencies are focused on their assigned tasks for which they are solely responsible and accountable to the people. Speaking in the Parliament of Ghana in 2009, President Barack Obama reiterated that Ghana needs “strong institutions” and not “strong men”. We need laws, agencies and bureaucratic structures that command compliance, integrity and efficiency if we are to develop as a nation. If we do not get our institutions prepped and ready to work for our common good, any amount of resources committed to them will yield benefits far below potential due to wastage, corruption and inefficiency.  Admittedly, we are all quick to criticize and condemn unwanted behaviors (especially from political opponents) but we let it end there. We ought to demand fair punishment for crime and misconduct especially among elected officials and employees of government agencies. Ghanaians should cultivate the habit of following through calls for action and demanding and supporting the overhaul of our institutions.
Ghanaians ought to be more active in holding our governments accountable to us. We ought to ask questions and demand honest, convincing answers from our elected leaders and shun the partisan and tribal politics that blind us to the damaging consequences of having an unchecked government. It saddens me to hear and read of the many potentials Ghana has to develop and yet not be able to live up to and to see that we the people are not doing much to direct, support and demand of successive governments to pursue these potentials make it worse. Ghanaians seem inured to the failures of our country; we are not adequately focused on developing ourselves and our beloved country through commitment, honesty, probity and accountability, hard work and dedication.