Ghana’s democracy has created a parasitic class of politicians – Tony Aidoo

Ghanaian statesman and politician, Dr. Tony Aidoo has lamented that the democracy Ghana has practiced for the past thirty-three years has not benefited the common people.

He noted that instead, it has created parasitic politicians.

“We seem to have created a parasitic class whose major aim is to live as parasites to the detriment of the ordinary person in Ghana” he told Blakk Rasta on the 3FM Urban Blend Show on April 4

Dr. Aidoo has attributed the inability of Ghana to have a democratic governance that benefits the people to the selfish interest of political actors who have commercialized politics and turned it into a Kleptocracy whose leaders use political power to expropriate the wealth of the people.

“As I have observed, people don’t enter into politics for the benefits of their communities; they enter into politics to enrich themselves, buying votes and creating a situation of dependency for the electorates. Both the governed and the governing are stealing from the nation” he alleged.

According to him, though he can’t determine the extent to which Mahama’s administration would give greater benefits to the people of Ghana at the moment, it is still a blessing that Ghanaians have gotten rid of the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“That itself is a big blessing to Ghana. It is up to the President Mahama administration to pick it up from there to reset the country for better prospects” he stated.

Tony Aidoo also pointed out that the lack of cooperation and adequate resources for monitoring and evaluation of governments and their governance is undermining the effectiveness of governments under the Fourth Republic.

“Because of lack of cooperation, transparency, and because people don’t want you to know what they are doing behind the scenes. Our basic problem is lack of national identification and loyalty to the nation”.

The maverick politician admonished the electorates to demand their rights to a higher standard of living, at a less cost, and also demand accountability from those they select as leaders in order for Ghana’s democracy to become beneficial to the common people.

“This means we must have greater transparency in what the leadership does at all times. We need to have an attitudinal change. One major challenge of African leaders is the discord of personality”.

Dr. Tony Aidoo served as Senior Presidential Aide and Head of the Policy Evaluation and Oversight Unit of the Office of late President Atta Mills from 2009 to 2013, in addition to being a member of the Cabinet’s Economic Management Team for three years. He also, served under the previous John Mahama administration as Ghana’s Ambassador to the Netherlands.

 

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