‘We know how to revive the economy, but no, we don’t know how to fight corruption’

We cannot have an argument about the timing of Amidu’s resignation and any suggestion that it was politically motivated.

Because if we do, we would have to ask about the timing of the president’s letter to Daniel Domelevo to proceed on leave.

Of course, timing is important in the courts of power. Even Samson calculated his demise to make a big impact.

He picked this theatre of death and waited for it to be filled with the delirious laughter of his enemies before gaining divine endorsement to crash them into a concrete grave.

And if a blind Samson could calculate, how much more wide-eyed Amidu?

A member of the Council of State, Samuel Okudjeto, days into the new NPP government, remarked, that ‘Akufo-Addo is our last hope’. He said it as a man who was coming to the conclusion of his own political experience of seeing how corruption and mismanagement has undermined Ghana’s truest place in the dignity of nations.

And he said it with a vulnerable honesty and a desperate desire to believe in something. And he said exactly how I felt. We are all wired to believe in something.

What has happened with Amidu’s resignation and revelations kills that hope, in no uncertain terms. Whenever Akufo-Addo speaks, we will hear what he has not spoken. Because we now know his walk. He can keep his talk.

But if he does talk, all we would be hearing is ‘we know how to revive the economy, but no, we don’t know how to fight corruption.’

One of the things Daniel Domelevo said was key in his fight against corruption was that he carried the people along, updating them, getting public support for the right.

And one of his worries was that Amidu did not carry the people along in his crusade, cocooning himself, his work and Ghana’s fight.

Well, the one who carried the people along has been carried away. The one who did not carry the people along, has carried himself away. Clearly, carrying will not carry any career in fighting corruption.

E-Lab thinks we have been quite naïve in our expectations of Amidu and Akufo-Addo. One of them would always be antithesis of the other. The president said people were trying to give him a bad name and quipped ‘this dog cannot be hanged’. He was almost right. Because in a sense, Amidu was the dog to get hanged because the president, as promised, had outsourced the corruption fight to him.

And Amidu was being hanged. Criticisms were growing over his lacklustre fight and E-Lab wrote an article to help in his hanging because he believed Amidu was failing. But suddenly, Amidu has quit his role in this whole dog-hanging drama, insisting ‘I will not be a poodle.’

And so, this pond of politics was just too small for these two poodles. Amidu, now a poodle of his own conscience and Akufo-Addo, well, a do-little poodle.

Now that E-Lab has pushed out of his chest the political commentary, how about we now honestly discuss the canker that no one has cracked?

We need to sober down and ask real questions. Corruption is fought constitutionally, institutionally and personally. We need to look for fault lines.

How does our constitution fuel corruption? Is it not too engineered to give too much power to just one person whether fool or wise? Does it not cripple too much our parliament? Does it not give the president tripple powers over judges, MPs, and every public, even private instituions? And does it not set Ghana on the dangerous path of winner-takes-all? And this is exactly what the Economic Fighters League led by Ernesto Yeboah have been pushing for years now if we had the ears to listen.

Look at those who have fought corruption so far – Daniel Domelevo, appointed under NDC, and, Martin Amidu, a former NDC appointee.

It appears those who are outside the group of table manners are best placed to fight it. Can we design a constitution that can entrenches this style, deepen guarantees, weakens the president into cooperation and consensus?

And when it comes to fighting corruption institutionally, well, E-Lab, a non-expert, would recoil into his Bible and emerge with a verse. the Bible asks a dangerous question rhetorically. Ps 11:3 says ‘if the foundations be destroyed, where will the righteous stand?’

It means if institutions fail, even those who speak against corruption may not only shut up but actually join in the feast. This goes for the accountant, the procurement officer, the national service personnel, the journalist. I don’t want to say the clergy. We are all not immune.

So when we scream corruption, we are saving our own lives. We are screaming because we are afraid for ourselves. We are exhibiting a sort of selfish patriotism – loving ourselves so lovingly and finding out even surprisingly that it means we also have feelings for our country.

And on the personal level of fighting corruption. Need we say more?

The last time the Afrobarometer report on corruption was released, E-Lab had a good laugh.

It is a finger-pointing report that points fingers at the police and politicians but leaves off the hook the Ghanaians doing the finger-pointing.

We are a corrupt people. That’s just simple statement from the Bible that saves us a lot of money in setting up a commission or funding a social research project.

This fascination E-Lab sees on social media about wealth is revulsion. Why do we hold the wealth in such high esteem? Why is so much money important? The man with enough now feels he looks poor because the standard of contentment has been whisked away by the movers and shakers in society.

His small car and small wife suddenly looks inadequate. His small properties look like a twinkle. E-Lab explained this in another article; The banker who wants to be buried in 16 graves.

Two things have died in six days. The enigma of Rawlings and the so-called aura of incorruptibility of Akufo-Addo. We have a funeral and though we do not know the date for the first, we have a date for the second.

But even a mourning on December 7^th won’t change anything.

And this is where it gets dangerous because when the fault lines are constitutional, institutional and personal, we have very dry wood. One bright and sunny day, one with an unusually high temperature, we will get a fire.

When nobody really wants to fight anything, we may appear to get away with somethings. But no. We would have created the situation for another Rawlings.