Ghana has polarised political system – Economist
Dr J. K. Kwakye, a Senior Economists with the Institute of Economic Affairs, has noted that Ghana has a highly competitive and polarised political system.
He said the country is virtually split right in the middle between the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party.
Dr Kwakye said the common practice is that when any of the parties comes to power, the winning President is motivated and encouraged to reward his party loyalists with public sector jobs.
Dr Kwakye made the observation in a report entitled: “The price of the winner-takes-all culture in Ghanaian politics,” which was made available to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.
He noted that beyond party loyalists, cronies and relations are also showered with job favours; adding that “this is akin to creating jobs for the boys”.
Dr Kwakye said in the process square pegs are often placed in round holes as competence and merit are disregarded.
He said the price for the practice is inefficient and incompetent leadership in political and economic management.
The Senior Economists said the President’s extensive appointing power has in reality created a “winner-takes-all” culture in Ghana; explaining that the adjunct to the President’s absolute executive power is his power to appoint virtually all key public office holders.
He said the motivation to satisfy as many party loyalists, cronies, relations, and other constituencies as possible invariably leads to the creation of an unjustifiably large public sector bureaucracy.
He said the creation of some Ministries, are duplication of functions since there are other Ministries, Departments and Agencies performing their functions.
Dr Kwakye said creating such a large public sector bureaucracy comes at the cost of high budgetary outlays, often at the expense of the needs of essential sectors like education, health, energy, infrastructure, water, and sanitation.
He said: “It is not by accident that the Single Spine Salary Scheme, which is being implemented in the context of such a huge public sector, is consuming all of our revenue.”
Dr Kwakye stated that the “winner-takes-all” and “exclusion-politics” culture in Ghana is detrimental to the country’s development; maintaining that as a developing country that is still building its human capital, Ghana needs to make full use of available capacity for its development.
“No one party has monopoly over the expertise to execute the country’s political and economic agendas,” he said.
Dr Kwakye said the “winner-takes-all” factor exacerbates the brain drain by alienating substantial numbers of professionals.
He noted that the ultimate cost to the nation is deprivation of human capital needed to support growth and development.
“Inclusive-politics deliver benefits to the people and provides the right setting for hard work and high productivity that engender growth and development,” he said.
Source: GNA