Economist, Prof Stephen Adei has warned Ghanaian politicians against the continuous exploitation of the country’s societal weaknesses.
According to him, Ghanaian politicians rather than emphasizing the country’s societal strengths to foster development, instead exploit the country’s societal weaknesses such as corruption, hero worship, among others, to further their own parochial interest to the detriment of the country.
This he says has significantly impaired Ghanaians’ ability to choose good leaders to lead the country and has further eroded the country’s democratic dispensation.
“Our political leaders have so much exploited and cleavage in our culture the poverty of the people, their hero worship and the rest, and our values which guarded us in the past has been so downplayed,” he said on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, November 9.
He warned that should the trend continue, disenchanted Ghanaians could lead an uprising against government.
He was, however, worried that the outcome of such an uprising could lead to worse conditions than the country is currently facing.
“The only sad part is that if the politicians continue this course and that gives us a very dangerous trend, there is either the Arab spring type of coup d’états which in our part of the world has always led to a worsened situation,” he said.
Prof. Adei was hopeful that recent agitations against bad governance and calls for more accountable leadership would set in motion a movement to usher in better leadership for the country.
“I talk to lot of young people like you and they’re at this moment they’re waiting for a clean man or woman of character and of competence and who cares for Ghanaians to rise up and let me tell you, there could be a tsunami that will sweep away this almost duopoly of corruption of leaders in Ghana.
“So I think that our society has the capacity and many societies which eventually have good leaders had gone through a bad patch of leadership like we’re experiencing and have experienced in our recent past and by which I’m not talking about a specific regime,” he said.