The Members of Parliament for Tamale Central and Tema Central, Murtala Mohammed and Yves Hanson-Nortey are calling for concerted efforts to fight escalating political corruption in the country.
The MPs stated that corruption is manifested in every facet of Ghanaian society but indicated the situation is more profound among political elites, which when not addressed head-on, would continue to draw back efforts at improving the lives of citizens.
They were contributing to discussions on TV3’s Saturday morning analytical show the Key Points on the 2023 half-year report of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Mr. Mohammed said, “For a journalist, clergy, civil servant or public servant to be corrupt, taking from the State, the only means is through a channel, which is created by a political appointee,”
“As politicians, we must admit that corruption is a worry, but the biggest of all is the corruption within the political elite, and if we do not fight it we’ll sit here and cry every day.”
Referring to the accumulation of wealth, he said: “You have politicians in this country who within four years, whether under whichever government, build the most expensive houses and hotels and nobody says anything.”
He urged religious leaders to do more in the fight against corruption to augment the efforts of civil society and governments, saying: “It should be part of their sermons. Civic responsibilities must also be encapsulated in our educational curriculum.”
Mr. Hanson-Nortey, on the other hand, said all the corruption schemes seen in the country in the last 20 or 30 years are directly linked to the cost of doing politics in Ghana.
According to him, it cost so much to be a parliamentary candidate during primaries and is more during the general election.
“So, in a period of about four years, you’re spending about US$500 million and you’d have to recoup that money. Oftentimes, there are business people who back politicians with the hope that when you come to power, you’ll give them contracts to recoup that money.
“Let’s put in measures that would ensure political funding and hold politicians to account for where their monies come from,” the Tema Central MP said.