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Member of Parliament for Korle Klottey, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, has issued a scathing critique of Ghana’s political culture, warning that the country’s obsession with elections and populism is undermining long-term national development.
Speaking on JoyNews’ “Talk No Dey Cook Rice” podcast, Dr Agyeman-Rawlings said political leadership has become too fixated on winning votes at the expense of making tough, forward-looking decisions.
“It seems as though we’re constantly chasing elections, and the populism thing is just becoming so central to what is always being done that we are not paying enough attention to what is the right thing to do, not just for today, but for tomorrow, for generations yet unborn,” she said.
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She argued that good governance goes far beyond periodic elections and must be judged by results and accountability.
“Good governance is not just about going for elections and having a certain level of trust, transparency, and fairness. What are the things that you’re doing for the people? Are you delivering on time? Are you making sure that the dignity of their citizens is respected? Are you making sure working conditions are good enough?”
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings took aim at Ghana’s justice system, highlighting glaring disparities in how ordinary citizens and public officials are treated.
She referenced a recent JoyNews report about a trader who received a two-year jail sentence for damaging part of an overpass, questioning why similar accountability isn’t applied to politicians who mismanage public funds.
“Are we going to be able to do that to a public servant, a politician, who does the equivalent of damaging that where a road should have been built and it wasn’t done, it’s full of potholes, they got the money, and we can’t account for how the money translated into a road being built, but they are walking free?” she asked.
The Korle Klottey MP also lamented that many young Ghanaians feel excluded from the policy-making process, leading to apathy and disengagement.
“You have a lot of young people who feel like they don’t matter. They are not heard in designing policies. Nobody’s asking them, ‘What are you actually interested in?’ You have sometimes people designing a thing and saying, ‘This is what we’re giving to the youth.’ But maybe that’s not what they want,” she noted.
She warned that this growing disconnect risks alienating the next generation from governance.
“We’ve steadily moved away from this sense of being a part of the thing to being outsiders of governance. And when you don’t have leadership that is willing to bring the people along as well and expect more of people, you create a feeling of, well, what difference does it make anyway?”
Drawing parallels with countries such as Rwanda, Singapore, and Malaysia, Dr Agyeman-Rawlings urged Ghanaian leaders to be bold and enforce higher standards, even when unpopular.
“People look in envy at Rwanda. Do you know what it’s like to be there? You can’t litter the way you do over here. There is zero tolerance for selling in the wrong space. You cannot take plastic into Rwanda. People brag about Malaysia and Singapore. What it took to get them where they are. Are we prepared to do that? You’re not allowed to chew gum in Singapore. It’s as simple as that. No exceptions made,” she said.
She stressed the need for Ghana to “draw the line” and elevate governance standards.
“When we’re bringing the bar so low because we feel that it’s okay to do that and get away with it because of politics, I don’t understand that. We have to, at some point, draw the line and do what is right for the people of Ghana.”
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