Our core problems in Ghana revolve around literacy and health. We are in a part of the world where only one in five people can read on average. In our region of Africa we have the highest literacy rate but this should not cause us to be complacent because 49% of the population over 15 years of age is illiterate. In most of Africa it is sobering that the numbers are worse for the most of the continent.
The relationship between illiteracy and poverty is a vicious and cyclical one and the manner in which our governments approach development does not augur well for the future. A nation in which people remain illiterate is one in which people will remain impoverished. Poverty is about a lack of choice and a lack of control over one's own destiny. There is no greater and more fundamental force for choice, dignity, democracy and self-respect than the ability and opportunity to read and thereby understand the options available in any given situation. This is the basis of informed decision making in matters of health, education, finance and one’s basic human rights.
Illiteracy is at the core of most of our health problems which in turn undermine the productive capacities of our citizens in agriculture, industry, the democratic process and in local development. Against this background, it feels unreal that most of the first hundred days of the newly elected government has been overshadowed by the distraction of having to retrieve state properties in the form of vehicles and household effects from members of the previous administration. The theft of state property is a criminal act and the paralytic response of our judicial and law enforcement agencies is uninspiring to say the least. The failure to act may be read to mean that members of this administration hope to avail themselves of the same items on their exit day sometime in the future.
The most important decisions of a government are not political ones but ethical ones. Here, successive governments have shown a disturbing lack of political will to act in a manner that reinforces the rule of law in the society. Without a clear moral and ethical framework within which the public is led, every future act of this administration will be undermined by the powerful symbolism of weakness and a failure to act when the need was pressing. To many, these are piddling little issues but they cast a long and dirty shadow on every act of the administration. The inertia around issues of crime and punishment only serve to undermine the faith of the electorate in the ethical basis of the constitution of the state. Since when did thieves have the option to return stolen goods and thus set their own punishment after they are called to the carpet? These are the lessons we are teaching our children. We are teaching them that if you are powerful enough, you can take what is not yours and suffer no consequence whatsoever.
How can a policy which revolves around state bungalows being falsely appraised and sold to elected officials be sustained? For many years, the failure of successive governments to provide adequate accommodation at the district level has been a factor in the poor retention rates of highly trained health, engineering and other personnel. This has resulted in a very slow pace of rural development. Under no circumstances should the already inadequate infrastructure of the public service be subjected to the predatory whims of the very beneficiaries of those perks. This is akin to kicking the gift horse in the teeth!
All previous sales of this nature should be reviewed and reversed. The principle on which such sales were based is rooted in enabling influence peddling and day light robbery. We should have a system in which there should be no expectation of leaving government service with any items falsely depreciated below market value. Only then will we attract individuals who are truly willing to serve and sacrifice for the nation.
I have asked this question before. What is our national ethos (1, 2)? What principles are we wedded to as a nation and absolutely unwilling to compromise? What actions can we truly consider not in keeping with our national character and worthy of serious retribution within our society? Where is the Council of State? If we do not ask these questions, we cannot even begin to empower our society with structures for ethical development. This form of national development is not cheap and there will be many unhappy people but we must begin to stand up for what is right because we are losing billions of Cedis which would make such a great difference to the education and health of the ordinary citizen and hence to our productivity and competitiveness as a nation.
Many classrooms stand empty after children go home. These empty classrooms could be used every day to teach adults in those very communities to read and write as is done in Venezuela. District Assemblies should seek volunteers from those very communities to teach the adults who are in need of such services and their communities would be transformed in no time. The time has come to leverage the few resources we have for the maximum benefit of our communities. It is also time for those of us who do not support the meteoric rise of corruption as a national emblem to say so forcefully from the roof tops of our beloved country until the deaf in power hear us and begin to serve the people who put them in positions of stewardship. In this regard, an undercover recently journalist conducted a sting operation of the CEPS agents at Kofi Badu Krom in which officers are on video taking bribes and aiding smugglers, is the kind of activism we need in journalism. We hope that this determination is matched by the administrators of law enforcement in the country. The auguries are not encouraging.
Citizens have to do everything possible to keep the issue of ethics in government and the public service on the front page if those who are elected to do so, shirk their responsibilities. President Mills has recently made some very strong remarks about the need to prosecute wrong doers. We can only hope that his stated position does not go the way of his predecessor’s “zero tolerance” non- policy.

Prof. T. P. Manus Ulzen
tulzen@yahoo.com