THE ELITES OF GHANA

Too many have had to suffer at the hands of political economic elite whose only fight is for them by them, with them and them... And with a bureaucracy so bloated and confused, the powerful always win...but...Onyedikachi Ndidi 

 In a recent conversation with friends on the state Ghana, I reminded of the Marxist theorem that says, "When a society is on the verge of collapse, the ruling class is thrown into confusion."

Ghana's current identity is that replete with confused, factionalized and extremely corrupt elites with a limited sense of nationalism. As my late Mother puts it, "These elites lacking strong and viable base in production, have for long used the nation as its primary instrument of primitive accumulation." In the end, the country has been mangled and rendered impotent in the quest for nationhood, growth and development, much less democracy. 

The genesis and development of the Ghanaian elite is as interesting as the generic rooting of the Ghanaian nation. The elite, which took over power from the departing colonial authorities, also took over from them the development ethos of the colonial administrations. 

This could be stated as the self-interested exploitation of the people and the country. This self-serving ethos, which had been the foundation, was what the colonialism had engrained in the mentality of the emerging Ghanaian elite. The devastating effect of this formed the basis of development orientation in the postcolonial Ghana. 

While one can argue rightly so too, that though the elite is meant to play a central role in promoting and designing democracy, as it is quite impossible to prosecute any democratic project in any society without the input of the elite, the Ghanaian elite has sadly continued to impede and frustrate the democratization trend. 

They see democracy or governance more as a means to an end, and in Achebe's words, have a tendency to ‘pious material wooliness and self-centered pedestrianism’. Consequently, the group remains just like its colonial progenitor an instrument of exploitation and suppression of the popular classes and a tool for primitive accumulation and class consolidation for the hegemonic groups. 

In other words, the few who control the system have access to all imaginable perks while the many who are excluded are victims of all forms of abuses. Perhaps, it is for this reason, the struggle to attain and retain power has become a veritable war fought without restraint and with total disregard for the ethos and conventions of democracy and giving birth to an unprecedented level of corruption and misgovernance irrespective of the party or group. 

In twenty-first century Ghana, elite corruption is demonstrated in various dimensions, namely, presidentialism, clientelism and rent seeking. 

Now, let us look at presidentialism, it implies the systematic concentration of political power in the hands of one individual who more often resists delegating all but the most trivial decision-making tasks. 

This concept is likened to patrimonialism or personalized rule, where an individual rules by dint of personal prestige and power. It can emerge from either the army or a dominant political party, whichever way; the point is that power is consolidated by asserting total personal control over formal political structures thereby making ways for corruption (Bratton and Van de Walle, 1997). 

For example in Kuffour’s government, President John Kuffour was the minister of roads and transport, a portfolio he never wanted any other individual to handle. 

He was minister of roads for several months yet he did not build a single road. So it is foolhardy for any sane person to be moved by his exhibitionism of lampooning John Mahama, a man who continuous to pay his dues to him (Kuffour) timely.

In Ghana, primitive accumulation comes in form of theft, looting, graft, expropriation, money laundering, enslavement and internal colonization. In this sense, even governments are not eager to probe the sources of personal wealth. 

What is more? The prevailing trend among the Ghanaian elite is how to enrich oneself in order to remain relevant in the polity and how that is done is nobody’s business. To this class of individuals, ‘the end justifies the means’, and not ‘the means to justify the end’. 

Little wonder, the cases of DUMSOR being viewed as a political tool, coupled with ritual incompetence, photo-shopping and secret recordings. To this end, the average Ghanaian simply sees the elite as an opportunist, who’s first and foremost is in office for his own end and probably those of his immediate constituency. 

What is serious about plutocracy is that, it breaks the unity of the state into two contending classes: The rich and the poor. Plutocrats are consumers of good things and seekers of constant pleasure, and when they have used up their money, they become dangerous because they want more of what they have become accustomed to. 

This then is my admonition, and the analysis of all the big-sounding words I have narrated above—If indeed elections do hold, if NPP wins, NDC would pretend to have conceded defeat, only to organize a press conference to lunch a new set of campaign message for the next election, if NDC wins, NPP would go back to Supreme Court in other to find time to finalize bedroom agreements before the verdict.

However, whether any of them wins and it stays so, with a little season of misunderstanding, it will simply be because either party will see a re-congregating of elites, and so therefore very little governance will take place.

Here, uprising of good people may follow to correct all the evil deeds. Only time would tell.