Monetization in Ghana’s elections must change – Atta Akyea
Former Minister of Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea has said that the mentality of Ghanaians towards elections which assumes that politicians must give money before voting must be changed.
Ghanaian politics has always been characterized by monetization, goods, food and in some cases, cars given to voters to get votes.
According to him, most people vote for candidates who are ready to give money, because some voters are always in a hurry to vote for politicians who give money.
Constituency legislator Akim Abuakwa said some voters rarely consider the competence of politicians before voting them into power, adding that money plays a major role in the electoral process.
He called on stakeholders to look at monetization of elections which has become a canker in Ghanaian politics, fearing that competence will be replaced by mediocrity if the situation is not addressed.
The former Minister of Works and Housing added that incompetent politicians elected by the masses because of their money do not have much input in nation building, a situation he described as worrying.
They fear that the country will not have a good government to govern its citizens if qualified politicians are not elected to power.
During the lecture on the 1992 Constitution on January 5, 2023, Mr. Atta Akyea said, “the challenge at all times is to ignore the equation, which is the mass, and the mass mentality. The constitution exists for the betterment of the people. But what is mass mentality? The discussion is always absent. One thing I see is that the people will have the government they want. When we are having this discussion, there are those who believe that they will not vote you into power, unless you give them money. I want to help you, but if you don’t pay the gate fee, I won’t open it for you to come and help me, it’s there, it has to be seen.
“At the end of the day, the poverty of the poor is in their own poverty. People who are not competent to help bring you coins and get power and don’t have much input. So we need to look at that dimension as well. Because in the end, if we don’t want to elect good people, we won’t have good government, that’s my humble view. And good people don’t have to tell me [they] have great ideas but my [their] pockets are not deep, so you will kill all the good people who will come and do the Constitution and prove the Constitution and improve people’s lives, and the average will go by raising from coins to give to the masses and that area is my heartbeat”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/Ge6C-5ua-rI
The post Monetization in Ghana’s election must change – Atta Akyea appeared first on Citinewsroom – Comprehensive News in Ghana.
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