Using culture to justify corrupt behavior is problematic – Inusah Fuseini

Former Tamale Central MP Inusah Fuseini is not enthusiastic about the use of culture as a pretext to perpetrate the monetization of elections.

This phenomenon, according to him, is encouraging more people to buy their way into political office without resorting to merit.

It comes in the wake of recorded electoral irregularities, including one captured live on camera during the just-ended Ejisu by-election.

The MP involved, Professor Kingsley Nyarko, admitted that the envelope contained cash which he was giving to Electoral Commission polling station officials for food.

But speaking of PM Express by JoyNews On Monday, Fuseini explained that such justifications, among others, are wrong.

“We saw a member of Parliament exhibit conduct that appears to violate the provisions of Law 1034, which is the amendment to Law 39 criminal and other crimes, now you hear people say well, he gave them money for lunch, it’s Our culture. You see, people tried to justify corruptible behavior based on our culture.

“But it’s not even our culture, our culture doesn’t suggest being intrusive in an event. It is not their job to provide lunch to the people who are there to participate in the (by-elections)… and in this case, both the MP and the EC staff are public servants.

“So why would a public servant take on the responsibility of feeding another public servant when they are not doing any charitable work?” he told host Evans Mensah.

Fuseini also lamented the practice of aspiring candidates giving money to delegates or electors under the pretext of “transport fare.”

According to him, the practice has dangerous consequences that could affect the fundamental principles of democracy.

“Now, we must understand that it is not about a single person or candidate in the parliamentary elections, where it is a single candidate, corruption in the induction of delegates is minimal because there is no competition.

“But when there are a lot of candidates, you will see delegates taking (money) from all the candidates, and there is a race to the bottom.

“Who would be more corrupt when it comes to influencing and inducing the delegates to be able to vote for him? And that is very problematic for our democracy. It means that it determines and not the qualification, merit or competence of a person.”

In the same programme, a senior researcher at the Institute for Democratic Governance, Professor Kwesi Jonah, called on all stakeholders to take immediate steps to eradicate this existential threat to the country’s democracy.

He believed that failure to address widespread corrupt practice would gradually undermine the very foundations of Ghana’s democracy.

“Civil Society Organizations together with political parties, we (CSOs) cannot do this without the support of political parties. We must all accept that the buying and selling of votes undermines Ghana’s democracy, therefore we must incorporate it into the candidates’ code of conduct.

“So we must all work to show the candidate that in a competitive election, we have given voters the opportunity to select the best candidate for the position.

“It is wrong to buy a vote, you turn an election into an auction and it is not right. Therefore, CSOs and political parties must work together to ensure that this problem, even if not completely eliminated, is minimized.”

DISCLAIMER: The views, comments, opinions, contributions and statements made by readers and contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.