Journalist and anti-corruption crusader, Manasseh Azure Awuni has blamed the three arms of government for the country's current economic woes.

Delivering a speech on Thursday at a lecture to commemorate Independence Day organised by the University of Ghana, he enumerated challenges facing the three arms of government.

According to him, the legislative arm of government in the country is a “lost cause”, explaining that his assertion is because of the misdirection of the parliamentarians.

“Our parliamentarians do not represent us. They have sold their birthright to the executive and have gone to sleep,” he said.

Commenting on the judicial arm of government, he noted that although there are honest judges, they lack the “courage to stand for their principles and to suffer for them.”

He went on to say that “even as judges, they should know that the effects of bad governance is like rain, it doesn’t fall on only one roof.”

Mr Awuni Azure urged judges to free their conscience even if their mouths are gagged in office.

“I agree perfectly with former Chief Justice who is here with us, who said recently that her mouth was gagged when she was in office. In fact, any sensible judge must first learn to tame his or her tongue before taking office but dear judges, if your mouths are gagged, your conscience should be free and if you should ungag your conscience while you are on the bench, you may have no reason to ungag your mouth when you are on retirement,” he stated.

According to him, with the executive, “our only hope is that one day we may get a President who is honest and willing to tackle the rot in our country.”

On her part, former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo expressed concern regarding what she says is the decline in love for peace in Ghana.

Equally disturbing is what she describes as a lack of integrity, adding that the time for change is now.

According to her, the lecture will serve as a reminder of things that needed to be done to salvage the nation.

“I am very optimistic that this lecture has set the tone for a deeper reflection on the state of our economy. All that we doing right now is so timely because things have reached a certain path that is quite obvious to everybody that things cannot like this,” she stated.