Dean of the University of Ghana Law School Raymond Akongbura Atuguba came under fire for saying that Ghana may be ripe for a coup. 

He lectured at a forum sponsored by Solidaire Ghana, which is a civil society organization formed “in solidarity with the plight of the suffering masses in Ghana: with the aim of promoting good governance, expos[ing] and condemn[ing] bad governance, and or, recommend[ing] impactful socio-economic solutions.”

At a time when half of Ghana’s expected cocoa harvest simply disappeared from the record and some opposition politicians are blaming the country’s financial crisis on official corruption, Professor Atuguba’s speech, is devoid of any condemnation of corruption as a contributing factor to Ghana’s dismal outlook.

In fact, this speech is remarkable for its defence of Ghana’s cancer.

A kleptocracy, according to Wikipedia, is “a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use political power to appropriate the wealth of the people and land they govern, typically by embezzling or misappropriating government funds at the expense of the wider population.”

Atuguba acknowledges all of the relevant facts, save placing the blame where it belongs, on the leadership of both of the major political parties. 

President Mahama took Ghana’s debt from 34.4 % of GDP to 55.9 %.  President Akufo-Addo has increased public indebtedness to a crushing 85 % of GDP, according to the Ghana Statistical Service.

According to Wikipedia, “[O]ne feature of political-based socioeconomic thievery is that there is often no public announcement explaining or apologizing for misappropriations, nor any legal charges or punishment levied against the offenders.” 

Atuguba says the Government, to cope with Covid-19, borrowed GHS 30 billion, or $5 billion at then-exchange rates, from various sources. Yet the Dean of the Law School is brazen in defending the political class’s thievery of this money and Ghana’s other public resources: 

“I am afraid that an IMF programme will start with an audit of Covid expenditure, and given what has happened with such audits in other African countries, I shudder to think what will happen if we are audited for our use of the double-digit billions of Ghana cedis the IFIs gave us as Covid support.”

Uncovering official corruption is one of the reasons why Atuguba argues against seeking an IMF bailout: Ghana is too proud to admit its faults.

Who will pay for this pride?  Will the people who have stolen millions and billions, Atuguba’s peers?  Or will it be Solidaire Ghana’s suffering masses?

Atuguba answers the latter.  His proposed solution is to rally the NDC leadership of which he was formerly and formally a member to support Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta’s cry for E-levy. 

E-levy will raise the billions Ghana needs from those who send more than GHS 100 per day via mobile money platforms.

Also of curious note in Atuguba’s speech is his opening welcome to National Security Operatives, whom he mentions are well distributed within the Hall, before reminding everyone that he used to work with them. He hails his good friend and Minister, Kan-Dapaah.

The Ministry for National Security is well aware of what is going on. Some of their agents have even confided to me precisely who close to the President is committing galamsey and at what massive scale.

Wikipedia continues: “To some observers, a thievery society allows the politically connected to redirect wealth to those deemed worthier by state apparatchiks.  Such states are either in continuous warfare with their neighbours [which thankfully is not Ghana’s case] or they simply milk their subjects as long as they have any taxable assets.”

Because they know what is going on, yet refuse to stop it, I have taken to calling them the “Ministry of National Insecurity.”

Was Atuguba’s call-out to the Ministry of National Insecurity an appeal to unite the NDC leadership behind what he deems a patriotic duty to pass E-levy?  Apologizing that it is very hard for him to tell the naked truth, and fearing a coup, Atuguba admits to a cynic’s philosophy of life: “We all live a lie.”

It is not Atuguba’s fault that Ghana’s culture fell victim to endemic corruption in the Presidency of Kwame Nkrumah, as documented in Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.

E-levy does nothing to solve corruption. If anything, it will feed it, by creating a new revenue stream from which officials and their connivers can steal. 

The only way to end systemic corruption is to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators and seize their assets, to punish them and deter others. Is President Akufo-Addo up to this task?