A co-founder of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Prof. Baffour Agyemang-Duah says Ghana’s political landscape renders “good men” sorely blemished once they venture into it.

According to him, during election seasons, a sense of hope seems to be engendered among constituents because of the calibre of people seeking to assume leadership positions.

But this hope dwindles drastically when the aspirants finally get elected and have to deliver on their mandates.

“Of course, we have good men. I think there are good men but I think the good men get into politics and get spoiled by the system that we have created. That is the way I see it.

“Frankly, towards an election, not only the last one, people had a lot of hope in this country that things were going to change for the better all because of the men and women we saw seeking our leadership.

"But then we get into action and people begin to give up. Now the question becomes is it the people who deceived us by giving us the sweetness and sugar and all that? Or is it that they were good, they got into the system and they got spoiled?

"When I made the assessment myself, it seems more to me, maybe a combination but more I put the blame on the person that does not provide enough check on the power that people in trusted authority exercise,” he said on Joy FM's Super Morning Show.

Touching on the management of the country’s natural resources, the professor expressed disappointment at how leaders watch on as foreign companies accumulate much more revenue than the country itself in its mineral sector.

According to him, a country like Botswana has renegotiated terms with foreign companies in order to at least share profits evenly but Ghana only makes about 8 to 10 per cent profit of its own.

He has also lamented about successive governments’ neglect of developmental projects initiated by previous governments, especially of a different political party, but rather go for loans from international bodies to start new projects.

This, he says partly accounts for the current financial crisis in which the country finds itself.

Prof. Agyemang-Duah, therefore, fears that the political system is rotten and that politicians are only seeking to make a profit.

“So the whole system, I think is rotten and politicians are just cashing in and wasting our resources,” he concluded.