The President of the West African Bar Association (WABA), Mr Femi Falani, has prompted the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate all cases of diversion of national wealth. He said CHRAJ should delve into cases where national wealth was said to have been diverted and privatised for the personal gains of a few public officers and their collaborators in the private sector. Mr Falani was speaking at a public lecture organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) as part of this year's ninth Constitutional Week in Accra. It was on the topic "Election: An essential element of a democratic society": He said in a society where members of the ruling class were perceived to be diverting wealth for their personal gains at the expense of majority the people, democracy could not flourish, and called on CHRAJ to uphold its constitutional to investigate such allegations of corruption and mismanagement of public funds and make appropriate recommendations for prosecution and recovery. "The Government of Ghana owes it a duty to learn from the recklessness of the Nigerian ruling class and mobilize Ghanaians to take control of the economy in the overall interest of the people… because democracy cannot succeed in a poverty-stricken environment,” he added. He said as crude oil had been discovered in commercial quantities, the NCCE must educate Ghanaians on the tragic consequences of the “gross mismanagement of the oil wealth by some greedy and visionless ruling class in Nigeria. “While the majority of Nigerians, including the people of the rich Niger Delta region live in abject poverty, the rapacity visited on the economy by rulers is unimaginable,” Mr. Falani regretted. On the current global economic crisis he urged the NCCE to promote debates on the economic agenda of the government. He said now that the Western countries were bailing out their economies with trillions of dollars, the NCCE should mobilize Ghanaians to raise the issues with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which influenced the imposition of Structural Adjustment Programmes on Ghana. Source: Daily Graphic