"Moneythocracy"

I had no plans of writing this week but I guess I have been prompted by a programme that run yesterday morning on BBC Network Africa programme to put down these few words.

There is this saying in Akan which goes like this: “if you don’t have money you claim black magic (for money) is bad”. I heard one of the candidates of the December 7 election in Ghana: Edward Mahama say that in Ghana we practice “Moneythocracy”. Don’t mind my spelling I am yet to ask him how it is spelt since he coined that term. One will ask what is His reason for saying that? He claimed that in Ghana, the political parties with enough funds at their disposal win election and for that matter we do not practice democracy but “moneythocracy”.

I will want somebody to tell me one country in this world where political parties don’t need money to win elections. Did I hear during the democratic primaries Barack Obama raise so much money than his fellow contestants? Did I hear and see him win the primaries and subsequently the presidential elections in USA?

Per chance are they practicing “moneythocracy” in America too? I don’t know why people always want to find faulter with things related to Africa especially when they are at the losing end. Don’t misunderstand me I don’t mean any other people but Africans. If you read this and you know of any political party which won election without spending money, and lots of it, let me know so that I can go learn from them because I want to aspire to the office of the president of the republic of Ghana and I don’t have money to do so, so I will opt for the alternative way to win election and not through the barrel of the gun.

I am disappointed in my name-sake’s comment and I believe he should think carefully about his comments before he makes them especially when it has a large listening audience as BBC has. Probably, my friend Dr. Mahama should start looking for ways to raise enough money to win political power so that he can come and help transform our economy but if he wants to sit back and lose all the time and claim we don’t practice democracy in Ghana, I am afraid he is ridiculing himself.
Ghana is practicing a democratic system which is maturing by the day and which is the envy of our fellow African nations and nothing whatsoever any body says can change my mind.
Let assess these facts, but for this year’s election that the USA had a massive voter turn up, Ghana had been recording a much better voter turn than they had at least during the 2000 and 2004 elections. Our basic human rights records keep improving by the day. There is rule of law, the basic freedom of expression is working at least at the minimal levels, , yes, there are a few questions, but these questions border more on “over liberalization” than suppression of mass media.

These I believe are some of the important measures of the democracy. Therefore if anyone wants to say something about the governance system in Ghana, the fellow should check the facts first of all before he or she commits a serious scholarly blunder.

With all apologies to Edward Mahama, he could have said something else.