The national conversation has once again descended into what many refer to as a theatre of petty political spectacle, at a time when Ghana should be deeply involved in a collective reckoning about how billions of cedis are mismanaged, diverted, or veiled in dubious procurement deals.
Bright Simons, Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, and Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), have both come out with scathing criticisms that show how frustrated Ghana’s top policy thinkers are becoming.
Their message is straightforward and sharp: the country is dangerously distracted. Benjamin Boakye’s lament captured the hopelessness of witnessing a republic that has perfected the art of moral grandstanding while completely ignoring the fundamental task of governance—transparently and responsibly managing public funds.
He posed the question, rhetorically but devastatingly, of how one can leave a nation that “specialises in passing and interpreting corruption laws on the streets and airwaves,” but demonstrates virtually no commitment to safeguarding public funds from embezzlement.
According to Benjamin Boakye, any significant kind of structural accountability has been supplanted by Ghana’s fixation with anecdotal accusations and sporadic outrage.
“In this country, postmortem accountability doesn’t exist. It is the longer path to justice, but the public seems to fancy it, misaligning its energies away from core governance issues.
“So, trust that this week will be dominated by Sammy Gyamfi, and 32 million of us will debate whether $800, or thereabouts, depending on your numeracy proficiency, is public or private”.
Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy
Silence amid Wasteful Public Spending
Benjamin Boakye pointed out that nobody seems interested in talking about the billions being stealthily taken from the Consolidated Fund under the pretense of sanitation contracts, where workers feign to sweep streets, but the only signs of activity are cones and traffic bottlenecks.
Additionally, he was incensed that SML Ghana continues to receive GHS 22 million each month for a revenue assurance contract that is riddled with irregularities, and that nothing has changed in spite of public outcry and government pledges to review or terminate it.
Benjamin Boakye also lamented the enigmatic disappearance of 1,300 containers, which has been forgotten by the public, despite the nation receiving a $260 million loan from the World Bank to allegedly buy similar goods.
“$146 million is heading to Margins to build a new e-payment system. Have we wrapped up the e-gate scandal already? About GHS 8 billion continues to be extracted from the public for sole-sourced petroleum service contracts, untouchable across political regimes…Etcetera.”
Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy
These are the true stories, according to Benjamin Boakye—systemic, institutionalized public resource leaks that require immediate national attention.
But when compared to the storm sparked by a few hundred dollars or the most recent political insult thrown across the aisle, they hardly make an impression on public opinion.
In support of Benjamin Boakye’s criticism, Bright Simons focuses on the ridiculousness of elite priorities in Ghanaian society.
With hardly disguised irony, he noted that Ghanaians appear more interested in the religious customs and gift-giving tendencies of the leader of a significant state-owned company than in the business’s operational soundness and the obvious policy issues it raises.
According to Bright Simons, this is a sign of a deeper dysfunction: character arguments now take precedence over policy discussions, and the personal has surpassed the institutional.
Benjamin Boakye and Bright Simons both emphasized a distracted society in which contentious discussions about public finance mismanagement, procurement irregularities, and governance are routinely put on hold in favor of sensationalism.
Benjamin Boakye claims that there is an unhealthy national preference for what he refers to as “postmortem accountability”—the notion that misconduct should only be investigated after the fact, if at all.
He maintained that this is an abandonment of the collective civic duty to hold public officials accountable in real time as well as a betrayal of proactive governance.
Both believe that this is about more than just money; it’s about what Ghanaians as a nation decide to value, especially given the civic culture that values show over content and outrage over results.
To them, the real players behind state capture will remain hidden if people are continuously distracted by political soap operas, as transparency is not only challenging in such a setting, but it also loses its significance.
Thus, Benjamin Boakye’s and Bright Simons’ interventions go beyond technocrat tirades.
They serve as wake-up calls and reminders that the Republic is gradually being eroded by everyone who lets trivial matters take precedence over important issues, not just those who mishandle public funds..
For both, shifting values in public discourse is the first step towards rescuing Ghana from political theatre and putting it back on a path of rational, evidence-based policymaking.
The country must choose between facing the unpleasant realities of its governance, spending, and safeguarding of public wealth, or continuing down the path of trivial diversions and shallow accountability.
The latter is more difficult, but as Benjamin Boakye correctly pointed out, it is the only way to achieve real justice.
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