Ending our debt by fighting corruption

There is a sad joke that every new baby in Ghana is born into debt.
Unfortunately, this is actually true. Thanks to the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government’s economic mismanagement, our country owes billions in foreign debt, with the largest amount, US$3 billion, owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to our population size, that means every single Ghanaian owes at least US$1,000 which is growing every single day with exorbitant interest.
So, every baby born already owes US$1,000 before they even suckle at their mother’s breast.
If Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia is elected, his answer to our economic woes is to borrow more and more money, meaning that our debt could be many thousands of dollars by the time he has finished his first term.
This is the rock of debt he will chain us to, forcing us into national and individual indentured servitude because of his ineptitude.
If the international community understands quickly that Bawumia has no way to pay off his debts, then the current Vice President will take from us, the people, exactly the same way as his boss President Akufo-Addo has in recent years.
Our heads are still spinning due to all the dozens of new, unnecessary and nuisance taxes, like the E-levy and the Covid tax, this current government has enacted to pay for their failures.
If Bawumia is elected, there will be more taxes planned that will have the same effect as national borrowing and send us into an endless spiral of debt.
However, there is a relatively simple answer to our problems.
A few years ago, Ghana’s anti-graft body, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), which is Transparency International’s Local Chapter, said that Ghana “loses close to US$3 billion to corruption annually.”
Take another look at that number, US$3 billion.
It means that if we have a leader who actually fights corruption then we could pay off the IMF immediately, without borrowing more money or introducing new crippling taxes.
Unfortunately, we can not leave this to Vice President Bawumia, it is his government that is involved in corruption.
Their tenure has been rife with corruption, the Cecilia Dapaah scandal, the national cathedral project and the botched electricity privatisation deal, are just three examples of a tenure of corruption, graft and favouratism.
The former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu once called President Akufo-Addo “the mother serpent of corruption”, and if so, then Vice President Bawumia is its spawn.
There is no way that a man who stood in the very heart of power alongside the kingpin of corruption can fix a problem he helped create.
To do what is necessary, to stop corruption and end our debt, we need a new leader who can clean house and wage a ruthless war against graft.
During his presidency, John Mahama fought corruption, he didn’t just talk but enacted polices, like actively prosecuting public officials suspected of fraud and secured refunds of money wrongfully paid to or appropriated by any individuals or companies.
Upon reelection, one of his key policies will be to set up an independent value-for-money office to scrutinise all government procurements above the $5 million threshold.
He has stated on many occasions that no one is above the law and every single politician and public official will be held accountable.
This is the type of steely determination we need to fight corruption, regain the people’s money squandered by thieving hands, and pay off our national debt.
It won’t be easy, but it is absolutely essential, and is the only way we can chart a better tomorrow for our children, so that a new baby born in the Ghana enters this world with love, happiness and a positive future, not weighed down by an impossible and oppressive debt.