A few weeks ago, Ghana’s Judiciary became the talk of the country and beyond—owning to the fact that investigative Journalist-Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposed certain judges and officers as corrupt.
This baffled certain Ghanaians who seem to be unaware of what it takes to live in Ghana: either pay your way to the top or you join a long stagnant queue.
At the peak of the judicial scandal conversation, I wrote an article titled “Judiciary Corruption in Ghana | A Complete Waste of Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ Time & Resource” in which I stated among other things that:
“No one is born corrupt; this should simply tell us that getting rid of 34 judges and other corrupt court officials will do little to shake the foundation of corruption in a country like Ghana—where almost everyone takes part or aids in some sort of corrupt/bribery practice at least once in a life time.
You cannot prune the branches of a mango tree and expect the new set of leaves to be that of oranges. This is exactly what we do in Ghana and the many hard works of Anas Aremeyaw Anas over the years have achieved no lasting result because of this—-our inability to dig deeper for enduring solutions. We always get rid of those who are unfortunate to be caught on camera and imprudently deceive ourselves into thinking that; we’ve dealt with the problem.
Ghanaians are not corrupt because of the food they eat—but it’s because the systems make bribery and corruption the only reasonable option, most times. Why would I waste 3 months going to court at least once a week for driving without insurance and be later fined £10 (60GHS) when at the time of the arrest, I could have just given the arresting policeman £2 (12 GHS) and be free?