[Opinion] Ghana doesn't need a new institution of integrity to attain her moral vision

I commend the Church of Pentecost for their National Development Conference initiative that brought major national development stakeholders and most if not all those who matter to deliberate on the crucial subject of moral vision and national development.

It is the most refreshing event that got many citizens' attention in the mixture of voices on Former Sanitation Minister, Cecelia Dapaah's case.

I am passionate about the theme of the conference, because, no nation can attain meaningful development without competent conscientious citizens of integrity who are united to a higher being than themselves.

No great nation was ever built by valueless men and women who are more committed to obtaining their self-centered parochial aspirations at the expense of the collective as Ghana's situation, sadly, is today.

Of course, this is not the first time we are having such conversations, and, it certainly, will not be the last, but, as Peter Blomberg rightly observed, "if we avoid difficult conversations, we trade short term discomfort for long term dysfunction."

We need to have all the difficult conversations now about ourselves and our nation to avoid long term dysfunction. We have been in this dysfunctional democracy that is not yielding the democratic dividend it promised for far too long.

Without further ado, let me state that Ghana already has a moral vision so we do not need any institution or people to construct us one.

Our National Anthem and Pledge have the values that define our moral vision as a people. Our moral vision is loyal, faithful, selfless, fearlessly honest citizens who are religiously committed to the good of mother Ghana. Anybody who appreciates the words of our National Anthem and Pledge should know this.

Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah knowing this, in the First Republic, established the Young Pioneers with the aforementioned timeless values as the core values of the organisation. John Kufuor, in the Fourth Republic, used same for his National Orientation Programme in his Second Term.

What we need is conscientious leadership to facilitate the attainment of our moral vision and our collective development aspirations, as a nation. That is all.

Unfortunately, we do not seem to have leadership that embodies the lasting values of loyalty, faithfulness, selfless service, integrity, fearless honesty, etc which, define the moral vision our forefathers consciously constructed at the time of independence.

We do not have leadership that is committed to inculcating and internalising these values in our institutions, public and civil servants and the citizenry at large towards the attainment of our collective aspirations.

And, when I talk of leadership, I am not referring to only political leadership. I am referring to national leadership across board - traditional and religious leadership, political leadership, academia, civil society, etc.

The traditional and religious leaders of this rich but poor nation who are expected to help in shaping and driving the moral and spiritual vision of our nation are themselves acutely anaemic of the values they are supposed to promote and inculcate in their subjects and members.

However, instead of seeking the moral and spiritual healing they need by reuniting with a higher being than themselves to enable them deliver their moral and spiritual mandate to society, they are rather busily rendering themselves unresourceful to the attainment of our collective good by seeking unity and patronage with corrupt politicians on the corridors of power to have their share of the spoils of the land at the expense of us all.

Hence, as blind as these traditional and religious leaders are, they do not have the capacity to lead our morally and spiritually blind nation out of this thick darkness. That is why we keep blaming one another in the dark.

For emphasis, the light of society has been off for a long time; the salts of our land have lost their taste. Thus, self-seeking politicians only take advantage of the influence these blind traditional and religious leaders have on their large followers to connect to the followers for electoral purposes and nothing beyond that.

For instance, if Dr Muhammadu Bawumia is, unfortunately, elected the Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, all he needs to do is to get Opoku Nyinna of Pentecost Church as his Vice President to cure his religious inadequacies to win votes of Christian electorates who, otherwise, may not have voted for him. Or, get our corrupt clergymen to start preaching to their large peripheral minded congregations that God uses whoever he likes so one's religion does not matter when it comes to political leadership, and they shall follow like sheep. Yet, they would not do same sermons for Kweku Bonsam who is a traditional African worshipper.

To find space on the corridors of power, some of these clergymen give fake prophecies about their favourite politicians and their opponents to win the admiration of their favourites.

Our clergymen and traditional leaders do not care about the values that define our moral vision in our national anthem and pledge. If they do, how could our Bishops and Archbishops comfortably sit on the Board of Trustees of a National Cathederal constructed on foundation of stinking lies and inconsistencies? How could they not find anything wrong with the conduct of their colleague, Victor Kusi Boateng a.k.a Kwabena Adu-Gyamfi who a competent court of jurisdiction says his conduct bothers on criminality? They and Kusi Boateng Kwabena Adu-Gyamfi are same in thinking, attitude and conduct, so, they see nothing wrong with him living and operating businesses as two distinct citizens of Ghana concurrently.

This explains why the clergy and traditional leaders generally do not have positive influence on our politicians and national politics.

In fact, if the church and its leadership have positive influence on their memberships, businesses owned by church elders and church members would not be leading in scandalous public procurements. These businessmen contribute a lot to their funding hence they do not care about how they make the money they give them.

This is partly why methinks the new institution they are contemplating its establishment to promote integrity and execute the 10 key points the conference distilled would not make any difference. Nothing will change if our traditional and religious leaders and their institutions remain in the prevailing moral deprivation.

What can a new institution of integrity do that the National House of Chiefs, Christian Council, Council of State, NCCE, etc., collectively can not do? Are these existing bodies individually and collectively not mandated to provide moral and spiritual leadership to our nation?

We are not where we are today because we do not have a National Integrity Council; we are where we are today because we lack conscientious men of integrity to lead our institutions and nation towards the attainment of our national moral vision and collective aspirations.

If a new body is formed who will lead it if not same people who have failed in the various existing institutions?

If our leaders have realised the need for moral regeneration, they should repent from their hypocritic and corrupt lives and re-unite with divinity and mother Ghana, and responsibly provide the needed transformational and generational leadership with integrity towards the attainment of meaning development. They should stop pushing for the establishment of another institution to employ same valueless people to waste our resources.

NCCE, National House of Chiefs, Christian Council, etc. are enough to collectively work towards the attainment of our moral vision as a nation.

Source: Raymond Ablorh

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Raymond Ablorh, popularly called President Ablorh is a prolific thought-provoking feature writer who has contributed to national conversations since the year 2000.