We must change phenomenon of moneyed elections – Raymond Atuguba

The Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law is worried about the phenomenon of the infiltration of money in Ghana’s political system.

According to Prof. Raymond Atuguba, this is one of the biggest issues hampering democracy, leaving governance to the highest bidder.

This has been a cause of concern for many Ghanaians who have bemoaned that it leads to the election of unfit leaders.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on the AM Show, the academic feared that the development would continue to chip away key parts of the country’s progress as a whole.

Prof Atuguba insisted that “when a person or a party borrows money, nationally and internationally to run a campaign, they are essentially going to bed with investors, and the investors will come to collect immediately after you are installed as President.”

“This means therefore that our governance is skewed towards satisfying the dynamics of moneyed election,” he said on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

He described these dynamics as the repayment of these debts to investors with interest, which affects the allocation of state funds.

“The second priority is to build a war chest for your next election. And by then people are going to expect more because you have been in the seat for four years,” he added.

He further stated that the criminal nature of these syndicates forces the guilty political party to assemble experts in various legal, financial and media circles among others to work towards defending the regime.

He lamented that the allocation of resources to all these areas by the government leaves the citizenry with nothing to boast of in the long run.

“Unless we change the architecture of moneyed elections, we will continue going through these cycles forever and ever, Amen.”