By Ben BRAKO
The story of the Republic of Ghana, once the vanguard of African liberation, is fast becoming a tragic epic of national betrayal. It is a nation not merely grappling with developmental challenges, but one deliberately choked by an insidious internal malaise.
This crisis is not fueled by external adversaries; it is driven by the very individuals entrusted with its future: a Western-educated elite who have perfected the role of the comprador class, willingly perpetuating a toxic form of neocolonialism for personal profit and validation.
These ‘Uncle Toms’—educated in the institutions of their former masters—are not merely indifferent; they are active conspirators. In a chilling demonstration of moral abdication, this class is partying whilst the country burns, deliberately ensuring Ghana’s sovereignty remains a cruel illusion, serving only external powers and their own vested interests.
Yet, for every collaborator, there is a resister—the likes of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and other Pan-Africanists who understood that true freedom demands a complete break from colonial structures. Their failure to institutionalize this vision, however, is the tragedy we now inherit.
The illegitimate foundation: sidelining traditional authority
The root of Ghana’s systemic rot is found in the very moment of its supposed emancipation. When the British colonial power ceded control, they executed a calculated, fatal institutional maneuver. They did not restore authority to the traditional chieftaincy—the authentic, historical custodian of the land from whom power was seized—but instead imposed their own creation: the Westminster-style parliamentary governance.
This transfer was a masterful act of continued control. The 1957 Constitution established a system where political power flowed from the colonial model, fundamentally sidelining the inherent and long-standing legitimacy of indigenous rule. Power was handed to a carefully selected cadre of Ghanaians, the nascent elite, who had been systematically trained in the colonial master’s image.
They were masters of British law, fluent in the Queen’s English, and adept at operating the bureaucratic machinery of empire, yet fundamentally disconnected from the indigenous systems of accountability and communal governance that defined the Ghanaian identity. They were given the keys to a nation they understood only through a foreign, neocolonial lens.
The independent Ghanaian state, therefore, was built on an illegitimate foundation. It created a political class immediately prone to carrying on the mechanics of neocolonialism as if there were no tomorrow, ensuring a permanent chasm between the rulers—who only respect external models—and the ruled, who desperately cling to a disregarded heritage.
Reimagining the curriculum: from colonial subjects to African citizens
Nowhere is the cultural and developmental betrayal more visible than in the educational and training system. The nation’s elite have steered education not towards national empowerment, but towards personal validation and social capture. The focus is obsessively centered on high-sounding professions—Law, Medicine, Engineering, Doctorates—prizing white-collar status over the foundational, practical skills required to build an independent, industrialized nation.
This vainglorious pursuit of elitist capture often descends into the truly comic and crass. Consider the spectacle at Achimota, a premier secondary school, where administrators recently refused to admit qualified Ghanaian students based on their traditional hairstyles, effectively using a colonial-era aesthetic rule as a tool of social exclusion.
This stunning display of cultural self-loathing upholds the colonial social code, prioritizing European notions of decorum over both academic merit and African heritage, all while completely neglecting traditional education and indigenous knowledge. They are so focused on mimicking the mannerisms of the West that they actively fight the very culture they are meant to lead.
The consequences of this misdirected investment are catastrophic:
The Brain Drain Tragedy: The government spends colossal sums training these highly specialized professionals, yet fails to invest in the domestic facilities required to employ them. The result is a debilitating brain drain, where the most skilled Ghanaian graduates are forced to emigrate. According to some reports, as recently as 2002, Ghana had 1,294 doctors practicing domestically but 1,639 Ghanaian doctors practicing abroad—meaning the nation was training more doctors for the West than for its own hospitals. Thus, European and American institutions are the true beneficiaries of Ghana’s massive financial investment in education, inheriting perfectly trained talent at zero cost.
A Constructive Alternative: To reverse this, the focus must shift immediately to strengthening vocational training and indigenous curricula—prizing artisans, software developers, master builders, and agricultural scientists who solve local problems. Education must serve national survival before it serves elite status.
The crime scene state: triumphant impunity of corruption
The governance system is utterly poisoned by corruption, transforming the political landscape into a moral desert. The scale of the graft is so immense that it is financially crippling the state; the amounts these officials steal often exceed what the country borrows, making theft, not development, the state’s primary financial operation.
Political power is no longer a trust but an investment scheme. The governance system of party politics operates like rival gangs of thieves, where political power is bought, and office appointments—even to top and sensitive positions—are given as rewards for loyalty and finance rather than competence and ability.
The normalization of this criminal enterprise is perhaps the most dangerous sign of national decay. The infamous Woyome judgment debt scandal, where a businessman was paid approximately $30 million USD of public funds under questionable circumstances, exemplifies the brazen impunity of this system. In the face of accusations that administrations have stolen upward of $21 billion USD, the alleged culprits are still holding lavish parties, driving luxury cars, and enjoying the high life, completely unbothered by the struggling populace.
Faith and Survival: Aligning Spiritual Investments with Human Needs
The ultimate, symbolic indictment of the elite’s warped vision is the grotesque misallocation of national resources. When a nation struggles to provide basic healthcare for its citizens, the decisions of its leaders become matters of life and death.
The failure to invest in life-saving infrastructure is indefensible. The tragic deaths of a sitting president, a vice president, and a first lady—all due to the lack of normal emergency health facilities and specialists—are damning evidence of the elite’s negligence.
Yet, amidst this humanitarian crisis, the nation witnessed a staggering act of egoistic misdirection: an ex-President spent over $30 million USD on the foundation of a cathedral. This immense sum was devoted to a monument of vanity and legacy, while countless communities across the country lack even ordinary health posts, clean water, and functional schools. This act confirms the elite’s priority: they value their own spiritual or political legacy, built in stone and glory, far above the actual, tangible survival of the people they swore to serve.
The Verdict: A Call for Sovereign Accountability
The malaise in Ghana is not an economic or a political problem in isolation; it is a crisis of conscience. It is the result of an elite class that has deliberately chosen cultural abdication and institutional decay over authentic national leadership. They have embraced the role of the “Uncle Tom,” dutifully maintaining the neocolonial structures that keep the nation dependent while they gorge themselves on the spoils of office.
The solution demands more than electoral cycles; it requires structural redesign. Ghana must:
Redesign Governance: Implement robust, non-partisan accountability mechanisms that actively prosecute corruption, regardless of party affiliation.
Restore Trust in Tradition: Develop a system that integrates the local legitimacy and accountability of the traditional chieftaincy into localized governance, moving beyond the imposed Westminster model.
Prioritize Production: Redirect all national training towards vocational, technical, and applied sciences to ensure national self-sufficiency in manufacturing, agriculture, and infrastructure.
The chains are no longer forged in London; they are forged in the halls of Accra by a ruling class that willingly locks the door behind them, suffocating the light of the Black Star in self-imposed darkness.
