Former Deputy Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng, says Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong, possesses the political courage required to confront Ghana’s deep-rooted governance and economic challenges.
Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show on Thursday, January 8, Mr Kwarteng said his support for Mr Agyapong is grounded in what he described as a rare willingness to challenge an entrenched political order that has failed to deliver meaningful change.
Reflecting on his own public service experience, Mr Kwarteng said: “I was Honourable Kwadwo Baah Wiredu’s Special Assistant. I was the Government Spokesperson on Finance. I was a Deputy Minister in the first administration. I have sat in Parliament as the Finance Committee Chair. I now chair the Budget Committee. What saddens me is the lack of political courage to confront the problems we have as a country frontally.”
He argued that Ghana’s politics has drifted away from the national interest towards personal gain.
“We have reduced politics almost to come and get what you can get for yourself as an individual. And when you leave the scene, that’s it. The country will take care of itself,” he said.
According to Mr Kwarteng, many politicians are driven less by reform and more by self-interest.
“And the biggest motivation in politics today is not so much to fix the system for the collective good. Our biggest motivation as politicians, all of us included, is almost how you can line your own pocket and appropriate the resources of the state for your own purposes.”
He said the scale of reforms required to fix Ghana’s problems demands a particular kind of leadership.
“Now, the reforms that are needed to fix the system, a system that I think must be disinfected, would require a certain character,” he stated.
Mr Kwarteng said such leadership is largely absent from the current political landscape.
“And when I look at the political landscape, I do not see any politician who has the courage and give me hope that we can confront this unhelpful status quo in any meaningful way, except Kennedy Agyapong. It is not what he has done. It is his character.”
He also criticised what he described as polished but ineffective leadership. “We are sick and tired of the suit-wearing, impeccable English-speaking politicians who come here, deliver beautiful speeches at the United Nations, and then come home and deliver very sloppy leadership,” he said.
Linking weak leadership to rising youth unemployment, Mr Kwarteng warned that the country is failing its young people. “You have teeming youth. The youth are churning out of our universities. What work are they going to do?” he asked.
He said Ghana needs leaders prepared to disrupt entrenched practices in governance and public finance.
“I want to see people who can disrupt the status quo, the status quo of borrowing, awarding contracts, taking kickbacks, and then you leave a country getting poorer and poorer.”
Referencing Ghana’s repeated engagements with the International Monetary Fund, he questioned the country’s continued dependence on external bailouts. “We need the kind of leadership that has the courage, and I dare say that has the madness, to confront the status quo and to give this country a chance of a better future,” he said.
Explaining his backing for Mr Agyapong, Mr Kwarteng added, “It is the reason I am supporting Kennedy Agyapong. He has his faults, all of us do, but there is a character in him that I think Ghana needs now until we get that kind of ruthless leadership that is willing to disrupt the unhelpful status quo that has sent a country like Ghana to the IMF 19 times.
“If you add the structural adjustment programme at HIPC, 19 times. A proud country like Ghana. Why?”
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