Former Executive Vice President of Unilever Ghana and Nigeria, Yaw Nsarkoh, has cut to the core of what he sees as a dangerous defect in Ghana’s democratic architecture.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Monday, June 23, Mr. Nsarkoh did not mince words as he lamented the systemic opacity of political financing in Ghana, saying, “No one knows who funds our presidents.”
“We don’t know how much the sitting president spent on his campaign. We don’t know how much his main opponent spent either,” Nsarkoh said. “These are starting questions. I haven’t even gotten to source.”
The former Unilever executive’s frustration was palpable.
“In other democracies, these things are known. Even in America, we know how much a presidential candidate raised. Sometimes it’s on TV. You sit there and hear: this person has raised X million dollars,” he said. “Why don’t we know the same in Ghana?”
He linked this democratic blind spot to what he called a “Santa Claus democracy”, a system where elections have become transactional, driven by untraceable money and unchecked influence.
“It’s a public auction for the highest bidder,” he declared. “The electorate is reduced to ballots. They are no longer participants in governance.”
[embedded content]Mr Nsarkoh’s comments came on the heels of his hard-hitting lecture titled “Iniquities of Iniquity in Our Santa Claus Democracy” at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
There, he argued that Ghana’s democratic transition in the early 1990s was reluctant and superficial, referencing the late political scientist Claude Ake’s seminal work The Feasibility of Democracy in Africa.
“Ake used Ghana as an example of a reluctant transition. We opened up space just enough to say the forms of democracy were in place. But the substance? That’s where we’ve failed,” Nsarkoh said.
He blamed the failure to institutionalise political financing as the root of a corrupt ecosystem.
“There are no real frameworks to track political fund flows. That’s why I say this is the root of all evil,” he emphasised.
And the consequences, he warned, are profound.
“If you and I are in the drug trade, we can carry sacks of money and fund people who will become powerful actors. Then the demands start. Put this person here, appoint that person there.
“It doesn’t have to be the candidate who wins—it can be the kingmakers. And once they’re in place, the rot spreads,” he said.
According to Mr Nsarkoh, this is not unique to Ghana.
“These are not just Ghanaian features. These are systemic defects we see across the continent. Yet, instead of confronting the design issues, we personalise the debate. We make it about individuals,” he said.
“Yes, personalities matter. Accountability matters. But after three and a half decades, we must admit the system itself is broken.”
He urged media professionals, civil society, and citizens to demand answers.
“You are the media guy,” he told the host. “You probably have more access than I. But even you, can you tell me where the money came from? That’s the problem.”
To Yaw Nsarkoh, democracy without transparency is democracy in name only.
“If we can’t trace money in politics, then our democracy is not a tool for development. It’s a mechanism for elite enrichment,” he said.
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