The inability of politicians or better still those at the helm of governance to adhere to political morality is the reason governments fail and eventually fall during elections.
The Acton Creighton Correspondence says a lot about this subject but unfortunately politicians hardly learn from it.
The two great historians Acton a Catholic and Mandell Creighton an Anglican exchanged three letters in 1887 from which history and political science was bestowed a famous quote and credited to the former….”Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
The intellectual debate between the two great minds offers the people an opportunity to examine the performance of those entrusted with the resources otherwise referred to as governments. Such constant examination uses political morality as criterion.
The social contract between the rulership and the ruled propounded many years ago was often referred to by President John Mahama during one of his many engagements with Ghanaians ahead of the last elections. It is the sincerity or otherwise of this contract which distinguishes between bad governments and the contrary.
Constant judgment about how this challenging test of morality is surmounted by governments is part of the endless discussions about governance.
As journalists it behooves practitioners to hold leaders accountable on behalf of the people by juxtaposing their expected standards against their conduct.
Those who come to power through their successful ability to convince the people that they would be better alternatives to those at the throttles must live above board, their performance bereft of moral deficiencies. This has not been the case in the current Ghanaian context.
A little under a year and half ago certain happenings could not have unfolded under the previous government because those who saw themselves as better alternatives were watching eagle-eyed from their observation post of public morality ready to pick on even the most negligible infraction and even exaggerating same for electoral leverage.
Kumasi witnessed a gold-dusted funeral of unrivaled dimension hosted by the man in charge of the marketing of Ghana’s gold recently. Had the host not been associated with vote-seeking immoral rhetoric when the NDC was on the campaign trail the opulence could have passed without attention.
What informed Sammy Gyamfi’s ability to host this headline-making social event in the headquarters of local funerals in the country? Let politicians know that their actions would be judged by the people verdicts therefrom being in the belly of tomorrow.
The intellectual debate centers on the role of moral judgments in evaluating history, particularly regarding political and religious leaders: Acton’s Position: He argued that historians have a duty to apply rigid, universal moral standards to the past. Acton believed that no amount of historical context or “greatness” should excuse leaders from moral condemnation, as power invariably corrupts their decision-making and character.
Creighton’s Position: Creighton argued that historical figures should be understood within the context of their own time. He believed it was not the historian’s job to be a judge, but rather to understand why actions were taken and how they fit into the broader narrative of human development. Power begets opulence and when blended with hubris the amalgam is the negative of direction of governance today under the current government.
