Ghana is the third most corrupt among countries with vibrant media environments, and is the second most likely nation where its citizens are eager to exit to another country, according to a research carried out by Gallup.

Out of the 22 free press countries surveyed in 2012 for perception of prevalent corruption in government, Ghana scored the third worst mark of 89 percent, slightly better than the most corrupt countries – Czech Republic and Lithuania, which scored 94 percent and 90 percent respectively.

The world renowned Washington DC based research company, Gallup, released its report this week.

In the report—‘The Global State of Mind 2013’—, it indicated that Ghana is one of the most hostile countries for its nationals, who are willing to relocate to other countries due to the degrading quality of life.

This finds expression in Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah’s suggestion for anyone who is not happy in the country to pack and leave.

This urge to leave the country is only second to Syria which tops the world’s worst “Brain Drain” countries. Syria ranks number one with a score of 43 percent while Ghana is close on Syria’s heels with a score of 38 percent.

The global research group’s assessment means that citizens in countries such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Gabon, Sudan, Botswana, Guinea and Somaliland are more content with the conditions in their respective countries than Ghanaians in Ghana.

“Through classical economics, we know the economics of every society. But no one really seems to know for sure what people are thinking or how they are feeling,” stated Jim Clifton, Chairman of Gallup, in his executive summary of the report.

The Gallup report was compiled in 2012 when Ghana was engulfed in scandals involving shady multi-million dollar judgment debts paid to people suspected to be close allies of the Mills-Mahama National Democratic Congress (NDC) Administration.

Since then, several other scandals involving government officials and agencies have been exposed; key among them are the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) scandal in which private companies and government officials allegedly connived to fleece the country of millions of Ghana cedis.

The recent one is the scandal involving a controversial contract given to Subah Infosolutions, a company owned by Jospong Group of Companies, believed to be closely aligned to the ruling NDC.

These allegations are coming at a time the Mahama-led government is preaching austerity measures and scrounging for funds from all sorts of avenues.

Alarm Bells

The trend is beginning to seriously trouble critics who are warning that the situation is potentially explosive, particularly due to the hardships in the country which does not justify the wanton dissipation of public funds by government officials and cronies.

Some are suggesting a possible civil uprising against the government, while others are pointing at the myriads of industrial actions to be embarked upon by workers.

Kwasi Pratt Jnr, a supporter of the ruling NDC and editor of the Insight newspaper, expressed these feelings of discontent among the general public: “Anybody who is in touch with the masses knows that they are dissatisfied,” adding that if ‘praise-singers’ want the Mahama administration to succeed, then “they should not go about lying to the people in government but rather tell them the truth about the real concrete situation on the ground.”

Anger

The Executive Director of think-tank, Imani Ghana, upon his return from a trip abroad, commented on his facebook wall, “the first wave of news to hit me are all depressing. Grand theft, grand looting of the state’s purse with very little in sight of any attempts, if at all, to stem the tide. I’m becoming very scared for my life, your life and possibly that of the powers that be when I see raw and brewing anger in the eyes of the many many many disgruntled youth whose lives could have been positively affected by a fraction of the official loot. These economic and Machiavellian attempts at disenfranchising able bodies will leave them with no option than to attack us physically at some point. Sad, sad, sad.”

The Paramount Chief of the Essikado Traditional Area in the Western Region was less charitable in his remarks at a public lecture organised in Takoradi on Thursday by the Old Vandals branch of the Western Region. “We need a revolution in this country,” he fumed.

He continued, “….And unless we can do that, what is happening will keep on happening and we won’t have any future because we have reached a point in our country where people try to lie to make profit. I saw a fleet of V8s tooting their horns around, at very top speed. About four of them were empty. I looked at them and I could see my wealth being drained up by very stupid people who you and I are more intelligent than. We pay them, we elect them to serve us and they come and sit on us. And you are busily dividing yourselves into NDC and NPP, for what? I am a Vandal and a Ghanaian and it matters much more than all these things that are going on.”

Jim Clifton warns that the ratings in the ‘Global State of Mind’ report could reflect similar situations that sparked the Arab Springs across the Middle East.

“Prior to the Arab Spring, most experts looked at the rising GDPs of Tunisia and Egypt and assumed that people’s wellbeing in those countries was improving as well. That was a miscalculation of historic proportions. Even as GDPs were increasing, the Gallup World Poll showed the percentages of people with “thriving” wellbeing were crashing in both countries. Hardly anyone knew what the people were thinking — not any major institution, not any country’s intelligence agency.

“Everyone missed it. What we all learned real quickly, though, is that classical economic data do not necessarily reveal conditions for revolution. Rather, they are evident within the metrics of wellbeing and behavioural economics. Measuring GDP and highly unreliable unemployment data, as well as imports and exports, does little to forecast instability and revolution,” Mr. Clifton stated.

World Bank’s Verdict

Meanwhile, on the heels of the apparent negative indicators ascribed to Ghana, the World Bank has released its latest Doing Business Report which shows Ghana dropping five places from 62nd position to 67th out of 189 countries ranked for their favourable business environments.
Ghana, which is in the lower middle income bracket, according to the report titled “Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises”, did not fare well in most of the 10 categories.
According to the report, it is becoming more difficult starting business in Ghana with the country placing 128th on Starting a Business index.
The World Bank indicates that it will take a company as much as 14 days to start a business in the country, concluding that Ghana has not conducted any reforms to ease constraints in starting businesses.
http://www.dailyguideghana.com/?p=100387

I find dis hard to believe considering d fact, Ghana is doing very much better than us, in almost many ramification or sphers of life en large

@op I really can't understand,if you recall sometimes ago,ghana got obama to visit them and he ditched nigeria based on the fact that Nigeria was corrupt and insecured so I really can't understand how ghanians gone bad over night.

I'm scared!

Choi, let's await the association of Ghanaian warriors, cos they certainly won't allow this accusation to slide.

Arosa: I'm scared!

Of what? No Traditional Ruler in Nigeria will ever call for revolution. The one naive C K Nzogwu started, has produced more corrupt generals than the CIVILIAN POLITICIANS he called ten-percenters. National Conference may provide the handle on these intractable issues. There's hope. Ghana must learn from Nigeria now, same as Nkruma learnt from Zik.

ckkris:
Of what? No Traditional Ruler in Nigeria will ever call for revolution. The one naive C K Nzogwu started, has produced more corrupt generals than the CIVILIAN POLITICIANS he called ten-percenters. National Conference may provide the handle on these intractable issues. There's hope. Ghana must learn from Nigeria now, same as Nkruma learnt from Zik.

I believe that Africa needs a role model. If Ghana is as corrupt as this article claims, then Africa is hopeless.

Raymondenyi: I find dis hard to believe considering d fact, Ghana is doing very much better than us, in almost many ramification or sphers of life en large

if you have been to ghana recently , you wont find the op post hard to believe .you need to live in ghana for a month to know that all the good things people say about the place is all fabrications, i lived there before and i can say this ghana and nigeria are almost on the same par or level of corruption.just visit ghana and try and mix with the locals and hear what they have to say about their country

There is something about this arctic article. I'm yet to figure it out

Wow! This is a big indictment on Ghanians! It could be the true reflection of things there,though.

Danhumprey: Wow! This is a big indictment on Ghanians! It could be the true reflection of things there,though.

try to google the case of woyome in ghana and see how someone was paid almost 40million euros for a job of about 350k dollars .

Abu Mikey:


Wow! Wow!! Wow!!!


Lemme just take a sit and watch the Ghanians e-warlords take over this thread!

PS = Nigerians,please stay away from any argument her.

They will simply blame it on Nigerians living there citing Our recent altercations with the Indian Govt. .


Make we face Our problems for Naija joor . .they can always tidy up their country.

Where is Nigeria?

When this thread gets bloody, someone should flash me

How can Ghana be said to be more corrupt than Nigeria? I don't even believe that any country is worse than Nigeria when it comes to corruption. We are the unofficial world capital for corruption.

In fact Gallup or whatever they call themselves are stoopid to not have considered the cases of Farook Lawan, Ette, Stella Oduah and many more world class celebrated corruption cases in our country. Mtcheeww.

Ah! How manage?
This must be a mistaken identity.

I am not surprised at all, in fact things might really go worse than this if care is not taken.... Ghana started drifting immediately their former President Late Prof. John Attah mills (may his soul RI)P gave up the ghost, Corruption was on the display, from looting, political manipulation, etc, of course one need not be surprise at all, anywhere you see Nigerians troop into, especially when the Leader of that Nation is a close friend or loyalist to Nigeria's Head of state, watch out as Evil manners will corrupt good attitude. Meanwhile, I'll believe that Ghanians are more eager to leave their country more than Nigerians because as Baba Fela described our condition as "suffering and smiling" besides its more difficult to live from average to Nothing than from nothing to average.

OP is so on point with the article....n yes I agree wit most if not all of what the article says about Ghana even if a lot of people would beg to differ...

We once argued this same stuff In PG class back then n most people thought Ghana is d "Haven".

Are Nigerian office holders Corrupt?, YES! n so too are Ghanians in a scale equivalent to what its economy can withstand....

I have seen school kids sit under a tree in Nigeria to receive lectures But I have seen it too happen in Ghana.

Is thers stable power in Ghana like we are made to believe here in Nigeria....No...they av extended power cuts in there same like here....The good thing they av that we don't have here is PEACE...yhough assasinations still occur in Ghana

In case u don't know Ghana is currently broke n their citizens really wud love to get out of there cos the Government keeps preaching austerity measures....n borrowing. presently international bodies such as the paris club et al don't even wana borrow Ghana money...cos they aren't credit worthy at the moment.

I just pity We Nigerians when we put down ourselves to push up others...

Ghana is not the place u think it is...the economy is in shambles..


I love Ghanaians...I just said things the way they truely are...

.

I no get wetin I wan talk. Na the E-war make go follow I dey wait for

...And the dumb stereotypes have just been buried.

The same ghana wey people dey yarn say em beta pass 9ja


Mtsheeeeeeeeew

Abeg, who get blush mouth sharger

I dey come, make i go call the e-warriors.

Raymondenyi: I find dis hard to believe considering d fact, Ghana is doing very much better than us, in almost many ramification or sphers of life en large

u ar delusion, i hav ghanians friends and they ar eager 2 leav ghana.

Top three most corrupt countries in the World.
(1) Nigeria
(2) Nigeria
(3) Ghana.

danot1030: u ar delusion, i hav ghanians friends and they ar eager 2 leav ghana.

The illusion of a corrupt free Ghana is something that I support and propagate myself because I believe it may help naija.

Okay!
But how does that affect me

I believe the topic is misleading, the ranking is based on a study of 22 press free countries.

We should ask ourselves if Nigeria was even included in the study, because I doubt If she has a free press.

Passing Shot: How can Ghana be said to be more corrupt than Nigeria? I don't even believe that any country is worse than Nigeria when it comes to corruption. We are the unofficial world capital for corruption.

In fact Gallup or whatever they call themselves are stoopid to not have considered the cases of Farook Lawan, Ette, Stella Oduah and many more world class celebrated corruption cases in our country. Mtcheeww.

You're wrong. Ghana MUST be far more corrupt than Nigeria for them to even still be on similar development levels with Nigeria.

Ghana has just 20 odd million people - roughly the population of Lagos. Yet she is the 2nd largest producer of gold in Africa after South Africa, and the world's largest producer and exporter of cocoa. They also export manganese, iron ore, copper, rubber, bauxite etc etc, and lately Oil and Gas.

I mean, they should be living like Kuwaitians or folks in UAE. Nigeria can claim they have 170 million people to cater for. What is GHANA's excuse?

Their problem is the people there are far too docile to identify corruption or corrupt leaders, and have swallowed the ''Ghanaian leaders are saints'' and ''Ghana is corruption-free'' propaganda, so huge amounts are siphoned by the leaders, with nobody knowing or saying anything. That's the problem they have there.

Do ou guys mean we have Ghana people here?

emmatony:
Ghana is the third most corrupt among
countries with vibrant media
environments, and is the second most likely nation where its citizens are eager to exit to another country, according to a research carried out by Gallup.

Which West African citizen has never wished to migrate to the West? @least Ghanaians have taste, they would rather settle in the West than in India.

emmatony:
Out of the 22 free press countries
surveyed in 2012 for
perception of
prevalent corruption in government,

Lol, since when did Perception become a reality?... Anyway, the nuances in the Ghanaian society dictates that comments on governmental policies are made based 0n political lines... When you conduct an 0pinion Poll about the peformance of the government in the Volta Region, the government is most likely to have an approval rating of about 80% whilst the government is likely to have a disapproval rating of about 95% in the Ashanti Region.