{"id":15494,"date":"2026-02-09T11:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=15494"},"modified":"2026-02-09T11:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T11:14:23","slug":"leadership-must-not-be-purchased-victor-smith-takes-aim-at-money-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=15494","title":{"rendered":"Leadership must not be purchased \u2013 Victor Smith takes aim at money politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/i>\u00a0Ghana<\/span>\u2019s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Smith, has warned that corruption in national life does not begin after politicians enter office, but starts much earlier\u2014during the campaign season, when money and gifts are used to influence voters.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cCorruption in our national life does not begin in the office \u2014 it begins in the campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In an article from Washington DC, Ambassador Smith argued that when politicians distribute money, food, gifts, or favours in exchange for votes, the act must be described plainly as corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen money, gifts, food, or favours are distributed to influence voters, we must call it what it truly is: corruption in its earliest form,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has given a three-member committee up to Tuesday, February 10, 2026, to submit its findings on allegations of widespread inducement and vote-buying during the party\u2019s recent parliamentary primaries in the Ayawaso East constituency.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the issue, he rejected attempts to frame vote-buying as generosity or kindness, warning that it is often a calculated transaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not generosity. It is not kindness. It is an investment \u2014 an investment made with the expectation of profit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Smith said the consequences are predictable: once such individuals secure public office, their motivation for governance shifts from service to personal recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce such a person gains appointment or public office, governance is no longer about service. It becomes a mission of recovery \u2014 recovering campaign expenses, rewarding financiers, and securing personal benefit before the next election cycle,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He warned that the state would then become the victim of private political spending, as officials began treating public funds as compensation for campaign costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public purse then becomes the reimbursement account for private political spending,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to the Ghanaian envoy, vote-buying not only compromises elections but also creates conditions for corruption after the polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this way, vote-buying does not merely distort elections; it manufactures corruption after elections,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Smith argued that Ghana cannot claim to be fighting corruption if it focuses only on procurement and government contracts while allowing vote-buying to flourish during elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe therefore deceive ourselves if we fight corruption only in government contracts and procurement while tolerating corruption at the ballot box,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He stressed that the quality of governance is shaped by the integrity of the electoral process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seed determines the harvest. A corrupted mandate produces corrupted governance,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Smith called for a fundamental shift in how democracy is practised, insisting that politics must not become a marketplace where leadership is sold to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur democracy must not be transactional. Leadership must not be purchased,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also warned against reducing public office to a profit-making venture.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic office must never become a business venture whose profits are extracted from the suffering of citizens,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Smith said Ghana must reach a national understanding that both the giver and receiver in vote-buying are complicit in undermining democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time has come for a national understanding: accepting inducements undermines accountability, and giving inducements destroys integrity,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He concluded that genuine change will require voters and politicians alike to reject inducements and return to principle-based politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we truly want honest leadership, then both the voter and the politician must reject the politics of gifts and embrace the politics of conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Ghana\u2019s Ambassador to the United States, Victor Smith, has warned that corruption in national life does not begin after politicians enter office, but starts much earlier\u2014during the campaign season, when money and gifts are used to influence voters. \u201cCorruption in our national life does not begin in the office \u2014 it begins in the campaign,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":15495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4217,41,18],"tags":[1004,4888],"class_list":["post-15494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accountability","category-general-news","category-politics","tag-corruption","tag-victor-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15496,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15494\/revisions\/15496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}