Business executive and former Unilever Executive Vice President Yaw Nsarkoh has cast doubt on calls for a third political force.
He argues that the solution to Ghana’s governance challenges lies not in new parties but in transparency and accountability.
Appearing on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, he responded to suggestions that the country needs an alternative to the dominant political blocs.
“So far,” he said when asked about the emergence of a third force. “I’m not even totally sure that getting a third force is the solution.”
He warned that without systemic reform, a new political movement could simply replicate existing problems.
“A third force to do what also goes around and gets money from all sorts of people in opaque ways and not be accountable, then they’re just replicating this.”
According to him, the real need is structural change. “So what you need is to bring transparency to the political system.”
He cited global examples to challenge the assumption that multiparty systems automatically deliver development.
“Singapore doesn’t have three political parties, but look where they are.”
When pressed about the United States and the United Kingdom as models of progress under multi-party or two-party systems, he cautioned against simplistic comparisons.
“Well, first of all, you have to remember that I’m not even totally sure that the US is making it, but let’s leave it for another day.”
Mr Nsarkoh argued that historical advantages played a decisive role in Western development.
“But first, you also have to look at the historical trajectory. There are major elements of the way that the US accumulation of capital happened that are generally not open to us.”
“The transatlantic slave trade was not just simply an act of wicked people. It was a source of cheap labour.”
“Today, who do you propose to enslave? So that option does not exist.”
He continued that colonial access to natural capital also shaped prosperity elsewhere.
“If we are talking about people who were able to access natural capital through the agency or dark agency of colonialism today, who is Ghana going to colonise? It doesn’t exist.”
For him, the debate must shift to Ghana’s specific realities. “So we must look at our circumstances. Can we cooperate better as a sub-region?”
He urged policymakers to learn from Asian economies that have moved from poverty to prosperity within a generation.
“We must look at the fact that some of the people who have made it from our kind of peripheral poverty to prosperity in our lifetime are in Asia.”
“So we must learn from them, not necessarily just take what they have done and think that they will work it because they looked at their historical circumstances.”
Mr Nsarkoh questioned whether serious development conversations are even taking place at the highest level.
“But where is this debate happening in Parliament?”
“No, they are all standing there trying to guilt-trip each other and think about how I can win power the next time, so that I’m the one who is appointing people…”
“So serious development talk on a bipartisan basis, I am asking, where is it happening?”
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