Ghana needs independent arms of government - Prof Wutor

Professor Victor Wutor, President of NDC PROFORUM Canada has said Ghana needs independent arms of government coupled with a very honest and reasonable media.

The President of NDC PROFORUM argues these are critical in an attempt to strengthen and deepen Ghana’s bourgeoning democracy.

Contributing to a webinar on the topic “Ghana Decides: Election 2024 Public Forum” organized by Carleton University on Monday (2 December), Prof Wutor said recent events in the country have raised questions about the independence of the judiciary.

“Now in order for us to take the next major step, what we need as a country is that we need a truly independent and valuable…arms of the government. The executive, the judiciary, and the legislature should be independent. But that’s all we see in Ghana. I’m not going to say anything that outputs mean that somebody will have to invite me to come and explain myself. You know what is happening? We don’t have an independent judiciary in Ghana.

“And if you look at the security services, once there’s a change of government, the security service tries too hard to please the government of the day. That should not be the case. We need independent arms of government. And we also need very honest and reasonable media. And like Efea said, the situation where we have political parties venturing into ownership of media houses.”

“It’s not interesting. I mean, it may sound good for the political parties to be able to propagate their ideas, but assuming the majority, you get to the point where virtually every institution or every media house is owned by a political party. Where are we going as a country? Where to listen to and so that you can get fair and even unbiased information. So that’s something we need to look at carefully…,” he said.

Prof Wutor also questioned the winner-take-all-all phenomenon in Ghana’s body politics adding that it is not right.

” It’s not right. A government comes into power and they spend months making appointments. Several months. It could drive up for six months, seven months, or eight months, just make an appointment. A whole bunch of people just kicked out. Another government comes with the same story. Where are we in as a country?”

He added “Not every position has to be politicized. We should be able to have people remain in positions, even though they… Look, we need some… If the person is there and they are delivering…They are doing their job and giving us the results we need. Why do we have to change them? Because they change up government. These are some of the things we need to look at carefully as a people.”

EK

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