Ghana’s Fourth Republic civilian rulers jealous of previous military rulers – CDD Boss

Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh has said that the Executive of Ghana’s Fourth Republic seem to suffer from military-rule envy, noting that their actions and inactions show that they are apparently unable to escape the negative influence and legacy of previous military regimes.

Reacting to the ‘invasion’ of the Chamber of Parliament by soldiers purportedly to restore law and order, Prof Prempeh remarked that even though Ghana’s democratically elected leaders have behaved in ways akin to the behaviour of military rulers, ordering soldiers into the chamber of Parliament is unprecedented.

“Our class of civilian rulers in this Fourth Republic appears to suffer from military-rule envy. They can’t seem to escape the negative influence and legacy of the era of the rule of Soldiers,” he said.

He then gave examples of acts to back his claim: “You see it in their obsession with V8s that obey no traffic rules (like the Pajero generation of the PNDC), the persistence of “National Security at the Castle” and their involvement in all manner of petty matters including “auction cars,” the knee-jerk reliance on armed soldiers in intimidating custom for routine and not-so-routine civilian palaver, use of armed guards in military-style costume for personal official security, etc, etc Looking more and more like a military-backed civilian rule. But this deployment of soldiers in Parliament takes things to new heights of absurdity and unwisdom.”

In the early hours of January 7, 2020, soldiers numbering about 20 stormed the Chamber of Parliament as elected Members of Parliament tried in the midst of confusion to elect a Speaker of Parliament.

The elected Members of Parliament (MPs), especially those from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) resisted the presence of the soldiers. Eventually, the soldiers left.

Later, it came to light that the soldiers had been allegedly ordered into the Chamber by Dominic Nitiwul, who served as Defence Minister in President Akufo-Addo’s first term.

The actions of the soldiers have been widely criticised by the Ghana public.