Ghanaians don't prefer military rule - CDD

Ghanaians, pessimistic about prospects a Military rule holds for the country and distraught about its performance in the past are likely to resist any coup attempt this time to reverse the gains of the current democratic dispensation.

Dr Baffour Agyeman Duah, Associate Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) made these assertions during an interaction with Journalists in Ho on Friday.

Besides, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in the past 10 years had been transformed into a professional force with officers and men whose training and outlook made it less likely for them to be pushed into adventures in politics, he said.

Dr Duah, whose organisation carries out research in all aspects of governance in Ghana and other countries, nonetheless cautioned against complacency, as the possibility of a reversal of the current democratic dispensation would always be there.

He said it was the responsibility of every Ghanaian to contribute through participation so that no government was allowed to "run amok".

Dr Duah said a recent study indicated that 82 per cent of Ghanaians would rather prefer to be under democratic rule than anything else and had no nostalgia for military rule again.

He said majority of respondents preferred to go back under colonial or traditional authority than be under military rule.

Dr Duah said Ghana was somewhat stable 10 years inside the current democratic dispensation with each general election, since 1992 seeing an improvement in their transparent conduct.

He, therefore, urged politicians, especially those belonging to the two major parties to come over the deep-seated mistrust of each other to promote good governance.

Mr Steve Akorli, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho- East commenting on the non-appreciation of all government policies, as was the case when opposition members dismissed Thursday's State of the Nation Address as empty, said evaluation from two different sects of people couldn't be the same.

He said the opposition, the world over had the duty to flaw government programmes in order to ensure high performance.

Mr Akorli advised speechwriters of Presidents and other dignitaries to be nationalistic and avoid partisan diatribes that could brush sensibilities of some sections of the society.

He however, lauded the President's programme to improve the learning of French in the country.

Mr Akorli said to counteract effects of voter fatigue on turn out in future elections constitutional bodies charged with the responsibility of giving publicity to national programmes should be given the resources to do their work.

Mr. John Nedjoh, Executive Director of Positive Action Against Poverty (PAAP) said mass poverty in Ghana must be addressed to ensure that democracy works in the country.

He said expectations of government to address every little problem was wrong, saying individuals and communities had bigger responsibility towards their own development.

He criticised the paradox where people who were economically well-off were more careful about decisions that affected their lives while the less fortunate were reckless.