Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt
The Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has expressed his frustration with the notion that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is solely responsible for the multi-party democracy that Ghana enjoys today.
In a Peace FM interview, he noted that the attainment of multi-party democracy in Ghana was not a gift from any political party or leader, but a result of the collective struggles of hundreds of thousands of people who fought for it, some of whom lost their lives in the process.
"I get infuriated when I hear that multi-party democracy originated from the NDC. This multi-party democracy we have attained, some people lost their lives for us to arrive here.
“The sitting government, if it was happy with the restoration of multi-party democracy, no person would have died. No person would have been arrested", he averred.
Pratt's frustration stems from the fact that the struggle for multi-party democracy in Ghana was not an easy one. Many people were arrested, tortured, and even killed for advocating for it. As such, he believes that attributing the achievement solely to one political party or leader is an insult to the memory and gallantry of those who fought for it.
"I know people who were arrested because they advocated multi-party democracy. Today, we have multi-party democracy because of the collective struggles of hundreds of thousands of people. It wasn't Jerry Rawlings who gifted us multi-party democracy; stop saying this!" he warned.
Furthermore, Pratt argues that if the sitting government at the time was happy with the restoration of multi-party democracy, no one would have died or been arrested.
Therefore, he believes that credit should be given to all those who contributed to the struggle for democracy in Ghana, regardless of their political affiliation.
“I think it's an insult to the memory and the gallantry of those who fought for the restoration of multi-party democracy. Let's stop making such statements; it has no basis in our history!" he ranted.
ADA/FNOQ
