The Struggling Democratic Country

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*By Adjetey Emmanuel***

It is astounding how people still perceive our country to be the well known

democratic country in the West Africa Sub-Region. Our country, Ghana is

claiming to be democratic, meaning free and equal representation of people

and equal right of every person to participate in a system of government

often by the majority of the people. Democracy has been defined in two-ways

in some literatures as; 1. Democratic nation: a nation with a government

that has been freely and equally elected by its citizens.2. Democratic

system of government: a system of government based on the principle of

majority in decision-making. It is obvious and you don’t have to be a

researcher before you can know that in Ghana today, the concept of

democracy is being reduced to two-things;1. Freedom of expression-much of

which is very poor in substance but rich in propaganda, intentional

disinformation and distortion of facts, so long as it serves certain

predetermined ends. 2. Periodic elections-a period during which partisan

structures are given a new lease of life and ethnocentric sentiments are

highly hyped up and exploited for the purpose of winning political power.

The self-image and reputation of our dear nation, Ghana is reducing

gradually due to the on and off conflicts among ethnic groups, religious

sects, and even some of our own political leaders. These are clear things

that the country has been facing in recent times. The intemperate

languages, provocative statements from political leaders and their

followers and incitement against one group. These are not acts to be

condoned by the people of Ghana especially the youth. Because these are

things that can plunge the country into absolute chaos and upheaval.

Moreover, the democratic status of the country has been “stained” with

blame game. This is true, because day-after-day if you tune to your radio

or television you can unquestionably attest to the fact. Apparently, we see

from the major political parties in the country: the New Patriotic Party

(NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) accusing each other for

maladministration. If much care is not taken the peace we enjoy today after

attaining our democratic status will become an illusion. I wonder which

schools teach this blame game. However, the repulsive tribal and

ethnocentric verbal punches that these parties and their members keep

throwing heavily like Mike Tyson’s blow at each other is obscuring the

democracy we are practising here Ghana and can plunge the nation into Sturm

und Drang.Some couple of months ago, some people are in great shock and

they inquire to know if whether Ghana is still a democratic country. This

is because, why should religious sects engage in a fight which is highly

inimical to good governance. One can easily recall to the recent conflict

among the Moslems and some natives of Hohoe in the Volta Region. No country

specifically a democratic country in this world can achieve its optimum

development in the midst of a conflict. Also, our politicians must stop

practising any aspect of the democracy that is confrontational and

unfriendly to good governance, such as the politically motivated

“Pull-Him-Down” party politics (PHD), which is widely used in developed

countries like America and Britain by parties to undermine their political

opponents, though they do so under “strict cover” in those advance

countries. Such practise can easily leave our country with nothing than a

state of violent disturbance and disorder thus if care is not taken. No

country can achieve the highest form of democracy without her practising

the rule of law. The rule of law basically, it’s a state of order in which

events conform to the law of the nation. Hence, nations without the rule of

law, such *nations are like books perusing in the extreme darkness. The

rule of law is one of the ethical codes of* democracy. And apparently

enough, this code of ethics are not strictly practise here in Ghana.

However, most of the electorates perpetrate the laws of the land or do

things which are not in conformity with the laws of the country and they

are left to go scot free. Is this what we term as democracy? Besides,

democracy, “liberalism”, “civil liberty”, “human right” etc. have not been

pushed too far to be able to support the very pillars and foundation of

civilization that they purport to create and which has taken humankind

several thousand of years to build. If these very pillars are well

supported by our political leaders, I strongly believe our democracy would

go back to its natural state. Adding to the civilization problem is also

the issue of recognition of the right to information. Recognising the right

to information and implementing effective access to information is a simple

but extremely useful first step towards attainment of good governance.

Therefore, any democratic country enhancing the right to information to its

citizens is more or less devoid of political violence since the electorates

are given the mandate to air their grievances. The Aristocratic Frenchman,

Alexis de Tocqueville said: “The health of a democratic society may be

measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens”. Ghana

is a very small democratic country in the world hence let us uphold the

good name of our dear nation. Peace! Is what we all need. LONG LIVE

GHANA!!!

The Writer is a Student-Journalist at the Ghana Institute of

Journalism. Writer’s

email:adjeteyemmanuel@gmail.com