Ghana’s electoral politics is the poster child of democratic reform in Africa.
By:Gideon-Nii Ayi
There is a chasm between the ruled and rulers in Ghana and in most of Africa. Democracy as I understand it should be that the power to rule a nation is derived from the people. Others might give reference to the power of the thumb.
We vote and even in the recent elections we showed who has overall power by kicking the NPP out. Yes in terms of voting we still do have the power. But voting for your leaders is a very minute and only an initial part of the whole deal called democracy.
As we forever continue to hear, democracy is the peoples rule. This means we the people should continue to dictate the affairs of the state. We should set the general agenda of the day, -the broad outlook which defines Ghana as Ghana. The little details of running the affairs should be left to the government and the civil servants.
Very often Ghanaians sit back and through their hands in exasperation saying ‘’Why can’t we do this’’ ‘’This is common sense’’ ‘’We should sack that public official ..’’ and we wonder why the government of the day won’t just follow common sense in ruling Ghana.
Well – there is a big space between the voters and the voted. It is called 4 years. We wait till every 4 years before we show our disapproval. At most we leave the airwaves to some few social commentators to make some noise and complain to our wives/girlfriends/boyfriends and whoever is sorry enough to listen to our chatters. We do nothing more.
But how should it be. This 4 years space that we have of what use can it be? As that old blues song goes -I don’t know much about history, don’t know much trigonometry’’ and I also say I know not much about political science- but at least this I do know- I have never met my Member of Parliament before (although he stays some few houses from me!)- neither do a lot of Ghanaians know how to channel their grievances to their MP. In Ghana people approach their MP when they need financial favours-(or placement in an educational institutions for their kids), any other problem and we wait till Sunday church service and give it to Nyame-God- to solve for us- when we asked this same Nyame to give us an MP (and a President), in the same church one fine December Sunday morning. God must surely be puzzled and asking --- so why request for a President then?-
We should be able to influence public policy and not leave it to only some NGO’s and some few parliamentarians to run the show for us. Talking to the MP’s may be one and yet effective method.
Holding public officials accountable for their actions is another but can the everyday person in the street go about enforcing this? It is beyond one person and certainly more than a thousand to effectively control the state of Ghana as it is now, So what is to be done? To be continued
True, Gideon…the democratic gulf in Ghana or most third world countries lies within two distinct areas: (1) the people [you’ve talked about this] and (2) government. So I agree with you that Africa’s democracy problem is as much a ‘people’ problem as it is a ‘government’ one. It’s about time we took some responsibility for our own failures. This is because central to any functional democracy is the willingness of the people (and not just the press) to play their role as gaping watchdogs.
ReplyDeleteAlso, imagine what we can accomplish if communities actually came together and did something instead of leaving everything to ‘aban” (government). Citizen participation is not alien to pan-Africansim because long before democracy we had our own system of “communal labor” or “nnoboa”. Indeed what President Kennedy said during his inauguration years ago rings true even till this day: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Kennedy is the quintessence of who a public servant should be. Left to me, that quote would be inscribed in the office of every public official in Ghana but well, I’m just a poor grad student ain’t I?
If everyone in Ghana lived by this creed half of the time, you can only imagine the kind of country we’d have by now. We (the people) or common floor members (CFM) as we used to say in secondary school need to recognize that we’re as much a part of the governance equation as those in power.
Ghana's nascent democracy has won plaudits worldwide to dispute the fact that democracy cannot thrive in Africa. While this is a feather in our cap, and of course affords most Ghanaians a sense of pride, there are still some imperfections we need to perfect. This provides us with a feast of wisdom to digest. There is often a disconnect between politicians and the people who elected them. There is a miniscule chance of ventilating grievances, or even contributing to the running of the state through these elected officials who, im my humble opinion, are supposed to be the mouthpieces of the populace. Why does this happen? If we take a critical look at the issue, we come to the realization that our politicians have a chronic behavior of kowtowing to, or greasing our palms to cement their selfish ambitions every four years. While some of us have become automatons, chanting their praises, and giving them the green light because we pocket some $1, it is about time we noticed that we are just as powerful, if not more than these officials. It will be myopic on our part to cheapen our votes. They get elected only if we decide so. If we can critically examine a candidate and not fall for some of these schemes, we can make our people more effective and attentive to our needs. We must not be afraid to question muckrake on the part of our leaders. A lot of the policticians are not in it for the love of serving people. Many of them are just kleptocrats using political offices to embellish their pockets at the expense of the common man. It goes without saying that there is a craze for political positions nowadays by egotists. There is not a level playing field for everyone to contribute to governance. It is illogical for each person to contribute to the running of the state, and that explains why we have representatives. If they are not ready to listen to us, then we are just cogs in the wheel who could be taken for a ride. We have to think very well before we give our nods to these officials during elections. It should not be a given. We must make them work for it, and earn it. We should not succumb to bribes, and tribalism. We must elect the most competent officials. People who exhibit a feckless grasp of governance should not be given a second chance. It is through these that we can make our leaders accountable.
ReplyDeleteRight on point Mac...u say it as it is. But what i often wonder is whether the politicians ever get the chance to read these comments at all.
ReplyDelete@Eche- That is it..only if we the people recognize how much power we have in our hands..
ReplyDeleteIt goes beyond voting and in between we should somehow let our politicians know we are watching them. ie- on how they vote in parliament and how they go about their duties etc.
@ Mac- Yes we should get to the point where everyone contributes to the governance process. We have a good system . I think we should make it work well rather than change it.
@ Anonymous- People do read. People like you are reading so there is hope.
Cheers everyone and have a nice weekend.
Even though our fledgling democracy is only 16 years old; I think it is profoundly rooted in the core precepts of the idea. I feel very proud of what Ghana has achieved so far. We are in no way a mature democracy as compared to other countries like India or Europe but I think our democracy is deeply founded in our love for peace, freedom, justice and equal rights.
ReplyDeleteDemocracy is a government of the people and by the people. In a true democracy; the will of the people is soverign and must reign supreme. Even though this doesn't happen all the time in Ghana; I believe we will perfect our democracy with time.
The United States brags that it is the largest democracy in the world but I strongly disagree. I think India and the European Union are better examples of democracy than the U.S. I think it's ridiculous for anybody to claim that the U.S. is a true democracy. It is a dictatorship of rich, powerful, and influential special interest groups that determine the agenda on Washington.
If democracy is supposed to guarantee the primacy of an individual; then Libya is a better democracy than the U.S. The U.S. is a country where even the most basic of human rights - healthcare has become a privilege. Huge corporations deploy billions of dollars on Washington lobbyists to prevent reform and to drive the agenda by influencing federal legislation. Where lies the "primacy of the individual" when many sick people are scared to visit the hospital just because they don't have insurance? America brags that it is the leader of the free world but racial segregation was legal in this country until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in as recent as 1969. So the U.S. is a young democracy. They didn't accept democracy till 1969 the way I see it.
Ghanaians should be extremely proud of their accomplishments. The rest of Africa will get where we are eventually. Afterall it took the mighty U.S. over 200 years to understand democracy.
Tell the U.S. media this when they are smearing African countries with their hypocritical rhetoric about governance problems in Africa. They should shut the hell up; afterall they just figured this out only 40 years ago. That's how old most African countries are anyway.