Saturday,
March 14, 2015
Folks, I am poised to touch
raw nerves, having sat back all this while to critically observe and analyze
issues pertaining to Ghana's developmental challenges to conclude that the kind
of democracy being practised is sham and shameful.
And there is always a fad to
drive it in full throttle. Many negative happenings at all levels attest to the
fact that this kind of democracy is not designed to solve problems but to
compound existing ones, even as it creates new ones to confound Ghanaians and
create fertile grounds for those walking the corridors of power to exploit.
Here are some niggling
aspects:
• Why is the Executive arm
still so powerful as to become "untouchable" even when it errs?
• Why is Parliament so useless
as to be reduced to a circus with the NPP minority enacting its "Concert
Party" episodes and sustaining the spirit of "rally ground
talks" (as they have just done to the Finance Minister Terkper) while the
NDC Majority stumble and fail to use the clout for enhancing governance?
• Why is the Council of State
so dumb and irrelevant, even when many happenings demand that it should be on
its toes to get the Executive going in the right direction for Ghana's good? Of
course, this Council of State itself is woefully redundant, a drain on our
resources!!
• Why are the institutions of
state still under-tooled, intimidated, co-opted, and rendered unproductive (or
counter-productive) in this (warped) democracy?
• Why has the Right to
Information Bill not seen the light of day despite all the noise about its
movement from the Executive to the Legislature?
• Why is it that the
activities of the Constitutional Reform Commission have ground to a painful
halt despite the millions of Dollars spent on it? And the government is
panhandling again before the IMF for more Dollars to do what?
• Why is there no reform at
the various levels of local government (for instance, structures for the
election of Chief Executive Officers for the Assemblies or Mayors for the major
cities; proper and workable decentralization of institutions of state,
especially the Police Service, Fire Service, Prisons Service, etc.) to support
what goes on at the regional and national levels?
• Why is the Judiciary still
an underdog, trodden upon by the Executive and the Legislature to serve
parochial political interests?
• Why are the Ministries,
Departments, and Agencies still serving as "glorified messengers" and
appendages of the government's political machinery instead of doing what will
reflect the express will of the people whose mandate is sought at general
elections? And seeking that mandate involves the expenditure of millions of
Dollars, not Ghana Cedis?
• In effect, why is this kind
of democracy more potent at the level of stultifying the citizens than
galvanizing them for "positive action" to move their country forward?
• Why is it that this kind of
democracy that supported Rawlings' "reign of terror" (one-man show?)
would further sustain Kufuor's Akanization project of governance and move on to
give us that John Mahama has up his sleeves that is neither here nor there?
• In the end, where will it
all send Ghana?
I am very much interested in
plotting all these issues to help us determine how to place this kind of
"Ghanaian democracy". I have all along said that any democracy that
doesn't ensure a better living condition for the citizens is sham and shameful.
It is a mere ruse, a damaging smokescreen behind which unscrupulous manipulators
of the system hide to exploit the country.
I shall return…
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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Join
me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to
continue the conversation.
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