Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, Dean of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), has stated that going to the ballot every four or five years does not equate to democracy, but rather living by its tenets and working in the supreme interest of the people.
“When we use democracy as an event, it creates confusion. We have a constitution, yet we are not practising constitutionalism because everybody is doing what he or she likes.”
Dr Antwi-Danso made the observation on the United Nations (UN) International Day of Democracy in Accra.
The UN has set 15th September each year to promote and consolidate democracy.
The purpose of the day is to review the state of democracy in the world and urge member nations of the UN Charter to celebrate and uphold the values of democracy to give citizens the power to make decisions regarding all aspects of their lives.
In this light, United Nations Association – Ghana (UNA-GH) joined the rest of the world to observe the day under the theme: “The role of State actors and civil societies in consolidating democracy, human rights and peace”.
Dr Antwi-Danso, citing the cases of Tsatsu Tsikata and Stephen Asamoah Boateng, where the former was arrested in church on a Sunday and the latter at the airport along with his wife, both by the BNI, wondered why the institution never noticed that their victims had done anything wrong only for a change of government.
Such ‘institutional manipulations’, he said, defeated the purpose of the democracy, which was to make the state stronger and not a political actor and warned that those manipulations ceased to give way to institutionalism.
Mr Francis-Xavier Sosu, Member of Parliament for Madina and Second Vice-Chairman, UNA-GH, in his comment, emphasised the need for State Actors and Civil Societies to ensure the preservation of society’s democracy, respect for individual rights and freedoms, and ensure that resources were used efficiently to achieve maximum benefit for the citizenry.
He said though democracy remained the best system of governance for societies and organisations worldwide, it thrives because it allows for diversity, tolerance and openness to change.
He, however, stated that democracy, as it was currently practised in Africa, did not provide solutions to the complex problems faced by African societies. He said the Western type of democracy had failed to develop Africa and its people. As such, it was time for Africa to begin to rethink and take advantage of the value of democracy as were generally known, but necessary to develop a new “African Democracy”.
In his comment, Bishop Peter Kojo Sackey, President, UNA-GH, noted that the World Formation of United Nations Association (WFUNA) was the only global organisation with the primary mission of supporting the principles and purposes of the UN. He said WFUNA represents and coordinates the membership of over 100 national UNAs and their thousands of constituents.
He said every UN Member State had only one UNA, which must affiliate WFUNA. Having affiliated with WFUNA, the UNA-GH has the legitimacy to operate as such.
GNA
