Freedoms and Democracy: Exploring the Complexity of a Nebulous Concept under the Fourth Republic

Let me begin by stating that this article is not meant for everyone. Secondly, I would appreciate serious responses to my article, and not the usual insults that have bedeviled this site, and diluted the value of many scholarly presentations. In the twenty-first century, the Ghanaian democratic environment is fastened to the fictional presumption that, unlike any political era, post-1992 democracy is the best political period that the nation has ever witnessed. While everyone is entitled to their opinion(s), I hope this article will generate responses that are informed by different ideological persuasions, and social locations, to add worth to today’s topic.

Am I the only one who thinks that our nation’s current democratic freedoms are feathery propositions by our government(s) to tranquilize critical minds from challenging the inadequacy of the state and inexperienced government officials appointed to positions that require thoughtful intellection? Is democracy of any significance if it tolerates free speech, yet defers the demands of the citizenry until the next presidential election? What would you prefer; a democracy that offers no resolution to human problems, or a managed tyranny that doesn’t entertain plurality yet caters to the needs of the population?

For so long, we have treated ourselves to the abstract hope that our nation’s leadership has the savoir-faire to lead Ghana into becoming sub-Saharan Africa’s economic powerhouse. Directing our attention to the preceding, in the hope that our nation will become another Malaysia, we have downplayed the importance to reforming our infirmed neo-colonial institutions to restrain the government from engaging in practices that violate the provisions in our nation’s constitution. For example, does it make economic sense for the president not to use the nation’s presidential jet with the excuse that it was purchased under the Rawlings’ administration? Amusingly, the same president who rejected the use of the nation’s asset, which he considers to be a waste of the state’s resources, is now proposing the purchase of a similar jet at a much higher cost?

How free are we as a nation, if we allow the government to offer positions of leadership to certain Ghanaians with foreign citizenship? Does not the constitution forbid such a practice? Did Ms. Vicky Bright show her certificate of citizenship renunciation to the Parliamentary Committee before the president offered her a seat among the nation’s Council of State? Or, is it another tale of Oman-Panyin Kufuor flexing his Executive Prerogative to impose one of his many untested appointees on the nation? It is a known fact that Ghana’s Ambassador to Italy, Mr. Amoamah, and Ghana’s Deputy High Commissioner to South Africa, Nana Boahene, are both Canadian citizens. By appointing these two men to serve the nation, given their foreign citizenship, the president violated the directives of the nation’s constitution. Who speaks for the nation when the chief-enforcer of the law becomes the leading violator?

How do we challenge the Executive and the legislative branches of the state when they willfully violate the stipulations of our constitution? In a free democracy, don’t citizens have the absolute right to demand that the government makes public the Wood’s Commission’s Report on MV Benjamin, and the “walking” cocaine? If the citizens of a nation cannot exercise their right to use the court to compel the government to make public Justice Wood’s Report, then where lies the democracy, and our right to be informed about issues that affect our nation? In the aftermath of Judge Wood’s Inquiry, why is the government refusing to reinstate ACP Kofi Boakye if the alleged narco-cop is innocent as they state would want to believe?

The disqualification of Captain (Rtd) Effah Nkrabeah Dartey by the NPP also draws attention to the fluidity of the nation’s constitutional text. Given the variable application of the constitution, maybe, we need the Dr. Okoampah Ahoofe, and Owawani Okomfo Oyokoba Bottah to come up with an effective expectorant to oust the built-up phlegm in the NPP’s nasal cavity. When did they NPP government see the wisdom in denying Captain (Rtd) Effah Dartey his right to compete in his party’s presidential primaries? Why would a government that touts democratic values allow Captain (Rtd) Dartey to waste GHC 250 million if it knew that the allegation about Captain Effah Dartey’s alleged “coup plot” against the “Third Republic” was going to disqualify him from contesting in the presidential primaries?” If the coup allegation is true, which I doubt it is, why did the current administration allow the nonconformist ex-soldier to serve as the nation’s Deputy Minister responsible for Interior; a position that places some of the nation’s security agencies under his watch? Sometimes, fielding Chairman Rawlings’ adversaries to stain the man’s reputation, and minimize his popularity, is not the best strategy. Is it?

If the current administration despises anyone who is alleged to have attempted a coup, why is the NPP leadership still shielding General (Rtd) Joshua Hamidu, Major (Rtd) Courage Emmanuel Kobla Quarshigah and Akonta J.H. Mensah? Were not these three gentleman accused by the erstwhile administration for engaging in acts that threatened national security? Why is current administration entertaining, in its midst, a known Ghanaian soldier turned politician who allegedly advised Liberia’s Charles Taylor, when he was a warlord, on military matters. This Ghanaian Major once attended the Bamako Peace Conference with the ex-warlord. From a moralist perspective, this Ghanaian soldier is equally culpable for the atrocities that Charles Taylor committed against his fellow countrymen and women.

In twenty-first century Ghanaian politics, it does not take a trained mind to know(ing) that, the current political administration was constructed out of a social-ethnic grouping. It is a known fact that, many of the present day government appointees were extracted from the old UP ideological school. I must also state that, given their paranoia, and love for ethnocentricity, they see their non-ethno-peers as a threat to their survival. It is also worth stating that the Kofi Jumahs, the Amoamahs, and the Nana Boahenes, who were all registered members of “Friends of Kufuor,” and who paid various sums of money toward the NPP political campaigns, while the party was in opposition, were rewarded with beefy appointments.

Does Ghana have any independent institution that provides a voice for citizens? Do we have a reliable media to remind the president that the nation’s values demand that he fills positions of leadership with citizens with provable merits and astuteness, and not partisan “yes-men” who filled the party’s coffers with pennies and dimes? As a nation, our politicians fail to understand that building ethno-fortresses is not a sufficient variable to deescalating grassroots discontent. Contrary to what our politicians believe, ethno- fortifications are not an insurance against, but a motivation for peripheral ethno-bodies to challenge the centrality and legitimacy of the state. This phenomenon can potentially create headaches for the any government, and reverse our nation’s democratic fortunes.

In present day Ghana, we know that some of the nation’s key decisions are not made by the nation’s parliament, but by a coalition of individuals who share the president’s vision for indigenous capitalism, and property-owning democracy, high tolerance to corruption, and the revival of “akanocracy.” Contrary to what we are told, and made to believe, those who have the ears of the president are those who are prepared to do his biddings and defend the many travesties under the current administration. Was it not sad to hear and entire nation muttering over Chief Kufuor’s acquisition of a multi-million dollar loan to by a hotel, and presenting the hotel as collateral after the fact? Could Chief Kufuor have acquired the same loan under a different president?

I know there are many who disagree with me on a number of issues. Nonetheless, for long can we allow partisan politics and specious juxtapositions to become barriers to rational thinking, intellective perspicacity and engagements? As Ghanaians, our commitment must rest with building a nation that respects the rights of all, and not some. We should create a collegial atmosphere that encourages impassioned articulation of ideas, and not the culling of the irrelevant to justify a lost cause as some have done. I bear no ill-will toward any individual. However, I cringe to see the unwholesome assimilation of irrationality into the nation’s culturo-moral consciousness.

I speak, and stand for freedom. I stand for a brand of freedom that allows Ghanaians to use the medium of technology to tease out our legitimate concerns about the current state of affairs in our nation. I stand for political brinkmanship that stokes heated passion in our hearts. Freedom is not necessarily about free speech; an enduring euphoria that has suppressed our nation’s ability to think clearly and challenge excesses at the upper-tiers of power.

Freedom is about nurturing ideas and integrating them into policymaking to effect measurable changes in human lives. The government disinclination to pass the Freedom of Information Bill shows a frightened administration that dreads exposing the many gory skeletons it has in its dimmed closet. It is the spirit of a dream that brings some of us here. Dreams only happen when dreamers create one, and we must build one today. Let’s decolonize our minds, and relearn the ideals of Nkrumahism. Hope all is well. Good day and cheers.