Is Ghana’s Democracy Really In Crisis?

Honorable Alban Bagbin, the Majority leader has recently made pronouncements which have generated some controversy. In this regard, his pronouncements impugning corruption to some members of Parliament and pronouncements in which he claims that Ghana’s democracy is in crisis prominently come to light. It is unclear however what Mr. Bagbin’s true motives are behind some of these pronouncements.

With regard to his impugning corruption to some members of parliament, one can rightly conclude that such a pronouncement-coming from him as a member of parliament- casts an unfortunate slur on the integrity of an august state institution such as parliament that he is a member of. This is more so the case when he was not able to publicly refer to any specific incident of corruption involving parliamentarians to support his generalized allegation.

Regarding his recent statement claiming that Ghana’s democracy is in crisis, Honorable Bagbin’s general premise for this statement is that there is a culture of spewing “toxic emotions” in the society and therefore Ghana’s democracy is in crisis. On this basis, he hastily jumped to the conclusion that Egypt can be replicated in Ghana. Ironically, Mr. Bagbin’s pronouncements fall within the category of the very toxic emotions in our political environment that he complains about. Pronouncements indicating crisis in our democracy create unnecessary fear and panic about Ghana’s political environment which is touted as one of the best in Africa.

Competitive democracy as is practiced in Ghana naturally comes with political tension which may not necessarily indicate the existence of political crisis.

Our democracy has survived testing moments such as a period of eight months of court case during which the Presidency was unnecessarily rendered unstable by a losing Presidential candidate who refused to concede defeat against all odds. Yet Ghanaians did not regard their democracy as being in crisis during that testing event. Besides, Ghanaians have managed democratic transitions with expected accompanying tensions, and yet even such transitions have not sufficed to put our democracy in crisis.

Honorable Bagbin should therefore spare Ghanaians such negative pronouncements and rather use his position as Member of Parliament and majority leader to help the country progress along its path to destiny as one of the few shinning lights in African democracy. His holier than thou attitude and pronouncements are making him an example of the very “toxic emotions” that he complains of as existing in our political culture.

At the very least he should focus on providing leadership in parliament to help Government succeed in its effort to promote economic development and good governance in Ghana. He should also remember that as majority leader his pronouncements would always be subjected to high public scrutiny. As such he should be very measured in his pronouncements in order for wrong motives not to be assigned to them.

A word to a wise is enough.

God Bless our Homeland Ghana.

Source: Mensah Dekportor