Our Demo-Crazy Or Democracy: The Difference Is “Z” For Zilch!!

I have always tried as hard as I can, to write on only things that have facts and data supporting it. There are some things however, that I have realized are so savagely true, they resonate through every fibre of one's conscience and spirit – for those things, to deny them is to deny one's existence - Ghana's Democrazy!!

Democracy is indeed a beautiful thing. It is a system to ensure that a structured environment is created that ensures only 3 things (i) That the citizens are protected physically, spiritually and morally from within and without (ii) that all means and ways exist for the will, zeal and desires of the citizens to be expressed and acted upon faithfully at all times through their representatives in Government and (iii) That everything concerning the nation that practices democracy is accountable back to the “PEOPLE”.

The question is –
“IS THE DEMOCRACY WE PRACTICE IN GHANA, THE RIGHT DEMOCRACY FOR US?”

(1) Is it the right democracy considering that our parliamentarians, after we vote them into office, cease to fight for our interests and rather start using what is entitled to us as weapons to blackmail us into voting for them again or lose our entitlements if we don't? Is it the right democracy for us if the parliamentarians we elect into office are secured in their jobs, not because they feel justified by the good work they are doing for their citizen electorate, but rather because they are good friends with their Political party Chairman and organizers?

(2) Is it the right democracy when citizens only feel empowered during a once-in-a-while December voting, and once done, they feel helplessly powerless to effect any other change in the interim if they feel the men and women they have employed with their votes are not performing well?

(3) Is it the right democracy when as things stand, it is obvious that depending on which political party wins power, some regions and districts will never be developed in this beautiful land of Ghana simply because those regions or districts “are a group of people not intrinsically identified with the ethnicity of people who make up the winning political party?” – can someone tell me how in heaven's name that can be referred to as democracy?

(4) Is it the right democracy if the people we hand over our resources to, and pay on a monthly basis, to protect our interests and those of our posterity both physically, spiritually and morally, are the very people who have become the corrupt enemy within, that we now need to be protected from? Yet we cannot do anything about it because we have handed to them, the very power they now threaten us with?

No Government or political party for that matter, in Ghana including the founding fathers of our democracy and independence, have been bold or discerning enough to have stopped and asked the question “is this the model of democracy that will work for us”. It is like travelling to America or Europe during winter, going into a shoe shop and buying a pair of cold winter boots because everybody seems to be wearing it and it looks nice – forgetting that when you return to Ghana with the boots – it is either useless to wear at all, or to wear it with uttermost discomfort. Or, a third alternative actually exists – to take a look at your pair of boots, call in an indigenous shoemaker, and with his help, redesign it to suit the hot humid climate of Ghana.

I pray those of us out there, with the heartbeat to change the course of this country will never forget this duty. We don't just owe it to Ghanaians – we owe it to the world.

(By Marricke Kofi Gane)
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