NATION-STATE – A Marriage of Equity - Dr. Nii Amu Darko

A nation refers to a large number of people with common ancestry, language, culture and living on a defined territory (country). A State is the legal and institutional framework through which the nation is governed. Before the white man, our country was a multi-national entity with no central authority - STATE.

Ghana is a consolidation of many nations into one super-nation under one political authority, the State. The same process took place across Africa. Colonization resulted in consolidation of hundreds of ethnic nations into tens of nation-states. Colonization did not result in balkanization of Africa. That is a lie.

The independence leaders including Nkrumah made a meal out of this balkanization lie. Nkrumah would never have ruled over Ga, Anlo, Asante and Dagbon if the white man had not consolidated these ethnic nations into one super-nation. This is the truth.

This basic lack of comprehension distorted the nation-state experiment and deprived it of the energy needed to weld the parts together in a fair and a proportionate state. The failed state thus is a product of incomprehension. Many still do not comprehend, the few who do are scared to talk. I am not scared.

The nation-state is a couple - relationship between the governed and the governor. It is akin to the relationship between a husband and a wife. The husband, the head (State) and the wife, the body (Nation). The nation-state is a marriage of equity, different in functions but equal in importance.

The husband is to love, sacrifice and present the wife spotless. That is the duty of state. I call it NATIONAL INTEREST. The wife is to respect and submit to the authority of the husband. That is the duty of the nation. That is why the President is called Your Excellency and MPs honorables – titles of respect and reverence.

Love and reverence – this is how the balance is maintained and equity ensured. Comprehend this basic fact, and it becomes clear why our country has failed. The nation-state like marriage is a contract. The contract book is the Constitution. If the marriage is not working, then the constitution is the problem .

The basic problem of our constitution is the lack of understanding of the nation-state marriage. It is not based on equity. A constitution which gives so much power to a husband is flawed. A contract which makes reverence to a husband mandatory but love to a wife discretionary is very flawed.

A contract which creates and sustains a husband who intimidates, beats and imprisons the wife is an abusive constitution - the extreme form of which is the One-Party constitution. It denies the wife the basic human right to seek divorce. Anyone who supports one-party state is a wife abuser.

The 1992 Constitution is a lite version of one-party constitution. It does not solve the nation-state equity problem, though it gives the wife the right of review every 4 years via elections. The abusive husband still has the power to corrupt the review process. He appoints all the review EC ‘judges.’

As Obama said ‘’make no mistake, development depends on good governance’’ – the difference between a developed and undeveloped country is the social contract between the governed and the governors . No marriage is perfect but some other better than others. The same goes for nation-state ‘’marriages.’’

We need a new social contract. I believe that federalism strengthened by proportional representation in Cabinet and Parliament by the multi-nations in our super-nation is a better arrangement than the current unitary system. Our system is called Afremocracy – democracy brewed in the African Pot. Afremocracy is the new nation-state marriage of equity we need and will get.

Tswa omanye aba.
29/12/2015