Now A Limping Democracy

In the last piece titled " Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a democratic principle ", I sought to mirror (and I believe I did) some actions and inactions of government that breed corruption, inequalities and certainly an abuse of power. I gave a succinct narrative of our democratic path.

Some of the issues, I never experienced myself, but as an activist and ardent believer of democracy and freedom of expression, I would be doing a great disservice to GHANA should I practice the culture of silence in an era that activists must speak for the voiceless.

In fact, it is the least expectation from every voice of conscience. This piece is an extension of the earlier article and the aim is to advocate a society where fairness, justice, and equality remain fundamental. For, if there must be peace and tranquility, then fairness, justice, and equality must necessarily be a sine qua non.

Firstly, society would have been chaotic, formless and lawless if a man in his quest to enjoy his natural environment without any unreasonable limitation and coercion from another. People would have stepped on toes, others would have been exploited, plundered, and the weak would have been brutalized and bullied. It would have been a better reflection of Charles Darwin's "Survival of the fittest".

Perhaps, man would have been feeding directly on the flesh of another man. Fortunately, God has a blessed man in a very unique way, making it superior to any other living thing on earth. Rational thinking, creativity, innovation, and many others pushed us to take a decision of forming formidable societies so that we can leave together, leverage our diversified knowledge and skills, and our strength and ideas in the collective interest of all.

It is more likely that, the idea of leadership in society came about because the people needed a central control of organization whether in communal labour or in the area of security. History tells us that most of the organized communities, tribes, clans, Kingdoms and empires considered their security very paramount. This is the reason why they came together, harnessed resources, formed armies purposely for their collective interest. The general overview of our past can better put us in the picture and essence of "Stateship".

Every man saw the need to live together with one another and so that became the basis and nucleus of social cohesion. Fairness, justice and equality were enforced in different orthodox ways so as they protected, jealously, that collective spirit of social cohesion.

In modern times, population explosion, global dynamics, different group of people came together to form states led by their own governments. For the purposes of education, I define government as the people chosen by the people within a particular state or country, so as to champion their visions, to accelerate growth and development while protecting the basic tenets of the larger society through law and acceptable practices. A government could be described in simple terms as " a mere messenger ". The people have certain aspirations to meet and the vehicle for the attainment of those visions and aspirations was the government.

Most African countries had these orientations predating the advent of modern day democracy which is largely " an imported Culture." The adoption of democracy was a game changer in many perspectives. It set a tone for the quest for power, money, influence and fame. The vested quest for power, wealth, fame and influence started redefining our glorious path to a rather inglorious destination. This is because, many who avail themselves to serve their countries as "messengers" compromise, in most cases, the theoretical framework of the African leadership. Our theoretical framework is the narrative I gave in my earlier renditions.

I must add that a government must be a "GREATER UMBRELLA " to its citizens. It is a canopy under which all citizens, irrespective of their race, religion or ideology, sit in. It should give security and protection to all. To determine whether or not a government is a good one, one must analyze society base on certain benchmarks of which fairness, justice, security, equality and protection would certainly predominate. If the citizens enjoy these benchmarks, relatively, one can arrive at a logical conclusion that the government is meeting the aspirations of the people and the vice versa.

Having laid a strong theoretical underpinning government or governance, I wish to urge all my readers to use the tools so provided to dissect, analyze and understand the political environment of Ghana today, and conclude for yourself whether or not, we are proud as a people within the basic tenets of responsible leadership encapsulated in the discussed framework.

That notwithstanding, knowing very well that you may have your conclusions different from mine, I believe, strongly, that all is not well with the Ghanaian society. It is a society that so much deteriorated that people want us to overlook where we came from so as they can advance their ego. The collective aspiration is shortchanged. The quest of wealth, power, fame and influence from those in power has reached, virtually, a saturated point.

What do you call a society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgement?

A society that sets up a conflict between its edicts and the requirements of man's nature, is not a strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang-rule. Such a society destroys all the values of human coexistence, has no possible justification and represents, not a source of benefits, but the deadliest threat to man's survival.

What kind of society is a society where, instead of being a protector of man's right, the government is becoming their most dangerous violator?

Instead of protecting men from the initiators of physical force, the government is initiating physical force and coercion in any manner and issue it pleases. Would you describe such a government as a good government?

Instead of protecting men from injury by whim, the government is arrogating to itself the power of unlimited whim so that we are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion, the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases. Is that in line with the essence of leadership?

May the gods of our ancestors, who sacrificed in laying a strong foundation of our continent and Ghana, come to our aid.

I shall be back............
Denis Andaban
The village boy from DBI
I am a voice of conscience
References:
Rand, Ayn. "The Nature of Government". In The Virtue of Selfishness. New York: Signet.

Denis, A. (2020). “Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a democratic principle”