Accra, Ghana, August 31, 2018//-A renowned Ghanaian political scientist, Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi says Ghana is yet to achieve a meaningful sustain inclusive economic and social development after practicing democracy for many years.
According to him, many sections of the Ghanaian society including women and people with disability were excluded or under-represented in economic and social activities in the country.
Prof Gyimah-Boadi who is the co-founder of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), a leading research and advocacy think-tank in Ghana and beyond made the observation at the fourteenth “Kronti ne Akwamu” lecture in Accra on Thursday, August 30, 2018.
To this end, he asked the government to expand the national cake to ensure that all the sections of the society benefits.
Prof Gyimah-Boadi alluded to the experience of China and other Asian countries that the “obvious most important task is to increase the national cake and accelerate the rate of economic growth”.
This he explained that “economic growth alone does not automatically generate inclusion or reduce inequality, but keeping it meaningfully distributed means certain stringent measures must be taken”.
“We must curb the rapid increase in the rise of politicians who may be described as political entrepreneurs or what Malawian vice president calls “tenderpreneurs’. “They hijack the economic and social dividends that flow from democratic governance,” Prof Gyimah-Boadi said to a thunderous applause.
Prof Gyimah-Boadi who is also the Executive Director of Afrobarometer, a leading survey organisation in Africa spoke on theme: ‘Making Democracy Work for the People: Reflections on Ghana’s 25-year Journey Towards Democratic Development”.
This year’s lecture was held on the theme: ‘Making Democracy Work for the People: Reflections on Ghana’s 25-year journey towards democratic development’.
He noted that governance in Ghana was continuously failing the test of true democracy as posited by Abraham Lincoln.
According to Prof Gyimah-Boadi, governance is worsening from the popular description, ‘winner takes all’ to an even damaging ‘winner knows all’.
The ‘winner takes all’ refers to the practice where party that wins the Presidency and most votes at the legislature dominates every aspect of governance and sidelines the minority parties in the running of a country. Many experts, NGOs, opposition political parties have spoke against its practice in Ghana but it persists.
Prof Gyimah Boadi noted that Ghana’s 25-year-old democracy had been dominated by many instances in which the governing party fails to incorporate the ideas of opposition parties and civil society before implementing policies and programmes.
“We should also examine the implications of the evolving practice of the winning party taking over policies and proposals from its election manifesto, for example, free SHS or three-year SHS or one-time National Health Insurance premium straight to implementation by executive fiat without passing them through a legislative fiat or a subsidiary legislative process, something that would have allowed for broader and diverse civil society and even Parliamentary input.
“So are we now moving towards ‘winner knows all’ as if the ‘winner takes all’ politics wasn’t bad enough?
The Country Manager for CSquared Ghana, Ms Estelle Akofio-Sowah who chaired the lecture organised by CDD-Ghana urged Ghanaians to be concerned about matters relating to democracy.
In his welcome remarks, the Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, Prof Kwesi Prempeh said : “We are proud of our part we have played in shaping Ghana’s democracy”.
African Eye Report
