Ghana’s democracy is very complex and interesting to say the least. It all started when the nation decided that military rule under the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) regime was no longer serving the needs and welfare of the country.
The PNDC as a military regime did not believe in a multi-party democracy where people are able to express their views on issues freely and independently under a true democracy. The protests and the mass demonstrations that led to the current constitution were tragically and unfortunately very bloody to say the least. Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings as a leader of the regime who on various occasions before the constitution was written reiterated that he did not believe in democracy therefore he made sure that all his wishes and that of the people around and within the regime were preserved and protected within the 1992 constitution.
I believe he was of the view that PNDC or the off-shoot NDC will never be in opposition getting the short end of the stick. The PNDC regime like any political dictatorial regime was not accountable to anyone and this mindset was the main thrust that underlies various provisions enshrined in the 1992 constitution. For instance, after they seized power in 1981, the PNDC regime suspended the constitution, dissolved all political parties and detained a number of political leaders from the former ruling party as well as those in the opposition.
They thought the political system had become so corrupt that they had to clean house and bring justice into the system. This process led to the killings of political leaders from the former ruling party (People’s National Party (PNP), public officials and those in the opposition who were found guilty of all sort of crimes against the nation by the regime’s revolutionary court system- Public Tribunals. To quote Rawlings in his first public speech on December 1981, ‘in this society (Ghana) there is no justice and as long as there is no justice, I would say that there shall be no peace’. The regime therefore became the law and the authority in Ghana at that time. It should be noted that the regime had the support of the masses who felt being left out of the political system.
The public tribunals became the chief cornerstone of the regime’s institutionalized abuse and violation of the peoples’ basic freedoms, liberty, and human rights. All the verdicts and the decisions of the public tribunals were highly influenced by the regime. The public tribunals became the cloak under which the political opponents were persecuted because they did permit the conviction of the accused person on the testimony of a sole witness.
The processes enabled the state prosecution services under the PNDC, to obtain the conviction in cases which would not have been successful under the normal circumstances with little or no appeal process. Human right abuses and violations were the order of the day but they were done in the name of the so-called house cleaning. It should be noted that most of the members of the tribunal (chairmen) were ill-equipped to carry out justice within the judicial system but were appointed because they were lawyers who supported the regime’s policies in this area.
In 1992 the new constitution was promulgated with the mindset and worldview where political leadership and authority flows from the president or the regime’s leadership. The new constitution actually gave power to elected officials and not to the democratic institutions that are fundamental to effective and vibrant democratic processes. The constitution made mediocre men strong, men who had no business in running public institutions. It was written to support and legitimize the PNDC regime ideas and policies. Technically, it was written as a sham for the regime to change its outlook from the military dictatorship to a civilian multi-party democracy. The protests, agitations and demonstrations in various parts of the country that forced the regime to accept the grievance of the people calmed down after the constitutional referendum was voted on.
The haste with which the constitution was written signifies the lack of understanding and the foresight that was required and needed for such an important monumental document. The articles and the provision were written just to legitimize and privileged the ruling military regime. The president became the sole power and the one with the last word on any and all appointments and decisions. The president not only maintained all powers from the regime but also assumed more over the nation with all responsibility and no accountability whatsoever. The separation of powers in the democracy which provides and afford checks and balances within various branches of the government existed only on paper. Technically Ghana has an emperor under a democracy which may sound oxymoron and chronologically misplaced in the twenty-first century.
I believe if the Ghanaian public had known and understood what they were voting on under the constitutional referendum in 1992, they would have totally and resoundingly rejected it. The content of the whole constitution did not change anything within the regime. It rather increased and legitimized the powers of the ruling party with all the privileges, authority, benefit, responsibility, and no accountability whatsoever from the president, his appointees, party officials and anyone who wields power within the ruling party. On the face of it, all the people who occupied various positions during the regime were the same people who were appointed to the same positions under the constitution. The leader of the regime –Rawlings -used to array in the military uniform under the constitutional rule when his NDC party controversially won the 1992 general elections.
The so-called resounding victory for the NDC (National Democratic Congress) allowed the regime to continue for another two terms of four years each. The elected parliament was a sham and many members had testified over the years that it was nothing but a rubber stamp do nothing parliament.
The constitution did not differentiate between a public servant, civil servant and a politician among other roles. The political party in power has become synonymous with the government in all aspects with all powers and a too big to fail attitude. Every decision, policy, or appointment by the president, or any of his appointees is done in the interest of the ruling party with total disregard for the nation’s welfare. The political parties have become too big to fail or a holy cow which must be protected at all cost by the civil or the public servants or they stand to risk their jobs. This system has created a mindset among Ghanaians that anyone working for the government must be a member of the ruling party. This applies to NPP, NDC or for that matter any political party that will assume power in the future. Since human beings are completely and unavoidably influence by their environment, the Ghanaian public understanding of democracy as a system of government far from reality. Politicians have also capitalize on the ignorance of the masses and they pick and choose various aspects of the democracy that will favor their political party while denying the people their fundamental freedoms, rights and liberty which democracy affords such as access to quality education, information and accountability from elected officials. It is also true that man is a product of his condition and environmental factors which help creates habits that are conformable to those factors. Ghanaians have therefore, acquiesced and accepted this unhealthy status quo as the norm and it has become extremely difficult to change people’s minds. The gulf between what people read and understand as democracy and what is being practiced is very wide.
Under this circumstance, all decisions and policies undertaking by the ruling government is meant to champion the vision of the party elites with total disregard for the Ghana’s national interest. In Ghana’s political system, it is considered an anathema for one party to continue the policy that was initiated by another party.
This attitude and mindset within Ghana’s political system has adversely affected the development of the nation because every political party never continues what the other party initiated even if it serves the interest of the nation. Every newly elected party into power comes with its own manifesto with fresh policies and projects that have no scientific facts as to whether they will benefit the nation or not. Therefore, the nation’s health, education and development policies are developed by politicians with no idea nor experience of what they are doing. The policies and programs are not base on scientific facts but on what will benefit the party in the public opinion arena.
In the nutshell, the Ghana has become a nation with no laws and no leadership. The laws are enforced only when it favors the ruling party. All laws and powers of the previous government are usually thrown out when it leaves office. Every government always begins with a clean sheet which makes it difficult to hold anyone accountable or responsible for his/her action or inaction. The president is a powerful than life figure that controls the executive, the legislature and the judiciary branches of the government.
I believe history and the future generations will judge Jerry John Rawlings as the worst thing that ever happened to Ghana. I am not saying this in a pejorative way but to candidly point out the mess he created under the constitution. The constitution was a golden opportunity for the nation to set things right and fair but because of personal, individual, political greed Rawlings and his cohort blew the chance. The selfish attitude and mindset that fundamentally shaped the constitutional provisions and the articles has ruined the nation’s democratic process and institutions. The problems we as a nation are experiencing with respects to health, sanitation, education, law and order, bribery and corruption in high places are just the symptoms of the fundamental problems the was created by the constitution.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle like to talk and discuss the symptoms instead of attacking the real problem. Changing political party through the ballot box every four year is just like taking aspirin when one has a head pains. It will only treat the symptom whilst doing fundamentally nothing to the root cause of the problems facing the nation. As a nation, we can choose to ignore the main issues and dillydally about it but we cannot choose to escape the consequences of the problems. The issues of the nation and the consequences thereof are like the two sides of the same stick, we cannot pick one end without picking the other end as well. A word to the wise they say “is in the north”.
By Frederick Ofosu-Amankwah
