Somewhere Sunday night(14-12-14), I decided to watch TV a bit before I go to bed. Something I rarely do because I am not a fan of watching TV, rather I prefer listening to the radio so at any point in time, I have my ear piece stuck in my ears. I began changing the channels to see what is new or interesting. I switched to about the 3rd channel and yes, there was something interesting. Something that could keep me awake for the next 2 hours even though I was stressed up and feeling sleepy after a hard days work in the office. It was the President of Ghana, H.E John Dramani Mahama being interviewed by Martine Dennis on Aljazeera. Gosh, how come I did not hear that my President will be on Aljazeera? Why didn't I switch on this TV earlier? These were the two questions I asked myself but then I realized that there was no one to give me an answer. I sat down quietly and began to watch with rapt attention with the notion that I might have missed a lot. But hey, no matter what I missed, I need to catch the last piece and watch what my President is telling Ghana and the world at large.
At that moment, Martine Dennis inquired to know about the energy problems in Ghana and how President Mahama was going about the problem since it is a very topical issue in Ghana now with the term 'Dumsor Dumsor' (on and off, on and off-Akan dialect). President Mahama did well to answer with several assurances like he will always do. He spoke like any other politician who always know the solutions to their problems but when it comes to implementation, its always stuck in the pipeline. But whatever answer he was giving, I was interested for several reasons. After all, President Mahama is a well educated communicationist so I was not expecting him to trail in answering the questions.
After President Mahama did justice to that question and a few others on Ghana, Martine Dennis delved into the recent uprising in Burkina Faso and how sure President Mahama who doubles at the ECOWAS chair was that the transitional team handling the affairs of Burkina Faso will do as agreed by the ECOWAS. President Mahama explained vividly by stating how important stakeholders in Burkina Faso including traditional leaders, the military, religious bodies et al have agreed to respect the ECOWAS cum AU and UN decision to conduct election and hand over power in a year.
Then yes! this was the question that will make me embark on a project across Africa God willing because sometimes it baffles me how our leaders reason and make certain decisions. Martine Dennis asked President Mahama why he thinks some African Presidents enjoy sitting on the throne for so long even if its their time to leave, they seem not wanting to eat the humble pie. Trust me, President Mahama did a lot of justice to this question that if there was an opportunity to call in the program and congratulate him, I will do. And this is the main reason for writing this piece titled 'Letter to my President'. President Mahama exhibited a high level of intelligence and frankness in answering this question.
Out of all he said, President Mahama's first statement after admitting that what Martine asked was quite true but because his country Ghana has some strict laws that cannot allow such long term reigning aside the two term, thus such attitude is not possible in Ghana, he might not be able to speak for those African leaders but will attempt to make certain comments, President Mahama said; "the ruler used in measuring democracy should differ from country to country since every society has its own cultures". He elaborated that though democracy is a system of governance, a country due to its way of life could absorb and act on democracy different from other countries.
I was excited and disappointed. Excited because President Mahama knows this fact and could say it on such an international platform without fear or favour but then again I was disappointed because knowing this, what has President Mahama done to influence democracy in his country and the ECOWAS community since he is the chairman.
I will want to elaborate more on my disappointment because democracy as a system of governance is one of the biggest reasons why Africa is not developing. I have written on my twitter page (@KwameMcjoseph) numerous times that this system of democracy is not good for us. Its either we reform,modify or change it and practice a system that suits our individual societies.
Should Africa still be holding to systems and doctrines that keeps affecting us negatively because our leaders seem to be scared of what the international community will say?
Democracy itself have seen several definitions over the years from different world scholars. The most commonest one I remember learning way back in high school says democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people. Some school of thought also defines Democracy as a government by the people; a form of government in which power is vested in the people and exercise directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. If I want to write the numerous definitions, you might not finish reading this piece.
In Ghana, we practice a democratic system where citizens vote every four years to elect a President and member of parliament representing each constituency. Ghana began experiencing internationally acclaimed democracy from 1992 till date. Over 90% of democracy practiced in Ghana is a doctrine from the international world. I am not sure there was any African present when the word democracy and its doctrines were invented but this is a system we are holding so high over the years where countries that are not going according to it are seen as somewhat inhumane.
One thing that baffles my mind is, how can someone according to his or her society design a system of governance and then tell other countries that it is the right system thus convince and somewhat impose it on them? I was born before 1992 but was still a child when Ghana decided to end the revolution era and take on democratic rule. Growing up till now, the simple meaning of democracy to the lay man in Ghana is that after four years, citizens will vote and elect leaders. The other is about freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion and bla bla bla so we have been doing this for five democratic terms now waiting to exercise the next one in 2016. Presidents come and go claiming to be practicing democracy because we are made to believe that voting peacefully every four years is one of the highest achievements in the democratic concept.
Ghana as a country have been going back and forth so much that I feel so bad about it. A candidate will come, make promises and talk politics to be voted for but after voting does what he or she likes. If democracy is for the people, how many times have the people been engaged in national decisions or policies? Sometimes the people even show disagreement to some policies but governments in power go ahead to do whatever they want to do. Furthermore, Ghana like other democratic African countries have not seen the kind of change it deserves from its democratic leaders. So is it that our leaders do not understand the democracy they are practicing or it is the democracy that does not suit our societies?
Now, putting what President Mahama said into perspective, democracy as a system of governance invented by whoever did I believe was done putting into consideration a society. The whole world I guess cannot be the same, thus cannot be put together as one society. There are about 196 countries in the world (new countries keep emerging every now and then) with different races, cultures and values. This means all countries and its people are not the same. I think this is the reason why President Mahama made the statement that the ruler used to measure democracy should vary from country to country because the societies are different.
I think in everyone's life, if you know something, tried it and it seems not working, you will have to change by either correcting it or abolishing it totally. This is the case of President Mahama and other African leaders who think same. They know that democracy have not yielded very good results that's why citizens continue to yell everyday for a better life or will citizens continue to yell even when the system is good? I do not think so.
There are leaders that do not practice democracy but are doing very well in managing their country. And though there have been several criticism from the international community, it does not mean that the system that those international communities are proposing must be the best for them.
For African societies, is it not appropriate to change or reform a system that continues to allow persons to promise development but fail to do a quarter of it?
Is it not appropriate to change or reform a system that allows people who have money to be voted into power instead of those who are of substance where everyone looks unconcern for politicians to be bribing voters?
Is it not appropriate to change or reform a system where government in power is scared to enforce laws because of fear to loose coming elections?
Is it not appropriate to change or reform a system that does not encourage the drafting of planned national policies that no matter the government, those policies should be implemented?
Is it not appropriate to change or reform a system that pardons and plays loose on issues that needs serious and straight forward actions?
Is it not appropriate to change or reform a system that allow corrupt officials to continue cruising freely in their 4x4 cars when the tax payer is hustling under the sun?
Is it not appropriate to change or reform a system allows someone who steals tubers of cassava to serve 10 years in jail but a corrupt government official to walk free?
Is it not appropriate to change or reform a system that makes governments in power do what they claim is their agenda, thus abandoning a good project started by the previous government?
Is it not appropriate to change or reform a system that allows governments to ignore the concerns of its people?
We can all testify that over the years, there have been reforms by those countries that Africa seems to be copying democracy and other systems from so why can't it be possible for us to also reform ours? Or are our leaders scared of something or a group of people? I do not think they have to because their citizens believe in them and classify them as leaders thus they need to take decisions as leaders.
This is our society and it varies from others so I think we need to practice a system of governance that suits us. If we have to still practice democracy for whatever reason, we need to reform it to suit us. So like the golden rule of man requires that every man should know himself, I think knowing our society thus practicing a system that will suit us will be one of the things that can drive Ghana and Africa to attain a better status.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Till today, Africans hail the likes of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere for their good visions. Do not forget they did all that we are admiring them for without practicing this system of democracy.
Some Libyans were made to believe that democracy is the best thus President Gaddafi was the reason for their woes. President Gaddafi is gone, let's go back to Libya and see how they are faring. Have the democracy that was preached done them real good?
NB: I am not condoning with Presidents who unlawfully stay in power for so long without positively affecting its citizens but I want everyone reading this to think through these and conclude whether we have been at our best.
And to my President, he who much is given, much is expected. He knows best so we are expecting much from him.
