The Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences at the Vatican in Rome, Cardinal Peter Kwodwo Appiah Turkson, has condemned the “acrimony, hostility and violence that sometimes accompanies” Ghana’s democratic processes.
He says certain things that characterised the nation’s democracy in its early stages could be pardoned, however, having to battle with same things after three decades of being in the Fourth Republic makes it a little problematic.
Recounting how Ghana started as a democratic polity after independence, going through a one-party state and series of coup d’etats and subsequently reverting to a democratic nation, he lauded the progress that has been made nonetheless.
The Catholic priest was speaking on Hot Issues on TV3 Sunday, October 13, 2024, when he made the comments.
“It started democratically and then it became one party state and so on. So, recent parties were the rulers, a military coup, he (Jerry Rawlings) was encouraged to metamorphose into some, democratic system with himself as the Head of State. And then there was a talk at that time of handing over power and I remember him saying, hand over power to whom? But happily, he did hand over, became president and we talk about the 1992 constitution and all.
“So, one might say that that was some kind of a beginning. And then, a change of government comes and all of that. But this process doesn’t necessarily have to show the acrimony, hostility and the violence that sometimes accompanies,” he stated.
The former Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Coast indicated that having such traits in the formative stages of Ghana’s democracy was normal, it is however surprising that such things are still in place after these years of practice.
“I mean, one might say that at the beginning, we didn’t quite know where we were going so there was this struggle and all of that,” he added.
Cardinal Turkson further suggested for a national vision to guide the country’s developmental trajectory in order not to end a mission at the end of a party’s term of power.
Cardinal Turkson establishes need for Ghana to have a national vision
