On April 11, 2025, while addressing the members of the University of Education, Winneba community and the public in the UEW Public Lecture Series, Prof. Agyeman Badu in his incendiary speech stated:
“The last thing I want to say is that I believe sincerely, and I will say it here today, that multiparty democracy has done nothing for this country. Since 1992, the only beneficiary of the system is the political class.”
He also added that: “The professional class, the working class, [and] the underclass have all been totally marginalised…but that does not develop a country.”
At the onset of his speech, he asserted that he is an avowed ‘Nkrumahist’—an acolyte and believer of the ideals of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first Prime Minister (1951/2 – 1960) and President (1960 -1966). Indeed, Prof. Agyeman Badu is a member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), having contested the CPP presidential primaries for the 2008 elections, but lost to Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.
On the substantive matter, it is not as if we have not had other systems of democracy, should we choose democracy to literally ‘a people ruling themselves’. We have had two parliamentary system—under Nkrumah between 1952 and 1960, and under Busia between 1969 and 1972. We have also had two shots at presidential systems—under Nkrumah between 1960 and 1966, and under Limann’s short-lived government between 1979 and 1981. Moreso, we have had more than two decades of experience under military authoritarianism—between 1966 and 1969, 1972 and 1979, 1981/2 – 1992.
It was not until 1992 that Ghanaians decided to experiment with a new type of democracy rooted in the rule of law and justice, popular representation, and freedoms of expression and association. This gave birth to multiparty democracy in the newly founded Fourth Republic under a new constitution, which has since endured the test of time.
Even as a known member of the CPP, Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa served as Director General of the Ghana Health Service under the Kufuor led NPP government between 2002 and 2006.
It has often been the case that those who revile and discredit multiparty democracy, although it offers stability in governance, fail to proffer an alternative. Whereas fortunes may not have favoured their political leadership aspirations yet, it cannot be totally ignored that they have not had their due to contribute to the political and socioeconomic development under the current multiparty political dispensation.
So, to say “multiparty democracy has done nothing for this country” is to stand against the strides made in the last three decades in our political governance—especially the endurance of our fourth republic under the rule of law—pro market policies which propels and secures private sector and business growth and enhanced social welfare services and interventions to reduce multi-dimensional poverty.
Additionally, it confronts the wishes of most Ghanaians who reject authoritarian alternatives to governance in favour of freedoms and support for multiparty competition (See Afrobarometer R10 Ghana democracy scorecard).
Of course, Ghana’s multiparty democracy has yet to deliver many of its promises at the dawn of the Fourth Republic. However, as democracy scholars like Dr. Osae-Kwapong rightly always posit: “It is the only form of government that can self-correct.”
This is particularly because the primary tool of accountability has been given to the people, in whose will sovereignty resides. Ghanaians have exacted this power which has resulted in four electoral turnovers—2000, 2008, 2016 and 2024. Aside from this, the presence of a vibrant and free press, an independent judiciary, and active civil society organisations complement the efforts.
Although a fledgling democracy, the trove of experiences from our own political history and other advanced democracies offer many lessons. We must acknowledge that we have not stretched enough what our fourth republican multiparty democracy offers. Therefore, just 30 years into it with all the significant strides, becomes inimical to conclude that “multiparty democracy has done nothing for this country.”
