“Ghana’s Democracy is thriving and not under siege- Any Demonstration Organized to trumpet Ghana’s Democracy as being under attack, is a useless face-saving tactic by failed political party leaders” -Prof Gyampo

The right to demonstrate is guaranteed and inalienable in any substantive democracy. But demonstrations must be resorted to as a means of showing genuine dissent. As a people we are allowed to demonstrate when things are truly not well with a nation’s democracy. But Ghana’s democracy at the moment, is thriving and cannot be described as being under siege.

If bail conditions are unreasonable, there should be an elite consensus in addressing the problem. You don’t impose a 100 to 250 million bail condition on people and turn around to complain when 50 million of same is being imposed. You don’t talk about arbitrary rule when even after a court of competent jurisdiction had granted bail to Gregory Afoko, you ensured he remained and rot In jail.

Democracy is about freedom of speech and not freedom to insult, threaten and be unguarded in one’s utterances in a manner that sacrifices the need for national peace. Those who hide under the democratic right to free speech to defame, and threaten the peace of a country all over the world are dealt with not arbitrarily, but in accordance with due process of law and this is what happens in Ghana now. No journalist has been forced to flee the country for his safety as it occurred in the previous regime.

The President of the Republic has shown the needed and acceptable presidential temperament of civility, humility, empathy and respect for all. He is not a Nebuchadnezzar and listens to public outcries. For instance, when the ordinary Ghanaian was to suffer hardship to be occasioned by fuel price increments, he intervened and has recently done same again. He doesn’t lord his power over pastors, chiefs and even the ordinary Ghanaian. Which President takes selfies with ordinary people and sit not on the front seat but among the ordinary congregation when he goes to church? This President doesn’t command chiefs to get up to greet him at functions and would not talk back at chiefs who have criticized or made demands on the system.

What are the current macro economic indicators saying today? Are they not better than what pertained to the previous regime? What are the exchange rates? How about interest rate? What about inflation? How are bond holders who through the incompetence of the previous regime received haircuts being treated by the current regime? What does the Afrobarometer Reports of 2024 and 2026 say about Public Trust, Corruption Perception, Economic Performance and where Ghana is headed? What do the World Press Freedom Indices say around same period? A simple reading of these indicators show that Ghana is headed towards the right direction under the current administration.

It is worth repeating that, democracy, is inter alia, about freedom of speech and its founding fathers encouraged brutally frank expression of dissent. Being brutally frank and harsh is democratic but threatening to do harm or kill in one’s speech in a manner that instills fear and panic, being insulting, defamatory and unguarded in utterances that could plunge a whole nation into chaos and sacrifice national peace, is nation wrecking and no country whose leaders are properly switched on democratically anywhere in the world, would allow this. If taking people through due process of law for crossing the line would make others want to demonstrate, then they should be free to do so. But Ghanaians should be reminded that, these guys never demonstrated when Kwabena Kusi, a mechanic from Kumasi, was arrested for openly criticizing President Kufuor on 9th August 2003, for his frequent foreign travels.

When they jail people for offenses against the state, they are right. But when another regime jails for same offenses, it is wrong. When the judiciary commits people to prison sentences, the sitting president should not be accused of manipulating the judicial processes. But when this same occurs in another regime, the sitting President must be accused. When they show gross incompetence in governing the country, they have excuses for doing so and would insist that we applaud their incompetence. But when a new government fixes their mess, they get the effrontery to criticize how their mess must be cleaned. They sat on the Constitutional Review Commission’s Report for 8 years without moving the process forward in any substantial form but they have a critique of the effort to move same process forward. They mocked the current Government for being slow with its prosecutions but now, being made aware of the number of people who are secretly visiting the offices of EOCO for investigations and seeing how ORAL is panning out, scares them. But there was a promise to recover all loots and this must be redeemed else, the survival of our democracy cannot be guaranteed.

The whole idea of they wanting to demonstrate is prefixed on the rather politically condescending idea that, they are Ghanaians more than all other Ghanaians. But the good people of Ghana who taught them that painful lesson that they are still not getting, because of their unreceptive to learning nature, are still watching. Let them go demonstrate but let the security agencies also ensure that the public peace is enforced rigidly. Let them go demonstrate but let all other Ghanaians have their freedom to move about without hindrance. Let them go demonstrate and let the police be very civil towards them. But let anyone who hide under the cloak of the intended demonstration to deliberately run afoul of our laws in an attempt to disturb our peace be dealt with swiftly in accordance with our laws.

Yaw Gyampo
A31, Prabiw
PAV Ansah Street
Saltpond
&
Suro Nipa House
Behind Old Post Office
Larteh-Akuapim.