Democracy beyond ka bi ma me nka bi
Signs that democracy is not being used to serve the people, particularly their socio-economic well-being, include a lack of civility and an obsession with winning public debates rather than solving problems.
The idea is to consider various voices and approaches to ensure collective action in governance and development. But in our politics, democracy is, in a way, more of a zero-sum debate on issues.
To some extent, this is because the understanding of democracy has been reduced to ka bi ma me nka bi (Say some and let me say some).
Having the opportunity to engage in debates and talk about national issues is what our democracy has been reduced to.
Though foundational and significant, democracy is more than the exercise of freedom of speech.
The problem with these debates is that they are often rooted in efforts to undermine or defend the government, no matter what
In a country where whatever the government does is seen as good by one group, while another has nothing positive to say about it, the purpose of public debate becomes far from educational, lowering the bar for good governance.
What makes it worse is that these groups, funded by the governing party of the day on one hand and the opposition party on the other, spend time on the radio and other platforms trying to convince the 'floating voter' to join them.
This puts us in perpetual political campaign mode as if we have a monthly national election cycle.
Debates
Usually, these debates are not about pursuing the best policies and do not rally citizens to support those policies and projects.
This denies government policies and projects the breathing space required for them to take effect and have an impact on people's lives.
State policies and projects are criticised and trashed from day one, and when the argument is not won, everything is done to ensure they stagnate or fail in the long run.
When state policies and projects are not in the best interests of the people, or simply not in their interests, defenders of the ruling party will do whatever they can to defend it and usually employ 'equalisation' tactics.
That is when you know things are really bad; we are finding it difficult to distinguish between what is in the national interest and what we should do to win elections.
What this means is that politicians will prefer paying communicators to appear on radio, TV programmes and social media platforms to defend them rather than providing the necessary programmes and projects for the socio-economic well-being of the people.
Even if it requires diverting public and private funds to dominate public discourse and narrative, they will do so, considering the benefits to be reaped.
On the other hand, this also raises the question of where the people's interests lie.
Centralised
Combining this with a very centralised form of government, as we have in Ghana, even when the debates get productive, as a friend once said, "it doesn't go anywhere".
To improve the situation, we must reconsider and reflect on our understanding of democracy.
We need it, but this is not how it should be.
It should not be understood as an end in itself; it should be seen as a means to our socio-economic development.
We should not use it against one another, but rather for our collective good and prosperity, not merely the right to speak.
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