Aversion to democracy — cause of Kenyan killings

President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the recent killings in Kenya, Mali and Somali were caused by people who did not believe in the tenets and vision of democracy.

He said those people saw democracy, which had the vision of social justice, religious and ethnic tolerance, as a threat.

President Mahama said this as part of a lecture he delivered at the World Leaders Forum, at the Columbia University yesterday.

His topic was “Reflections of the Challenges and Prospects of Democratic Consolidation in Africa”

Vision

President Mahama said, ''When I speak of the vision, I speak of social justice.  I speak of equality.  I speak of religious and ethnic tolerance. 'I speak of respect for the dignity of the human spirit. These are the ideals that come together to form the vision  and that vision is what fuels democracy.

''As more and more countries on the continent strengthened their democracies through the rule of law—something both Ghana and Kenya recently did with the Supreme Court challenges to the results of our respective elections—the closer we get to the vision, and to the existence of that world in which so many have dared to believe,” he said.

President Mahama noted that while today’s world, with its laptops, smartphones and social media, was dramatically different from the world that existed in the late 1950s and 1960s, the principles for which people fought remained the same.

''What also remain the same are the hatred, greed, oppression, and the presence of individuals and groups who feel that their way is the only way.

''For these individuals and groups, the prospect of peace undermines their plans for dictatorship...,” he said.

As a leader, President Mahama said, it was his conviction that the policies that governments promoted must be for the betterment of lives.

The President said often, democracy in Africa was defined simply by the absence of dictatorship rather than by the presence of the vision that fuelled it, and the willingness of individuals to take a stand in defence of that vision, regardless of the consequences.

For instance, he said, in 1957 when Ghana became the first sub-Saharan nation in Africa to gain its independence, it spearheaded a revolution on the continent.

''Country after country followed, each one claiming its liberation from colonial rule.  It was a revolution that was led by the people, by visionaries, men and women who believed that the future they saw for their country was possible...”

Struggle

President Mahama said the politicians of that era, who were destined to shape a new world, paid a huge price for their struggle.

However, he said, the independence of a nation did not guarantee the freedom of its people and stressed the need for Africa to overcome that hurdle.

Human Resource

President Mahama expressed worry that often, when Africa’s resources were listed, the most important one - human resource - was omitted.

He indicated that Africa’s greatest resource was its people, ''and we cannot afford to continue overlooking this basic truth.''

Economy

Touching on Africa's economy, President Mahama said the debt trap and triple-digit inflation associated with Africa of the early 1980s and 90s had disappeared.

''Indeed many countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Namibia have attained single digit inflation, with prospects for further decline in those rates.

Daily Graphic/Ghana