The Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Josephine Nkrumah, has described Ghana’s system of democracy as ‘sick’, as politicians who are voted in power come into office to do the bidding of others no matter how principled they were before.
Speaking on Citi TVs ‘Point of View’, Ms Nkrumah indicated that this is so because people who support political campaigns expect to be paid back when their benefactors come into office.
“People who support political campaigns look at it as an investment so once you come into power, it is time for you to pay. So sometimes the hands of people who were right thinking and principled are already tied. So, there is a major sickness in our democracy”.
According to her the ‘winner takes all’ system of government which gives the president all the power to appoint every individual to serve as minister, head of institutions or board chairpersons makes people feel they are not part of the system
She explained that “the person to the exclusion of all others so people don’t feel like they are part of the system. There is a high level of political patronage so these people manage to get you in there by giving you money, by facilitating your campaign and once they come into power, they are not looking at anything else than an investment they made”.
Ms Nkrumah noted that the values of the Ghanaian needs to change in order to make the system better.
She stressed that there should be a paradigm shift on the mindset and values as a nation because dishonesty and no sense of integrity bleeds corruption.
“I think we have a problem with our values and it is running at the very tender ages all the way up. So, there is a breakdown in our social fabric.”