Founder and leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Akwasi Addai Odike has described democracy and development as a tag team, where one cannot move without the other.
He argues that any country claiming to be democratic and not seeing any form of development is not really democratic “and Ghana is such a country. Our democracy is just a façade.”
“Ghana’s politics and democracy has simply become a rivalry and not a healthy competition. Nothing is being done by our political factions to develop the country. Democracy and development are inseparable and if your country doesn’t develop then what is the essence of your democracy,” he stated.
According to him, “Ghana’s democracy is weak. We just have the tag of being democratic and that is it. In the architecture of our constitution, we’ve been under a democratic dictatorship since 1992 and not a pure democracy.”
Addressing Happy98.9FM’s Don Kwabena Prah on the Epa Hoa Daben political talk show, he indicated that past leaders of Ghana have been considerate in applying democratic dictatorship in the country but President Akufo-Addo has done otherwise.
“Nana has used his position to use all the loopholes in the constitution to his advantage and is flouting laws. It is clear he is using his power to amass wealth and pick and choose justice hence, we not developing,” he added.
He believes for Ghana to develop, leaders, should not abuse the excessive power they have or use them against the ordinary Ghanaian. “As it stands now the President is abusing his power and turning state institutions into political wings of his party. The gov’t now forces people to proceed on leave and replace them with their preferred political appointees so they do their bidding.”
Odike describes Ghanaian institutions as toothless dogs and has championed a revision of the country’s constitution to ensure Ghana enjoys true democracy and development.
