Politics
Ghana showcasing democracy in Africa as the era of coups comes to an end
In the debates, complete with signing for deaf viewers, the candidates fielded questions ranging from tackling corruption to family planning and how to spend the country’s new oil money.
“I don’t take it for granted,” said Martina Odonkor, an author. She was 13 in the 1979 coup and can talk about the fear people felt of disappearing into Burma Camp, the military headquarters in Accra, the capital. It was an atmosphere of fear, tension and increasing deprivation,” she said. “The universities shut down, boarding schools shut down. Education basically stopped. “There were fuel shortages, food shortages and people were accused of hoarding if they had crates of goods in their houses.”
There is an upswing of democracy in Africa, with more incumbents leaving office via the ballot box and Ghanaians make full use of that freedom to air a litany of complaints against their elected leaders.
Although Ghana registered the fastest economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa in 2011,spurred by new oil production and a construction boom, Ghanaians are asking their elected leaders why they aren’t feeling richer. Kwesi Jonah, a research fellow with the Accra-based Institute for Democratic Governance, says Ghana’s democracy is a “democracy without jobs, democracy without good drinking water, democracy without roads, without a good supply of electricity.”
“Health insurance is not working,” said housekeeper Judith Ayirebi, 27. It’s supposed to be free, but hospitals demand payment, she said. “I will vote for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) because they intend to provide free secondary school education and make vast improvements on health insurance. That’s what’s important to me.”
Four candidates are running, led by Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo, who lost the presidency by less than 1 percent in 2008.
Both are scions of elite political families.
