Commentary, News

Protecting the sovereign will of the people of Ghana

By Dr. Nana Sifa Twum, Media and Communications Consultant

According to news reports, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Seth Amoama, made a pronouncement on behalf of the Ghana Armed Forces that the military will not engage in any activity that will threaten the peace and democracy of the state. This refreshing news from the top hierarchy of the military in Ghana comes at the heels of the rampant coups or military interventions in parts of West Africa, where Ghana finds herself as a nation. This is because, as neighbours of countries that have experienced political unrest all this while, circumstances may easily have undue influence on us.

We live in the same region with similar political, economic, and, in most cases, social setups and challenges.

Coup d’états in these countries, especially in Niger and Mali as the most recent, have dire and far-reaching, as well as unseen repercussions, that can significantly affect our democracy, which has been the envy of many a country.

Since 1992, the people of Ghana have chosen to tread on the path of democracy and it is good that our men in uniform, who are mandated to protect us, have reassured the citizenry of protecting our chosen democracy and will.

In the words of the Ghanaian Army General, “The coups in West Africa are a major concern, but, for us, we have resolved to protect the Constitution and the will of the people. Our mandate is to protect the territorial integrity of the State and we are focused on that.”

In recent times, the West African sub-region has suffered some political turbulence. Political instability and socio-economic uncertainties have set in in some countries in the sub-region. In a span of twelve years, nineteen coup d’etats have occurred in eleven West African countries, making the subregion very politically unstable and volatile.

During this period, Guinea experienced three coup d’etats in April 2010, December 2011, and September 2021, meaning two coups in a little over a year. Mali has the highest number of four, spanning from March 2012 to May 2021. The other two occurred in May 2012 and August 2020. One would be tempted to interpret it to mean that within two months, March 2012 and May 2012, two military takeovers happened in that country. Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Chad, Guinea, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all had their share of military intervention by toppling democratically elected governments.

These five nations that have recently experienced military coups form a broken line that stretches across the wide bulge of Africa, from Guinea on the West Coast, to Sudan in the East. Four of these are within the West African subregion.

Such things as coups are undoubtedly contagious. This is what happened in Northern Africa in 2010. “The series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa, that commenced in 2010, became known as the “Arab Spring,” and sometimes as the “Arab Spring and Winter,” “Arab Awakening,” or “Arab Uprisings,” even though not all the participants in the protests were Arabs.” In Ghana, we see the military operating beyond warfare, as they are seen employed in additional sanctioned and non-sanctioned functions, within the state, including internal security threats, crowd control, promotion of political agendas, emergency services and reconstruction, protecting corporate economic interests, social ceremonies and national honour.

The role of the Military in a Democracy like ours, is an ever-relevant concern, which was already raised by the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato some two thousand, five hundred years ago.

The principle of political control of the Armed Forces as we know it today, is rooted in the concept of representative democracy. This refers to the supremacy of civilian institutions, based on popular sovereignty, over the defence and security policy-making apparatus, including the military leadership.

Democratic control, therefore, should always be a two-way process between the armed forces and society. In a democracy, firm constitutional guarantees should protect the state – including the armed forces, from two types of potential dangers: from politicians who have military ambitions and from soldiers with political ambitions. From this, we can conveniently state that the revered men and women in our military have agreed to firm up our democratic dispensation.