Former United Nations (UN) Senior Governance Advisor, Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has said Ghana has consistently achieved peaceful transitions of government over the past 30 years.

However, he emphasised that the critical focus should not just be on election periods but on the continuous efforts toward national development between elections.

This follows the former National Security Minister, Francis Poku’s concerns about the growing distrust in Ghana’s democratic governance.

Speaking at a Republic Day lecture at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFSC), Mr Poku highlighted that many people are losing faith in democracy, viewing military rule as a better alternative.

Speaking on the JoyNews AM show, Prof Agyeman-Duah said, “In between elections, what happens in terms of focusing on our development as a people? So, the issue of human development, if you bring in those threats that Mr Poku raised and the behaviour of politicians or leadership, if you put all that together, then you have to question: What is it that we are doing?”.

And I understand when the foreign commentators praise Ghana for our democracy and our progress, I can understand that because for them, once there is no coup and we are having elections; that is all, but for developing countries like Ghana and Africa, that should not be the end of the road”.

The former United Nations Senior Governance Advisor criticised foreign entities for lacking objectivity due to their detachment from the actual situation on the ground.

He pointed out that institutions like the World Bank, IMF, or economists often cite statistics such as a 4.5% growth rate to gauge a nation’s performance but argued that such figures do not necessarily translate into improvements in the daily lives and incomes of ordinary citizens.

“So, there must be a distinction in terms of people’s reality of life versus these measurements that we do. The measurements are important. I think it is important for us to know statistically how we are doing, but that cannot be the focus. That cannot be the complete measurement of our doing well” he said.

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