FOREIGN DEMOCRACY NOT SUITABLE FOR AFRICA (NSEMPA, PAGE 10)

By Samuel Duodu, Sunyani.

DR J.K. Ankama, a Sunyani-based legal practitioner and the leader of the National Unity Movement has called for a national government or an African model constitution to bring Ghanaians together in unity and love to harness the enormous natural resources for the good of all.
Democracy
He said Africa has been grappling with the western brand of democracy for the past 50 years or more and the result is nothing to be enthused about.
“Whatever the causes for this poor showing, it is clear the Western Constitutions are alien to Africa, imported from the west with no roots in Africa for their survival, being in substance (‘Hanging Constitutions’),” he stressed.
A statement issued to the press in Sunyani and signed by Dr. Ankama, who is also a pastor said the imported constitutions are based on the cultures and traditions of the west, which are in direct conflict with the cultures and traditions of Africa thereby yielding adverse results in Africa.
Crisis
He noted that the political crisis in Kenya has dealt a deadly blow to the suitability of the imported constitutions in Africa.
“The need for an African model constitution should now seriously engage the attention of all politicians, elders and all stakeholders of contemporary politics in Africa” Dr. Ankama observed.
He added that by the adoption of the Western model constitutions, Africa has strayed from the God-given consensus system to the divisive western type thereby
plunging Africa into the political abyss.
In a related development, Dr. Ankama has observed that ever since African countries became independent and assumed the reigns of power, the party system has been worse.
Party system
He said instead of the adopted party system leading to good governance to improve the quality of the living conditions of Africans, the opposite had rather been the case.
A statement issued to the press in Sunyani and signed by Dr Ankama said party politics was killing Africans, adding that from Angola to Zimbabwe the results could only be described as dismal and thel social lives of the people have not generally improved and worse of all is the wanton destruction of human lives.
He stated further that millions of lives and limbs have been sacrificed on the alter of foreign political ideologies as evidenced by the many years of war in Angola.
Tragedy
“The North of Africa has not escaped this tragedy and in recent times, in West Africa, the Ivory Coast, and other neighboring countries the same story is told. Loss of lives and amputation or limbs was the order of the day’, he lamented.
Dr Ankama further observed that the recent events in Kenya have buried the little hope that the Party System enjoyed. The death of over 900 people so far and the destruction of the little individual possessions by burning and destruction dim the hope in Africa for the successful and suitable operation of the party system.
He said the party system was a recipe for killing and the catastrophic refugee problems have grown on a scale never seen before the advent of the multiparty system.
“The African Union (AU) should take a serious look at the problem and evolve an African model constitution to bring an end to the confusion, wars and bloodshed that has engulfed Africa, and consigned millions of innocent people to their graves,” Dr Ankama stated.